I had a good look recently at an ALCO boiler plate that measured about 4" X 4 1/2" with a bunch of patents listed and their issue dates. What was the purpose of this plate? It seems to me that the patents were random and am not sure why ALCO would go to such an extreme to rivet a plate like this on a locomotive smoke box under the builders plate.

Were the patents that important?

Brian Hebert

Greetings:
Our No. 40 is covered under the following patents:

744400 (11/17/03)
773713 (11/1/04)
823482 (6/12/08)
838418 (10/12/09)
833840 (5/2/11)
882631 (5/10/11)
1135732 (7/6/18)

Read the "Wikipedia" article on patents and you will learn their history and importance to this day.

J.David

PS: Will one of you with more time than I look these up and enlighten us further? Thanks! JDC

These are the titles to the respective numbers.
Couple of these don't seem to make a lot of sense (and dates are wrong)


744400 (11/17/03) Locomotive Frame
773713 (11/1/04) Locomotive Engine
823482 (6/12/08) Locomotive Truck
838418 (10/12/09) Valve Mechanism for Turbines
833840 (5/2/11) "Type Writing Machine" - issued Oct. 23, 1906
882631 (5/10/11) "Fly Trap" Issued - March 24, 1908
1135732 (7/6/18) "Can Strengthening Means" issued April 13, 1915

Could you recheck the numbers on the plate for the last 3????
These are easily downloadable in *.pdf form by entering the numbers at

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm

(or Google patents should have these too)
At least the first 4 sound relevant?

Bob