Posted by gmharris [72.219.148.98] on Thursday, July 17, 2014 at 20:27:17 :
In Reply to: Actually, Oscar U Zerk. posted by gmharris [72.219.148.98] on Thursday, July 17, 2014 at 20:23:40 :
Oscar V. Zerk
World-famous inventor
...
Long before America discovered the secret of a fresh cup of coffee, Oscar Ulysses Zerk invented a personal coffee bean grinder for his kitchen.
It was just one of his countless inventions, but the brilliant Keno-shan thought it so unimportant that he never bothered to apply for a patent.
He did, however, patent some 300 other inventions during his 90-year life, a remarkable record.
His creativeness asserted itself in a multitude of fields: leg-slimming hosiery, quick-freezing ice cube trays, spatterproof nail brushes, fail-safe brakes for trolley cars, vibration-free camera tripods, oil well recovery systems and refrigerators for cars and wall-mounting.
Zerk's most important invention -- one that made him the most money and benefited Kenoshans most -- was a tiny grease fitting, a lubrication system which became the basis for those used on nearly every car, truck, plane and other mechanized vehicle.
At the time of his death in 1968, it was estimated that 20 billion of the fittings had been manufactured, many millions, no doubt, installed in Kenosha-built automobiles over the decades.
He also is credited with designing and patenting stamped metal wheels and wheel covers for autos, which, in the 1920s, replaced wire wheels.And he devised a type of non-skid brakes for cars.
Zerk was born May 16, 1878, in Vienna, the son of Flora and Bernard Zerk, a prominent textile manufacturer in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.