Sherwood Detroit toilet float valve |
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Posted 4 years ago
romeyer2
(1 item)
I found what appears to be an old toilet float valve mechanism. Cast into the metal is says PATENT SEPT. 8 21. SHERWOOD DETROIT. I found this at an old home site in the woods. The house is gone. Does anyone have any information about these?
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This has to be a first in the category event.
Maybe so!
You can look up the patent number...
https://patents.google.com/
I just Googled Sherwood Detroit patent and voilà.
1920/21 Water-inlet valve for tanks.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1389907
Hi, romeyer2. :-)
It's a good thing that Celiene was ingenious, and got lucky with a Google search for a 1920/1921 patent, because otherwise the alternative is to search the USPTO full image database by date, which can return hundreds of patents that you'd have to look at manually.
Curiously, there seems to have been no patents issued by the USPTO on the 8th or 9th of September 1921.
A search for patents issued on September 6th, 1921 returned 816:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&p=1&f=S&l=50&Query=ISD%2F9%2F6%2F1921&d=PALL
But yes, Mr. Sherwood invented a new water inlet valve for a toilet tank that was patented September 6th, 1921.
He seems also to have patented other toilet improvements:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1460080
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1497796
Interestingly, Mr. Sherwood partnered early on with David Dunbar Buick of Buick automobile fame:
http://www.promotex.ca/articles/cawthon/2003/07-01-2003_article.html
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/david-buick
https://www.geneseehistory.org/david-dunbar-buick.html
Toilet improvements are seemingly humble things, but important to modern life. :-)
keramikos, thank you! I'm kind of a google master - I love finding the magic combination of words to get an answer. But I just Googled "Sherwood Detroit patent" (no parens!) and the answer popped up first! I wonder why that one came up first? Possibly the only patent issued in Detroit?
I see you are like me - I regularly go down research rabbit holes, too! On this one, I didn't! But I agree - the mundane things are most often the IMPORTANT things!
Celiene, You're welcome. :-)
There's usually a certain amount of luck involved in Internet searches, but I've noticed that your Google Fu is good. };-)
Yeah, I kinda went down a rabbit hole on this one when I noticed the Dave Buick connection.
I'm still a bit 'troubled' about the patents on this one, because it really does look like there's a September 9 patent embossed on the item (not to mention one from June 1 of an unknown year), but an advanced search of the USPTO database showed nothing. In fact, it seems like there's a bit of a hole in that time period from 1921.
I stepped through the days, and didn't hit any patents until I got back as far as August 30th, and forward to September 13th. 'Tis a puzzlement.
LOL! I peruse the patent database occasionally since I sell strange things I need to identify. Plus, it's fun! I use Google patents, the USPTO is a bit cumbersome, to say the least! But I can use it if I have to.
I noticed the weird missing dates, too - and that MOST patents were always issued on the SAME DAY of the week. I had to not confuse filing date, and issuing dates. Actual Patents are only ISSUED one day a week, on Tuesdays. Patent Applications are published every Thursday. But at midnight on the east coast. And that makes it 9pm on the west, the PREVIOUS day (Monday & Wed. respectively).
I looked up Sep 8, 1921 - and that was a Thursday, and the 9 was Friday, obvs.
OH NO! I'm down the rabbit hole!
https://ch-law.com/patent-tuesdays-and-application-thursdays-understanding-patent-office-publications/#:~:text=New%20patents%20issue%20at%20midnight,pm%20on%20the%20West%20Coast).
Celiene, *wheeze*
Thank you for that very interesting information about the USPTO and filing/issuing dates. I hadn't noticed that pattern before. It makes perfect sense now that there were patents listed for August 30th, September 6, and September 13 of 1921.
I only became acquainted with the USPTO website myself within the last few years. I blame CW user slackjack, actually. };-)
Somebody posted a mystery cast iron doodad that nobody seemed able to identify until slackjack chimed in and said that it was a clinker catcher. The rest of us who'd been eyeballing it said, "Wut?"
So, I had to Google clinker catcher. Then I went in search of the patent embossed on it (not the actual patent number, but its issue date), and fell down the USPTO rabbit hole. I never did find that exact patent, but I found one that was very close.
Yeah, using the USPTO website is no picnic, and Googling patents, or using the Google Patents interface) can be a lot easier.
Just a simple search of Google patents for Sherwood Detroit returned quite a few for William Sherwood:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e0/29/95/6624d92292a04f/US1389907.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/eb/2e/b2/9ef176fd8f20f6/US1497796.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/0c/6c/c4/dc3d382ed6fb10/US1548759.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/9c/eb/4f/543b2efffef79e/US1567198.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/41/9d/07/fe74fe86f1726a/US1582488.pdf
And I don't know if he's related, but David Sherwood had more than a couple:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/91/77/7d/2abce863140d5f/US2103096.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/c9/57/24/815d0920baf34b/US2247525.pdf
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/e2/86/9f/d2387ab7eb9239/US2843049.pdf
Yep, Rabbit Holes R Us. };-)
Ms.CrystalShip, Thanks, but I'm just an old Internet surfer. I suppose I could find something else to do with my time, but it might be even less salubrious. };-)