Old ideas · modern machines
Patents are extraordinary things. Inventors have been documenting solutions to everyday problems for generations.
Some of the drawings are more than 100 years old. And the surprising thing isn’t how old the ideas look.
It’s how familiar the problems are.
The problems haven’t changed. Manufacturing has.
Then
An inventor 80 or 100 years ago might have needed:
Now
Today we have:
What would this look like if we made it today?
The process
An old invention, patent or forgotten solution catches our attention.
What problem was the inventor actually trying to solve?
Which part was clever? Which part existed because of the manufacturing limitations of the time?
Put the old drawing down and solve the problem using today’s materials and machinery.
Laser. Punch. Bend. Weld if necessary.
Use it.
Change it and make another.
“We’re not trying to copy the past. We’re interested in what the past was trying to solve.”
From the rabbit hole
Each story runs the same way: original patent, the clever bit, our interpretation, prototype, product.
Ordinary round grill bars let fat fall straight onto the fire. Form the cooking surface into shallow V-shaped channels instead and much of the fat runs along them to a collector.
Grease-laden air moves upwards. Instead of catching the grease in a fine mesh, the filter forces the air to change direction again and again. Air turns easily. Grease droplets don’t.
Four expired patents for folding seats and tables. Then: timber, hinges and hardware. Now: laser, bend, slot and pin.
A light, durable box that can be cheaply formed from sheet metal, folded flat when it isn’t needed. Home, garden, delivery, camping, agriculture.
Renders on this page are concepts, not finished products. Patent status is as we understand it from public records.
Bless the curious.
They keep workshops interesting.
Get a price
Send us a patent number, an old photograph or the thing that has always annoyed you about a product.
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