A Garment-Steamer Patent with a Shamokin Connection

The Shamokin connection in U.S. Patent 3,436,851 appears beside the inventor's name. The document identifies Jack J. Gilbert of Spring Valley, New York, as the inventor and says he assigned the invention to Bernard Frank of Shamokin. Filed on April 18, 1967, the patent was granted on April 8, 1969. Those were distinct roles: the local assignee was not identified as the inventor.

Gilbert's design combined steaming and pressing in a hand-held device intended for hanging garments. A water tank, electric heating element, side handle and perforated pressing plate formed the arrangement described in the patent. The disclosure pictured touch-up work on clothing taken from luggage, a closet or a display rack, as well as work on drapes and trouser creases.

Rather than treating steam and the pressing surface as separate tools, the design directed steam through openings in the plate that contacted the fabric. This was the invention as described and claimed in the patent. The document establishes its technical proposal and the printed assignment to Frank, but not the number of devices manufactured or sold in Shamokin.