Rocked My World!

[old_phone_man]

There is currently a nice looking 1937 Western Electric 302 on e-Bay (Item number:250860492272).  I scrolled down to read about it and much to my surprise I saw this in the "Questions and Answers about this item" text box.

Q:  The WE 302 is mistakenly credited to Henry Dreyfus, however, it was designed by WE engineer George R. Lum in Design Patent #95765. Lum also designed the #354 (Patent #152276). Dreyfus designed the #500 in Design Patent #153927. Jul-23-11

A:  Thanks for the information. All these years I'd thought Dreyfuss designed it! Can't change text, but I will post this.

I did some research on the internet to find something out about this.  I was never able to get anything to work right for me (probably operator error) when I went to the U.S. Patent Office Web Site so I can't find anything official about the Design Patents mentioned above.  I did find a design for a phone booth by someone named George R. Lum around the 1940's time frame.  Maybe/Probably is the same guy.

Has anybody else ever heard this?  I always thought that the 302 was designed by Henry Dreyfus as do several other sites on the Internet.

I would love to be able to pull up the design drawings and patent text on the above mentioned numbers.

If anybody else has better luck with the U.S. Patent Office Web Site I would like to see if they could find them.

[MDK]

It's actually quite intriguing to think that someone other than Henry Dreyfuss designed the 302.

In the US Patent search, it's a bit quirky in its requirements. Patents before 1976 are images only, and need a tiff viewer installed in the browser.

Also, I found the George Lum patent by searching D0095765, and Dreyfuss' patent by searching D0153927. Note that Lum's patent is referenced in the 500 patent.

EDIT: I found that the "D" in the design patent number must be capitalized for the search to find it.

[Adam]

Yes, the Patent Office site is very user unfriendly.  You have to start the number with D and pad out the number with 0's to 7 digits.

Attached are the patents discussed above.  I saved the TIFFs from the Patent Office site and converted them to JPGs so they can be viewed here.

[cihensley@aol.com]

Go to: google patents and enter the patent number and you can see the same material Adam posted. Lum was with Bell Labs, not WECo. Just because Bell Labs filed and obtained a patent doesn't mean Dreyfus did not design all or part of them. The contractual agreement with Dreyfus, if he was involved,  for any work would specify who owned the finished work.

Chuck

[old_phone_man]

It was the "Tiff Viewer" that was giving me problems.  I thought it loaded on Firefox and I ended up having to use I.E to view the Patent Office Web Site.

Chuck is right it is easier to use Google Patents.

I agree with Chuck.  I don't think Dreyfuss wasn't involved with the design of the 302.  I tend to think that the "Q and A" from e-Bay probably is not the best place to base any fact from.  Plus the U.S. Government issued a stamp noting "Henry Dreyfuss", the "Desk Telephone" and a picture of a 302.

I know Bell Labs (as would any Research and Development organization) would want to keep things like Patents within their control.

I thought it was interesting that the name George R. Lum was on the Design Patent of what appears to be the 302 while the name Henry Dreyfuss was on the Patent of what appears to be the 500.

I figure this was a fun topic.

It actually got me to thinking and digging around in the U.S. Patent Office Web site to see what other neat things were out there.

[AE_Collector]

I tend to think that the "Q and A" from e-Bay probably is not the best place to base any fact from. 

Agreed!

Here is a recent example of a less than knowledgable seller of a phone on ebaY.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5070.0

Terry

[Sargeguy]

Dreyfus was the industrial designer, not necessarily the inventor.  He was contracted to design how the phone looked, not the phone itself. 

This is the most asinine example of Mr.  Helpful I have ever seen.  What's next, contacting sellers and claiming that actually, Elisha Gray invented the telephone?

[MDK]

Don't be silly. Al Gore invented the telephone.

[AE_Collector]

Don't be silly. Al Gore invented the telephone.

No that was the Internet....you know, the place that makes the telephone work...sort of.

Terry

[Doug Rose]

Terry....Does that mean Al Gore created the 302 as well as the Internet?? I am confused!!....Doug