Innovations & Inventions in Oklahoma
Parking Meter
Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City invented and patented the "coin controlled
parking meter" on May 13, 1935. Patent No. 2,118,318 issued on May 24,
1938. The first meter was installed in Oklahoma City on July 16, 1935. The
stated purpose was "to control on-street parking," but it was obvious from
the beginning that another purpose was to generate revenue for the city.
Currently, parking meters in the U.S. generate about $1.25M per day in
revenue!
Shopping Cart
Sylvan Goldman owned the Humpty Dumpty Supermarket chain in Oklahoma City.
He noted that his customers were limited by the amount of merchandise they
could pack into hand-held shopping baskets and came up with an idea for
creating a portable cart that could hold much more merchandise. He put a
large basket on top of a frame that looked like a folding chair on wheels.
The new 'shopping cart' could be wheeled freely down the aisles of the
supermarket. Sylvan introduced the shopping cart in his Oklahoma City
stores on June 4, 1937. He applied for a patent on March 14, 1938; the
patent was granted on April 9,1940 (Patent No. 2,196,914). Sylvan became a
multimillionaire from the royalties paid for each shopping cart manufactured
during the 17 years that the patent was valid. In his later years, Sylvan
became a philanthropist. He donated funds to build the Sylvan N. Goldman
Center of the Oklahoma Blood Institute.
Pressurized Flight Suit
In 1934 Wiley Post took on the challenge of high altitude flight. He
devised the pressurized flight suit that made flight at high altitudes
possible. Wiley developed the suit with the assistance of R. S. Colley of
the B. F. Goodrich Company. The suit consisted of three layers; (1) long
underwear next to the skin for warmth, (2) an inner rubber pressure bladder,
and (3) an outer suit made of rubberized parachute cloth. The outer suit
was glued to a frame with arm and leg ports. Pigskin gloves, rubber boots,
and an aluminum helmet completed the pressure suit. There is a replica of
the helmet in the case beside the Gemini spacecraft on the main floor of the
History Center.
Compact Trencher/Ditch Witch
Carl Malzahn moved to Perry, Oklahoma in 1902 and opened a blacksmith shop
with his sons Charlie and Gus. During the oil boom, the shop came to be
known as Charlie's Machine Shop. Charlie's son Ed graduated from college
with a degree in engineering. Ed had an idea for a mechanical trencher that
would put an end to the "pick and shovel" era. He perfected the idea in
1949, calling the device the "Ditch Witch." Charlie's Machine Shop became
Charlie's Machine Works, Inc. That was many years ago. It is stronger than
ever today, employing 1300 in Perry. The Ditch Witch line has expanded to
include horizontal drilling equipment and other devices.
Yield Sign
The triangular 'yield' sign was created by Clinton Riggs. Riggs served in the Tulsa Police Department from 1934 to 1937 before joining the Oklahoma Highway Patrol as one of the original troopers. After Air Corps service during World War II, Riggs rejoined the TPD in 1945 and rose to the rank of administrative assistant chief, retiring in 1970. After retirement, Riggs taught at the University of Tulsa and Tulsa Junior College. The first two signs were installed in Tulsa in 1950 at First Street and Columbia Ave. The original signs were keystone shaped and were painted yellow with black lettering. Riggs' son, Thomas Riggs, cherishes one of the original signs as a prized possesion. One of the early manufactured signs is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.
Riggs apparently conceived the idea of the sign while working as a trooper. He began developing it while attending Chicago's Northwestern Traffic Institute in 1939. He experimented with the concept for more than a decade, striving to create a sign that would not only control traffic at an intersection but that also would affix civil liability in a collision in which one driver failed to yield, according to the Tulsa Police Department's history book.
ZEBCO Reel
R.D. Hull, a Tulsa watchmaker who was also an avid fisherman, invented the
ZEBCO reel. Hull also founded the Zero Hour Bomb Company where he employed
his precision gear mechanisms to build bombsights during the Second World
War. Hull grew tired of backlashes in using an old spin cast reel and
thought he had an idea for an improved reel that would avoid the problem.
He devised a gear mechanism that would wind the fishing line evenly on a
spool in the center of the device. He rolled up an aluminum beer can into a
cone, threaded the fishing line through the top of the cone, and attached
the winding handle to the base of the cone. Thus the first ZEBCO fishing
reel was created in 1949. It became one of the products made by Hull's Zero
Hour Bomb Company. The underlined letters explain the origin of the name.
Information provided by Larry Sherman.