How the UFO Craze Inspired Inventors to Patent Lots of Flying Saucer Designs
The unidentified flying object inspired a flurry of flying saucer patents globally—but one guy who wasn’t inspired by UFOs at all beat everyone else to the punch.
This piece is adapted from a recent issue of Tedium: The Dull Side of the Internet. Here’s the original version.
Today in Tedium: Early in the summer of 1947, an amateur pilot from Idaho named Kenneth Arnold spotted something in the Washington skies that kind of blew his mind. Despite the skies being clear that day, he saw a series of nine flashes of horizontal light. Soon, he landed, told others what he saw, and, without his initial knowledge, his story spread through the popular consciousness, taking on a life on its own, as well as a name — the flying saucer. Two weeks later, a much more famous incident in Roswell, New Mexico, involving a weather balloon (if you believe what the government tells you), further cemented the idea of the flying saucer into the public consciousness. Not long after, weekend warriors suddenly felt inspired make their own — and they’ve been flooding the patent offices globally ever since. Tonight’s Tedium talks flying saucer patents. We’ll leave the alien autopsies for someone with better…
