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1925–1949 · CLASS 1 · THE FOOTWEAR BENCH BESIDE BLAIR
Conrad Ferrettie: The second name on the footwear bench is Conrad Ferrettie's. His grants to the Mishawaka company run: Design No. 73,974, "Overshoe," of 29 November 1927; Design No. 79,289, "Overshoe," 1929; No. 1,701,773, "Rubber reenforcing," of 12 February 1929; the self-closing shoe of the fastener campaign, No. 1,707,390, of 2 April 1929; with George L. Van Dinter, No. 1,726,782, "Form-fitting boot and making same," of 3 September 1929, No. 1,771,277, "Form-fitting boot and making same," 1930, and No. 1,890,890, "Form fitting rubber boot and making same," of 13 December 1932, and No. 1,912,417, "Rubber boot," of 6 June 1933; the combined sole-and-heel design with Blair in 1930; alone again, No. 1,924,716, "Footwear and making same," of 29 August 1933; and last, No. 2,306,306, "Leather topped rubber footwear," of 22 December 1942 — a fifteen-year span of boot paper, opening in designs and closing in wartime leather-topped rubber footwear.
George L. Van Dinter: Van Dinter's own grants run with the boot line and beside Bradley: the fastener-covering grant of December 1928; Design No. 82,296, "Overshoe," 1930; No. 1,767,722, "Boot-top fastener," 1930; Nos. 1,771,003 and 1,771,004, "Form-fitting-boot construction" and "Form-fitting boot," 1930; Design No. 87,096, "Rubber boot," of 31 May 1932; and the joint boot grants with Ferrettie above. The form-fitting boot — a rubber boot shaped to the leg instead of hanging straight, the Ball Band line's answer to the leather boot's fit — is the joint work of these two names across 1929–1933, five grants deep, and this section credits it to both of them in the order the patents print them, varying as they vary.
The bench at line size: John E. Taber, printed of South Bend, No. 1,892,791, "Overshoe," of 3 January 1933, and No. 1,924,663, "Footwear and making same," of 29 August 1933 — the same grant day as Ferrettie's footwear patent of that year; and a generation later John E. Taber, Jr., of South Bend, with Kenneth L. Keene, No. 2,407,189, "Shoe," of 3 September 1946, the "Jr." printed as the list prints it. Richard J. Mecklenburg, No. 1,820,149, "Overshoe and making same," of 25 August 1931. Paul L. Bush, Design No. 78,191, "Shoe sole," 1929 — the same Paul L. Bush who stands on the 1943 rubber-coating grant with Dale E. Lovell in the sponge entry below. Fred J. Grams of Mishawaka, No. 1,920,554, "Moccasin," of 1 August 1933, at residence strength. Gino Vannoni of Mishawaka, No. 1,546,955, "Heel-forming mold," of 21 July 1925, at residence strength — a mold-maker's patent, the tooling side of the heel trade. And the heel man of the works' own paper: Ray R. Hunt, No. 1,908,425, "Liner," of 9 May 1933, with Blair No. 1,993,082, "Method of and apparatus for forming sheet rubber blanks," of 5 March 1935, No. 2,051,258, "Pneumatic gauge," of 18 August 1936, No. 2,058,880, "Embossing apparatus," of 27 October 1936, and No. 2,132,788, "Method of and apparatus for making rubber heels and the like," of 11 October 1938 — the heel line's machinery, patented by the man whose name the liner and the gauge also carry. George H. Callum follows the embossing line in 1944 with No. 2,339,145, "Embossing method and means," assigned to the Mishawaka company.
Sources:
- Index of Patents Issued, 1925, 1927–1933, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1944, and 1946 — the footwear grants as itemized.
- PubChem patent records for U.S. 1,993,082 and 2,132,788 — Blair and Hunt on the sheet-rubber-blank grant; Hunt on the rubber-heel apparatus.