Arthur Paul Pedrick
Encyclopedia
Arthur Paul Pedrick was a prolific British
inventor who filed for 162 United Kingdom
patent
s between 1962 and his death in 1976. His invention
s were notable for their almost complete lack of practical applicability.
but that it was only after his retirement that he began filing patent application
s for his invention
s. The Patent Office has stringent restrictions on improbable gadgets, but Pedrick's familiarity with the process enabled him to satisfy the requirements and get his applications published.
During this period he was resident in Selsey
, Sussex
, England
, according to his patents. Sometimes his residence would further be listed as "One-Man Photo-Electric Research Laboratories", or "One Man Think Tank Nuclear Fusion Research Laboratories", and so forth. These laboratories were staffed by himself and a ginger coloured cat, sometimes referred to as "Ginger" although it is not clear whether this was actually his name. Ginger was of great help to Pedrick in developing his inventions. Unfortunately, it is recounted in some of the patents how Ginger was unable to secure financing to put the inventions into practice.
His patent for laser induced fusion includes these autobiographical notes:
The idea was to detect the difference in fur colour between a ginger cat and a black cat. He came up with this idea because a black cat named "Blackie" from next door kept trying to steal his own cat's food. However, with Pedrick's new catflap design, if Blackie attempted to use the cat-flap he would not be allowed in. Ginger was impressed with the idea, and further suggested that the concept could be applied as a nuclear deterrent. Ginger's concern over the Cold War and the nuclear arsenals threatening the world was a regular motivator for Pedrick's inventions.
Here, Pedrick suggests that fire curtains could be secured at the roof level of a high-rise building. When released, they would envelope substantially the entire building. The curtains could be provided with apertures which when the curtain is released are located opposite rooms in the building, these rooms being designated as ones in which the occupants should congregate in the event of fire.
In this patent, Pedrick describes in extremely long detail, with pages of mathematical equations, how snow and ice could be passed along pipelines from the Antarctic to irrigate the dry Australian outback, creating a "granary of the East" that could feed the burgeoning population of the world. Since the flow of water from one region to the other through such pipelines would not be practicable, according to Pedrick, the suggestion is to instead compress the snow into hard balls that could be fired along these pipelines as projectiles.
Characteristic observations on the world around him include the following:
, however, he is labelled a hero for poking holes in the patent system and exposing its flaws. Only by exposing loop-holes in legislation
can it be seen how such legislation may be improved. As an example of his disdain for the patent system, some of his patents say that his invention is really more a "concept", presumably knowing full well that a mere concept should not be patentable if there is insufficient disclosure
to put it into practice.
Pedrick knew what he was doing, and was not just another lunatic inventor. He was able to play the system due to his experience as a patent examiner, and many of his applications followed through to become granted patents.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
inventor who filed for 162 United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s between 1962 and his death in 1976. His invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
s were notable for their almost complete lack of practical applicability.
Personal life
Very little is known about the mysterious Pedrick. It is widely reported that he worked for many years as a patent examiner at the United Kingdom Patent OfficeUnited Kingdom Patent Office
The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom is, since 2 April 2007, the operating name of The Patent Office. It is the official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
but that it was only after his retirement that he began filing patent application
Patent application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. An application consists of a description of the invention , together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application...
s for his invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
s. The Patent Office has stringent restrictions on improbable gadgets, but Pedrick's familiarity with the process enabled him to satisfy the requirements and get his applications published.
During this period he was resident in Selsey
Selsey
Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about seven miles south of Chichester, in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, according to his patents. Sometimes his residence would further be listed as "One-Man Photo-Electric Research Laboratories", or "One Man Think Tank Nuclear Fusion Research Laboratories", and so forth. These laboratories were staffed by himself and a ginger coloured cat, sometimes referred to as "Ginger" although it is not clear whether this was actually his name. Ginger was of great help to Pedrick in developing his inventions. Unfortunately, it is recounted in some of the patents how Ginger was unable to secure financing to put the inventions into practice.
His patent for laser induced fusion includes these autobiographical notes:
It is my personal experience based on a severe bout of Dive bombing by Stuka dive bombers in a light cruiser HMS "Dido", in 1941, evacuating mainly New Zealanders from Crete, who had been sent in by the late Sir Winston Churchill, but who, after the battle with the Nazi paratroops had made the island untenable, Admiral Cunningham, the Naval C in C in Alexandria, realised must be got out if possible, that the surface warships just cannot survive attacks by large numbers of aircraft, on their own, and it is only the chance of fate that I happened to be in After Engine Room of the ship, when a bomb came down on B turret and created a carnage of twisted steel and bodies forward, that I am writing this now, but the memory of the experience still gives me a "nightmare" at times.
