US Patent and Trademark Office Drawings Reveal a History of Invention

One of my favorite parts of how-to book writing is researching how an object first came to be. That’s when I turn to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s searchable online database. I can seriously get lost for hours traversing decades of inventions and business ideas.

Each entry comes with elegantly illustrated sketches and drawings highlighting the innovative features that set it apart from everything that came before it. You can almost smell the blood, sweat, and tears that went into each of these inventions, and it really fires me up to go create something new and useful.

When I wrote my book, I was inspired to put together my own set of drawings and schematics. While I took a more loose approach to scale and dimension, these illustrations provide a lifetime of reference of the inner construction of the trailer.

In 20 years when the next generation of campers take it out on the road, these drawings will be a handy reference for managing upgrades and repairs. And who knows, like the patent illustrations of the past, maybe my drawings will become an historical reference to a future builder 80 years from now.