The tail: Doherty, the shortened name, and the end of the works' paper, 1950–1963

1950–1963 · THE LISTS GO QUIET · PRINTED AT TRUE SIZE

The thinning: After 1950 the works' paper thins to a thread, and the thread is footwear. The subsidiary's grants of the decade are Cecil H. Fitterling of South Bend, "Making closure flap structures," of 4 September 1951; Lucian P. Dosmann's oblique-spray grant and Woods J. Pepperman, Jr.'s arch-support shoe, both 1952, in the sponge and roster entries; the Bodle, Blair, and Dosmann grant of 1954, No. 2,677,026, printed in the later lists by number and class only, the last paper Blair's name ever made for the house; and then one designer carries the line alone. Thomas H. Doherty: No. 2,706,833, "Inlay for rubber article and method of inlaying," of 1955; Design No. 177,723, "Gaiter or similar article," of 22 May 1956; and Harold Zisla beside him once, Design No. 179,177, "Shoe," of 6 November 1956. Daniel F. Shafer's Design No. 179,614, "Fastener," of 29 January 1957 — a fastener, still, thirty years after the campaign — is the last grant the lists give under the full Mishawaka Rubber and Woolen name.

The shortened name: When the works' paper returns, the name on it has changed with the century: the assignee of the 1960s entries is "Mishawaka Rubber Co., Inc." — the woolen half of the old styling gone. Under that name, Doherty again: No. 3,018,571, "High-traction footwear tread," of 30 January 1962; Design No. 193,501, "Footwear sole," of 4 September 1962; and Design No. 196,355, "Footwear sole," of 24 September 1963 — the last Mishawaka-company grant the search found in the lists. Two Doherty designs of December 1962, Nos. 194,226 and 194,227, plastic coated fabric both, went directly to the United States Rubber Company; no Mishawaka name stands on their faces, and under this section's discipline they are named here at the boundary and not counted.

The blanks, printed as findings: The lists for 1958, 1959, 1960, and 1961 were read whole and carry no Mishawaka entry of any class; the lists for 1964 through 1973 were read whole and carry none either, and in no volume from the 1961 renaming onward does an Uniroyal assignee line carry a Mishawaka residence or a Mishawaka plant tie on its face. The works' patent century therefore closes where the record closes it: the last grants are a tread and two soles, patented by the company's own designer under the company's shortened name, in 1962 and 1963 — thirty-four years before the plant itself closed in 1997, the inventive practice ending, as the lists tell it, not with a program but with a shoe.

Sources:

1. Index of Patents Issued, 1951–1957 and 1962–1963 — the tail grants as itemized; the 1958–1961 and 1964–1973 volumes read whole with no Mishawaka entry, as printed in the entry.
2. PubChem patent records for U.S. 2,706,833 and 3,018,571 — Doherty's inlay title and the "Mishawaka Rubber Company Inc" assignee styling as the records carry it.