I have suffered all my life even from a by product of the 1914-18 war even if I was born after it. It is a personal fact that my father was a Lieutenant (E) serving in the disastrous K class submarines, by which the Royal Navy tried to create a Submarine which could steam on the surface at 20 knots to keep up with the Fleet, and he died of a lung infection created by the appalling conditions in such submarines, even before I was born. If a women [sic] is in bad metal [sic] state when she is in pregnant, it is obvious that she can pass on her state of mind to the foetus. This has made me a nervous individual all my life, and there are many times in my life I wish I had never been born. There are endless arguments about the subject of abortion on the "rights of the foetus", and these could all be settled if, in some way, the future could be predicted for the foetus and it could decide whether it "wanted to be born".
Chromatically selective cat flap
Many of Pedrick's inventions related to his cat, and trying to improve the life of his sadly aging moggie. His crowning achievement in this respect was patent GB1426698 titled "Photon Push-Pull Radiation Detector For Use In Chromatically Selective Cat Flap Control And 1000 Megaton Earth-Orbital Peace-Keeping Bomb".The idea was to detect the difference in fur colour between a ginger cat and a black cat. He came up with this idea because a black cat named "Blackie" from next door kept trying to steal his own cat's food. However, with Pedrick's new catflap design, if Blackie attempted to use the cat-flap he would not be allowed in. Ginger was impressed with the idea, and further suggested that the concept could be applied as a nuclear deterrent. Ginger's concern over the Cold War and the nuclear arsenals threatening the world was a regular motivator for Pedrick's inventions.
Extinguishing fires in high rise block buildings
Pedrick was also concerned with the safety of his fellow man and thus described, in GB1453920 an "Apparatus For Extinguishing Fires In High Rise Block Buildings Of Uniform Transverse Cross-Section Or Plan".Here, Pedrick suggests that fire curtains could be secured at the roof level of a high-rise building. When released, they would envelope substantially the entire building. The curtains could be provided with apertures which when the curtain is released are located opposite rooms in the building, these rooms being designated as ones in which the occupants should congregate in the event of fire.
Transfer of fresh water
Pedrick's concern for his fellow man is again shown in GB1047735, titled "Arrangements for the transfer of fresh water from one location on the earth's surface to another at a different latitude, for the purpose of irrigation, with pumping energy derived from the effect of the earth's rotation about the polar axis".In this patent, Pedrick describes in extremely long detail, with pages of mathematical equations, how snow and ice could be passed along pipelines from the Antarctic to irrigate the dry Australian outback, creating a "granary of the East" that could feed the burgeoning population of the world. Since the flow of water from one region to the other through such pipelines would not be practicable, according to Pedrick, the suggestion is to instead compress the snow into hard balls that could be fired along these pipelines as projectiles.
Notable quotations
Pedrick would often discuss, within his patents, the problems in the world that led him to his inventions and would also recount conversations between himself and his ginger cat. Some of these tangents in his patents show Pedrick to be a thoughtful, if slightly eccentric man, who was deeply concerned with the well-being of others and for the future of mankind, as well as being dismissive of modern capitalism.Characteristic observations on the world around him include the following:
- "Almost 2000 years ago, a strange character called Jesus Christ went about Palestine saying we should all love our enemies, but he was crucified before much notice was taken of him, and it is curious that the very land of Palestine is now one of the World "Trouble spots" in 1974."
- "It being the opinion of my Ginger Cat, that those cats that you see sponsoring various brands of tinned cat food on T/V are just as hypocritical as the various actors one sees sponsoring on T/V various commercial products, and in fact my Ginger Cat prefers ordinary Corned Beef to most brands of Cat food."
- "Unfortunately it is fact that thermo-nuclear weapons can be contained with the noses of Interncontinental-ballistic-rockets which results in the fact that distrust between governments of nations able to manufacture nuclear weapons, for example the USA and USSR, results in such nations keeping in readiness large numbers of such rockets to be used as a so called "deterrent" against an attack by such other nations.
- "Clearly if one such nation, for example the USA, could be assured by some system, which would be quite automatic, that any other nation making a nuclear attack upon it, would be sure to bring upon itself a similar nuclear devastation, it could then allow a run-down of its own thermo-nuclear weapons stocks for the deuterium and tritium to be used for peaceful purposes to overcome the "energy shortage"".
Motivations
Many see Pedrick as a lunatic. Within the patent professionPatent attorney
A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition...
, however, he is labelled a hero for poking holes in the patent system and exposing its flaws. Only by exposing loop-holes in legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
can it be seen how such legislation may be improved. As an example of his disdain for the patent system, some of his patents say that his invention is really more a "concept", presumably knowing full well that a mere concept should not be patentable if there is insufficient disclosure
Sufficiency of disclosure
Most patent law systems require that a patent application disclose a claimed invention in sufficient detail for the notional person skilled in the art to carry out that claimed invention. This requirement is often known as sufficiency of disclosure or enablement, depending on the...
to put it into practice.
Pedrick knew what he was doing, and was not just another lunatic inventor. He was able to play the system due to his experience as a patent examiner, and many of his applications followed through to become granted patents.