Object Details
- patentee
- Wellens, Alexander M.
- Description
- Alexander M. Wellens received patent number 2,803,841, on August 27, 1957 for his design of a telescoping gangway. During World War I, the U.S. Navy began a Beneficial Suggestion Program that encouraged its civilian employees to propose workplace improvements in exchange for cash awards. Wellens was an employee of a U.S. Naval Station in Seattle, Washington, and entered his gangway into the suggestion program in 1948. This is the model the station's sheet-metal shop built to demonstrate his idea.
- Wellens's innovation was to anchor the gangway's ends to both deck and pier, with the result that the plank would extend and contract automatically as the ship rose and fell on the tide. This helped obviate the harsh angles at high and low tide that created hazardous working conditions.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of Alexander M. Wellens
- 1957
- patent date
- 1957-08-27
- ID Number
- 1991.0555.01
- catalog number
- 1991.0555.01
- accession number
- 1991.0555
- patent number
- 2803841
- Object Name
- Patent Model, Telescoping Brow
- Object Type
- Patent Model
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 8 1/2 in x 9 in x 30 in; 21.59 cm x 22.86 cm x 76.2 cm
- Associated Place
- United States: Washington, Seattle
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Maritime
- America on the Move
- Transportation
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Patent Models
- Record ID
- nmah_1082190
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-03cd-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
