Richard Dudgeon - Assigned Patents | VintageMachinery.org

Manufacturers Index - Richard Dudgeon

Richard Dudgeon
New York, NY, U.S.A.
Manufacturer Class: Metal Working Machinery & Steam and Gas Engines

Patents

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Patent Number	Date	Title	Name	City	Description
8,203	Jul. 08, 1851	Portable hydraulic press	Richard Dudgeon	New York, NY	This is the first portable hydraulic press. Its development was funded by drugstore owner Eliphalet Lyon, who manufactured this design under his own name, to considerable success. In 1859 Lyon finally assented to taking on Dudgeon as partner and they operated as Dudgeon & Lyon. That only lasted for a year or so until Dudgeon, unhappy with Lyon's unwillingness to share decision-making, sued to end the partnership. In the end, the partnership was dissolved and Lyon formed E. Lyon & Co. (which eventually became the Watson-Stillman Co.), and Dudgeon operated under his own name. Both were successful and the descendants of both business survive today (as of 2018). This first design for a portable hydraulic jack used water as the fluid, although the patent recognizes that other fluids could also be used. One commonly used fluid was alcohol, often in the form of whiskeyâ€”those were the days before heavy taxation of liquorâ€”and so these jacks were once known as "whiskey jacks". The reservoir was in the head at the top of the jack, which made it rather unbalanced, and the jack was not nearly as effective pushing horizontally as vertically. But it was still a useful and successful design that sold well. Dudgeon and others made numerous improvements in the next few decades.
22,713	Jan. 25, 1859	Hydraulic press	Richard Dudgeon	New York, NY
43,673	Aug. 02, 1864	Drill	Richard Dudgeon	New York, NY
44,358	Sep. 20, 1864	Improvement in hydraulic jacks	Thomas H. Watson	New York, NY	"The nature of my invention consists in providing a reservoir holding fluids sufficient, when forced into the cylinder of the jack, to push the ram out is entire length when it is in a horizontal position, which is not accomplished by the hydraulic jacks now in use and described in Fig. 1, in which the force-pump is in the center of the reservoir, and when the jack is in a horizontal position half the contents of the reservoir is below the center of the pump and cannot run into and supply it with water sufficient to more than one-third fill the cylinder..." This patent acknowledges patent 8,203, which was granted to Richard Dudgeon who at the time was working for Thomas H. Watson's stepfather, Eliphalet Lyon.
137,765	Apr. 15, 1873	Improvement in hydraulic jacks	Richard Dudgeon	New York, NY	This patent provides an improved method of allowing the jack to be lowered by providing a mechanism to allow the hydraulic fluid to flow around the ingress valve rather than through it. This improvement made the lowering mechanism more robust and less prone to failure where the jack would get stuck in the raised position. A lawsuit, Dudgeon v. Watson, was heard in the Southern District Court of New York on December 18, 1886, and involved this patent and the later patent 297,975. The defence argued that patent 6,274, for a steam pump, anticipated this patent, an argument the court rejected because the object of Dudgeon's invention was different. The judge's elitism is telling: "It required a creative faculty, not usually found in the slow, non-perceptive brain of the skilled workmen, to construct the hydraulic jack of 1873 from the steam-pump of 1849." More convincingly, the judge pointed out that for 24 years no-one else had though to apply the steam-pump mechanism to the hydraulic jack, and that confirms that Dudgeon's invention was non-obvious. The decision went against Watson in infringing on both of the Dudgeon patents.
271,154	Jan. 23, 1883	Hydraulic jack	John Charles Tanner	Huntington, WV
297,975	May. 06, 1884	Hydraulic jack	Richard H. Dudgeon	New York, NY
330,759	Nov. 17, 1885	Hydraulic jack	Harrison Traver	Brooklyn, NY
		Hydraulic jack	John Weeks	New York, NY
330,760	Nov. 17, 1885	Hydraulic jack	John Weeks	New York, NY
334,206	Jan. 12, 1886	Hydraulic jack	Harrison Traver	Brooklyn, NY
		Hydraulic jack	John Weeks	New York, NY
369,992	Sep. 13, 1887	Hydraulic jack	Oliver H. Mechem	Connellsville, PA
395,675	Jan. 01, 1889	Hydraulic punch, &c.	John Weeks	New York, NY
550,702	Dec. 03, 1895	Hydraulic jack	John Weeks	New York, NY	The assignee was the executor of Richard Dudgeon
568,421	Sep. 29, 1896	Dock and vessel leveling device	John Weeks	New York, NY	The assignee was the executor for Richard Dudgeon. This patent involves hydraulic jacks that hold a floating dock level with a vessel so that vehicles can pass from one to the other.
571,547	Nov. 17, 1896	Hydraulic jack	John Weeks	New York, NY	The assignee was executor of Richard Dudgeon.
706,850	Aug. 12, 1902	Hydraulic jack	Lewis S. Pitcher	Albany, NY	The assignee was the executor of Richard Dudgeon.
1,749,080	Mar. 04, 1930	Hydraulic filter press	William H. Mathers	Hollis, NY