Patents Issued to the Staff of the Electrical Research Lab

The subject of patentable work produced from the years 1939-1949 by Joe Desch, Bob Mumma, Vince Gulden and their co-workers is one that is fascinating but has received little attention. NCR at the time was a patent workhorse; that is, patent applications were urged, expected and even demanded from engineers and those engaged in research. When the Navy "took over" the Electrical Research Laboratory in 1942 issues became far more complicated. In addition, the ambitions of Joe Desch, and certainly some of his staff, were frustrated by the legal issues accruing from the legalities of top secret projects incorporating advancements which then were governed by military law and could not be recognized or patented. I know, from listening to him describe the situation, that this conflict was one of the agravations that plagued Joe Desch during the war and after, when he could literally look up from his desk and see that others, including the staff at the U. of Penn. had moved ahead during war time into the very areas he he had hoped to pioneer. This was one of the dearest costs of his following his sense of duty and his involvement with the war work.

To the Index

This new section has documents related to these issues which I found at the National Archives, and copies of the patents awarded to Desch, Mumma, Gulden and others. In particular I was astounded at the volume and quality of Bob Mumma's work. There is no doubt in my mind that he deserves much more recognition than he has received to date.

The list of patents is based on the handwritten list (seen in the background) my father dated April, 1949. I found this after his death. I'm not sure why he gathered this information but his pride is obvious.