(2) LAST NAME (3) FIRST NAME (4) APPLICATION NO.(1) PAT E NTHOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
↓ MY PATENTSTORY
Before there’s a patent, there’s an idea.
Before that, there’s a person with a problem to solve.26 June 2019 _ PopularMechanics.comBILLPRESCOTTArtruc Randy 10,023,282
Gears for Reversing Rowing Motion for Oars
Tell us your patent story at [email protected].(10) I showed it to a friend and he wanted me to bring my
wooden gear to the San Francisco Yacht Club, and I
didn’t feel good about that. I figured if I had done that,
they’d end up with my idea and I’d end up with a piece
of wood. So I never went.(11) 2004. December 28. Lost the prototype in a house fire.(12) Twelve years later, I had the dream. I swear. I was
wondering about retirement, what’s going to happen
at the end of my life, and things like that, and I had
the dream of seeing a full rowing craft using that gear-
driven oar. So that’s when I called InventHelp.(13) I’ve always liked George Foreman. He’s the spokes-
man of InventHelp. He’s always on television. So I don’t
know anybody at InventHelp, but after years of George
Foreman? I trusted him.(14) I had to pay $1,000 to do the research, to find out if it’s
actually patentable. I found out I’m 170 years behind.
There were forward-rowing devices patented in the
1800s! But mine works in four directions—it raises and
lowers the oars, plus the front-to-back rowing motion—
and it has other unique features, too, so I could patent it.(15) I still don’t have a prototype since the fire. I thought
about carving another one. Some people say 3D
printing might be the way to go. And some say, Well, I
don’t know about that. It may not be strong enough for
the stress on the gears.(16) InventHelp gets the design in front of companies.
If someone’s interested, they would tell me they’ve got
a company that wants to produce it. That hasn’t hap-
pened yet, but I’m sure it’s on its way. Like everything
else, it takes time.An Idea Takes Its Time
The concept for a geared rowing device came to Randy Artruc in ’88.
The design in ’94. The patent? Last year.(5) The idea came from when I was in
California, up in the Sierras with
some friends. This wa s in ’88. One of
the guys had a rowboat. I said, “Well,
I’ll do the rowing, and you guys can
do the fishing.” I didn’t have a fish-
ing license. They said, “Ah, you don’t
need a fishing license up here!” I
said, “With my luck, the day I decide
to fish without a license, the warden
will be here. I’ll just row.”(6) While I’m rowing I’m thinking: This is the only means of trans-
portation that we do backward.(7) I think I’m being smart: Maybe if I invent a rearview mirror?(8) Six years later I was at a friend’s house having a beer, and
I noticed the bottle caps are like little gears. And by the time I
had my second beer, I had two bottle caps, and I thought, Well,
look at this, you could change to forward rowing.(9) I bought two three-inch round wooden balls and carved gears,
traced off a three-inch transmission gear a friend gave me. The
device worked on the first try. It sits on the rail of the boat. You sit
facing forward. The oar is on one side of the gears and the handle
on the other. Because of the gears, wherever your hand goes, the
paddle goes. If your hand goes forward, the paddle goes forward.Artruc’s invention uses
a hemispherical pair of
gears to make an oar’s
movements match a
rower’s hand movements.
Clamped to the side of a
boat, it allows the oars-
man to face forward.