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Jerome lemelson net worth
Jerome H. Lemelson (1923-1997) was one of the most prolific American inventors of all time.
Jerome "Jerry" Hal Lemelson was an American engineer, inventor, and patent holder.

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Jerome Lemelson

Jerome H. Lemelson (1923-1997) was one of the most prolific American inventors of all time. His inventions, for which he amassed more than 500 patents, include essential parts of dozens of products in common use today, including the VCR, camcorder, Walkman®, cordless phone, fax machine, data and word processing systems, and industrial robots.

Born in 1923, Jerome Lemelson was already inventing as a child. One early effort was a lighted tongue depressor, which he invented for his father, a physician. Later, youthful experiments with model airplanes evolved into a more serious role as a designer of defense systems for the U.S. during World War II, and three degrees in engineering from New York University (1947, 1949, and 1951).

Soon thereafter, Lemelson began his over 40-year career as an independent inventor. Like many inventors, he first focused on toys and novelties, but the nascent computer age inspired him with more serious ideas. From 1954 to 1956, Lemelson applied for his first automation patents, including his "machine vision" system. This combination of c

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Jerome Lemelson

Birthplace: New York, NY, USA
Death date: 1998/10/01

Biography

Jerome Lemelson was born in New York City and designed weapons and other systems for the Army Air Corps in World War II before attending college. After graduating from New York University, he worked on a Navy project at the university to develop rocket and pulse engines. As an independent inventor he obtained more than 500 patents.

In 1992 a group of Japanese automakers paid Lemelson 100 million USD for use of automation, based on refinements of the device he had invented almost 40 years earlier. A number of European and U.S. manufacturers soon followed suit, bringing Lemelson's take to more than US$500 million.

Mr. Lemelson publicly criticized the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for dragging out a patent process that took years before he was legally entitled to collect royalties, while corporations accused Lemelson of using the patent process to hide his ideas with so-called "submarine" patents.

He was well known for an annual US $500,000 award he created for inventors.

Lemelson died

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Jerome Lemelson: Toying with Invention

Jerome Lemelson’s inventive legacy touches nearly every facet of our everyday lives. One of America’s most prolific inventors, he earned more than 600 patents for inventions relating to automated manufacturing systems, bar code readers, automatic teller machines, cordless phones, cassette players, camcorders, fax machines, personal computers, machine vision, and medical technology. What may be surprising, though, is that about 10 percent of those patents describe toys—inflatable toys, jumping toys, toys with propellers, toys that run on tracks, target games, dolls, and more. In fact, Lemelson’s first patent, issued in 1953, was for a new kind of propeller beanie.

One of the most interesting things about Jerry Lemelson’s toy patents is the way in which they parallel interests that he was pursuing in other fields. For example, a number of his inventions incorporate the behavior of fluids (gases and liquids), magnetism, light, and sound. So his version of the propeller beanie (U.S. Patent 2,654,973) didn’t rely on the vagaries of wind, bu