Charles E. Bradley: the works' engineer, 1917–1942

1917–1942 · CLASS 1 THROUGHOUT

The arc: The first patentee the renamed company kept is Charles E. Bradley, and his paper is the Story of Mishawaka section of the works' own practice. It opens with process: No. 1,240,931, "Form for rubber articles," of 25 September 1917, assigned to the Mishawaka Woolen Manufacturing Company; then No. 1,271,843, "Manufacturing rubber footwear," filed 3 August 1917 and granted 9 July 1918 — the face of this patent was read in full, and it prints "Charles E. Bradley, of Mishawaka, Indiana, assignor to Mishawaka Woolen Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Indiana." The method pre-heats the boots from inside, on hollow heated lasts, before the steam vulcanizing press closes, so that condensation cannot spot the rubber as it cures — a working shoemaker's solution to a working factory's defect, patented by the man on the ground. One human detail stands on the face and is printed as it stands: Bradley signed the application at New York. The residence the patent claims is Mishawaka; the signing happened where the company's business took him, and the file prints both facts without troubling either.

The middle paper: A decade passes in the lists before Bradley's name returns — the 1920s gap is the roster's, not this section's invention; the lists were read whole — and when it returns it is in company. With C. D. Mason, No. 1,677,428, "Footwear lining," of 17 July 1928; with George L. Van Dinter, No. 1,693,805, "Fastener-covering method and means," of 4 December 1928, and a second fastener-covering grant of the same season whose number the 1928 volume's text cuts, carried as a named gap. With Mason again, Reissue No. 18,058, "Lining for rubber articles," of 5 May 1931 — a reissue, the Patent Office's own second look at the 1928 lining patent — and No. 1,860,651, "Waterproofed leather and composition for treating same," of 31 May 1932, the structured record of which gives Mason's full name as Claude D. Mason. Alone, No. 1,853,034, "Rubber soled shoes and making same," of 12 April 1932. With Kenneth L. Keene, No. 2,099,418, "Waterproof bathing sandal," of 16 November 1937. And last, with George W. Blair and John F. Schott, No. 2,290,729, "Rubber material and method of and composition for making the same," of 21 July 1942 — twenty-five years after the vulcanizing form, the works' senior patentee is still on its paper, in the grant week the sponge-rubber program opens. Eight grants and a reissue stand in the lists under Bradley's name for the Mishawaka house; the pattern they draw is a plant engineer's whole working life, from the cure room to the sandal line, and it is the single strongest answer the search returns to the question of whether the works invented: for a quarter-century, in its own name, one of its own men did, continuously.

Sources:

1. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, patentee lists, 1917 and 1918; Index of Patents Issued, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1937, and 1942 — the Bradley grants as itemized.
2. U.S. Patent No. 1,271,843, face read in full (Google Patents) — the residence and assignment lines, the filing date of 3 August 1917, the hollow-last pre-heating method, and the New York signing, all as printed on the patent.
3. PubChem patent record for U.S. 1,860,651 — inventors Bradley, Charles E., and Mason, Claude D., giving the lining partner's full name.