Telescoping Brow Patent Model
date: label: Date made
content: 1957
label: patent date
content: 1957-08-27
name: label: patentee
content: Wellens, Alexander M.
notes: label: Description
content: Alexander M. Wellens received patent number 2,803,841, on August 27, 1957 for his design of a telescoping gangway. During World War I, the U.S. Navy began a Beneficial Suggestion Program that encouraged its civilian employees to propose workplace improvements in exchange for cash awards. Wellens was an employee of a U.S. Naval Station in Seattle, Washington, and entered his gangway into the suggestion program in 1948. This is the model the station's sheet-metal shop built to demonstrate his idea.
label: Description
content: Wellens's innovation was to anchor the gangway's ends to both deck and pier, with the result that the plank would extend and contract automatically as the ship rose and fell on the tide. This helped obviate the harsh angles at high and low tide that created hazardous working conditions.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Associated Place
content: United States: Washington, Seattle
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: America on the Move
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Alexander M. Wellens
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1991.0555.01
label: catalog number
content: 1991.0555.01
label: accession number
content: 1991.0555
label: patent number
content: 2803841
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Patent Model, Telescoping Brow
label: Object Type
content: Patent Model
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 8 1/2 in x 9 in x 30 in; 21.59 cm x 22.86 cm x 76.2 cm