UIA Offers guidelines for local associations
The United Inventors Association (UIA) suggests that local associations follow these standards:
• Each group should include at least one successful inventor to serve as mentor to those with less experience.
NIA is rich with mentors, beginning with founder Don Costar Don't hesitate to ask for help or information from
these members. It's part of why they're here.
• The group should educate members in ways to improve their business skills.Like it or not, every successful
inventor who maintains control over his or her patent and/or the income it produces has to call on business skills.
• If there is not a patent practitioner actively serving on the chapter's board, there should be some relevant
resource available. Two of our meetings so far this year have dealt with the patenting process. We are also
fortunate to have ready access to Government documents at the University of Nevada Reno Library, and staffers will
point you in the right direction.
• Every group should have Federal tax designation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. This implies less deception,
but more importantly, also makes the organization eligible for grants.. NIA is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit.
• Every group should have a consistent, secure meeting place as well as consistent meeting times. NIA meetings
are from 9 a.m. to noon, the fourth Saturday of each month in Room 101 of Washoe Medical Center-unless otherwise
designated.
• The UIA recommends forming strategic alliances with other asso ciations for mutual benefit. A growing trend
encourages nonprofit organizations to work together and the concept may be encouraged through cooperative funding
programs.
• Well-run meetings with good speakers are always necessary. NIA's speakers cover topics from free money from
the government to how to manage that money -and just about every topic in between.
• Every group should work closely with the nearest Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and Service Corps of
Retired Executives (SCORE) for free advice and help, as well as modestly priced workshops. Come to NlA's Sept.
28 meeting to learn what is offered by the Nevada Small Business Development Center at UNR.
Popular ride's inventor had Nevada connection
What would a carnival be without a Ferris Wheel? An interesting piece of Nevada trivia claims this ubiquitous
ride was inspired by its inventor's boyhood memories of watching a Comstock-era water wheel on the Carson River
north of Minden.
George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. Iived on a ranch near the water wheel from 1864 until his family moved to Carson
City six years later. (The family's home is listed on the registry of historic homes in the state capital.) The
young Ferris eventually became a civil engineer, thanks to the generosity of his brother-in-law, Douglas County
rancher H. F. Dangberg who sponsored much of the boy's education.
After he graduated from Rensselaer Poly technic School in Troy, NY in 1880, Ferris' work as a bridge and trestle
builder took him around much of the eastern U.S., and he eventually settled in Pittsburgh. When the producers of
the 1893 Chicago World's Fair were looking for a feature to outshine the Eiffel Tower of the Paris Exposition of
1889, Ferris offered his design for a 2,100 ton wheel with 36 enclosed cars, each seating 40 persons.
Not surprisingly, many of the people to whom he offered his proposal thought he was crazy, but he persisted and
was finally able to raise the $350,000 plus to begin ordering parts. According to one source, the project was so
large, he used a number of small shops to construct the parts, which were then assembled onsite in Chicago.
Each ticket to ride the 20story novelty cost $.50-the same price as an admission ticket to the fair itself. By
the time the fair closed, the wheel's profit was more than double the original investment. It was moved to another
site in Chicago, and made its final runs at the St. Louis Fair in 1904 before being demolished.
is a community resource published monthly by the Nevada Inventor's Association. This association is a 501 (c)(3)
nonprofit organization. This newsletter's mission is: To further the mission of NIA by educating and informing
members, to promote the organization throughout the broader community of northwestern Nevada, and to recruit new
members.
Reno tailor teams with fabric merchant for fashion necessity Levi's jeans or variations of them may well be
the most widely popular garment worldwide. This fashion statement of denim fabric with riveted pockets is credited
as a local Reno invention.
As the story goes, the wife of a Comstock-era miner asked Jacob Davis, a Reno tailor, to make her ample husband
pants that would not come apart at strategic spots.
Davis solved the problem by adding rivets to those spots for the extra strength needed. Davis purchased his fabrics
from San Francisco merchant Levi Strauss, and wrote Strauss about his new process. He explained that he did not
have the funds to pursue a patent but suggested that Strauss pay for the patent and they take out the paperwork
jointly.
-Source: The Lemelson-MIT Awards Program's Invention Dimension, www.mit.edu
Page done by Vince Chemist.
Created on Nov. 2 2002
Updated om November 29, 2005