Dr. Piper of Jackson: The man who re-invented the wheel

Dr. Herman Herbert Piper arrived in Jackson as a veterinary surgeon, but his real passion was inventing. He racked up a total of 10 U.S. patents for a variety of useful contraptions during his lifetime (1865-1937). Although this pales in comparison to Thomas Edison, who accumulated 1,093 patents, Dr. Piper was nonetheless one of the more prolific inventors in our region.

He received his first patents (No. 753,732 and No. 753,733) in 1904 for an improved brake for wagons. The patent application stated that the brake "can be operated by the driver's foot, and thereby leave his hands free, and which shall be especially adapted for use on rubber-tired vehicles."

In 1905, the Jackson Herald newspaper reported on his next invention (patent No. 791,988). "Dr. H.H. Piper has a patent on a shaft fastener. It is an anti-rattler and handy. At present these fasteners are made away from home. If some one would put up a foundry here these and many other useful articles could be made in Jackson. We want more factories."

Later that year he received patent No. 805,995 for a "railway-car cuspidor" system. Each passenger would have easy access to a cuspidor, or spittoon, that would collect and drain spittle. The Jackson Herald boasted that the system was "sanitary in construction and always out of the way."

His next invention was more practical: a folding seat for vehicles. In this 1908 patent (No. 884,204), he described a "simple and inexpensive folding seat which is detachably positioned adjacent the fixed seat of a vehicle, thus increasing the carrying capacity of the vehicle; and which folding seat, when not in use, can be folded so as to occupy a comparatively small space."

For his next patent (No. 1,058,196), he developed a new kind of automobile wheel. He called this a "spring-spoke wheel" intended to replace expensive pneumatic tires for automobiles while maintaining "ample resiliency."

Then he started the Piper Cooling and Preserving Company to try to commercialize two patents (No. 1,128,503 and No. 1,282,931) for improved refrigerators that came in standalone and portable versions.

The Jackson Cash-Book reported, "Dr. Piper, the Jackson inventive genius, says he has invented an iceless refrigerator that will preserve milk, butter, meats, or other perishable articles of food for days and even weeks. He has one of these refrigerators built and in operation at his home. It works perfectly, he claims, and when once charged will need no other attention but to be kept clean."

Within two years he was engaged in another business: agricultural implements. He partnered with John Withers to manufacture a "land pulverizer" (No. 1,418,164). This invention allowed farmers to do away with all "harrows, land rollers and ground packers."

His final patent (No. 1,470,244) was granted in 1923 for a "dust shield and collector for automobiles." This contraption clipped to the back of a car and prevented dust clouds from being kicked up.

Although some of Piper's inventions were forerunners of products that we have today, it doesn't appear that he profited greatly from his patent portfolio.