US Patent: 972,766
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| Antiskidding device for automobiles
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Patentee:
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| August Hormel (exact or similar names) - New York, NY |
| USPTO Classifications: |
| 188/5 |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Applied: |
Nov. 18, 1909 |
| Granted: |
Oct. 11, 1910 |
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Jeff Joslin
Vintage Machinery entry for Hormel-Wagner Co.
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Description: |
| "This invention relates to improved means for preventing the skidding or swerving of the rear wheels of automobiles and similar vehicles. For this purpose, a trailer is suitably connected to the vehicle near the rear end thereof, the construction being such that a lateral movement of the rear wheels will cause the trailer to be automatically forced against the ground, so as to effectively check said lateral movement." This invention was presumably more relevant when roads were muddy and rutted. The need for an anti-skid attachment went away as roads were improved. The patentee was a professional inventor who must have perceived exceptional value in this invention as it was also patented in Canada, France and Great Britain; he set up a new company (the Hormel Auto Appliance Co.) to manufacture it; and he obtained a follow-on improvement patent, 991,445. None of his numerous other inventions received so much attention from him. We remember August Hormel as the inventor of the small belt sander, patent 1,108,176.The 1910-12-29 issue of The Motor World carried an announcement that the Hormel Auto-Appliance Co. had been incorporated in Cumberland County, Maine, with $1,000,000 capital by C. E. Eaton and T. L. Croteau of Portland, Me.; although the business was incorporated in Maine, it operated out of New York City. Other than various mentions of the incorporation, the only mentions of the Hormel Auto-Appliance Co. are tax records and patent assignments. We have found no signs of a commercial product even approximately matching this invention; rather, all mentions of "anti-skid" that we found during this era were for tire chains. |
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