Rain lamp patents

3,174,688

Title = Ornamental Device Using Liquid Droplets Inventor = V. H. Chatten (Victor H. Chatten) Filing date = October 9, 1962 Issue date = March 23, 1965 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

My comments about this patent.

• This is the patent number referenced on Creators, Inc. rain lamp instructions booklets.
• This is the earliest rain lamp patent I've found, which suggests Johnson Industries didn't have a patent.
• I looked up all the other patents referenced (3,098,611, 2,748,257, etc.). None are rain lamp patents.
• The terms "line" and "wire" are used interchangeably for the nylon filament.
• The line diameters mentioned of 0.030 and 0.090 inches are larger than readily available 50-pound fishing line.
• The liquid mentioned is glycerol (glycerin), which may explain why so many people believe rain lamps use glycerin.
• The patent discusses the pros and cons of using plain water, which is an obvious question I had from the start.
• Separate spouts are not mentioned, only the need for at least extended depressions in the upper oil reservoir.
• One illustration shows a tapered cylindrical weave pattern, which I've actually seen only in Disneyland's rain lamp.
• The description fails to disclose recommended spout diameters, so fails to make the invention readily reproducible.

3,212,713

Title = Suspended Ornamental Device Inventor = V. H. Chatten (Victor H. Chatten) Filing date = January 13, 1964 Issue date = October 19, 1965 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4]

My comments about this patent.

• Victor Chatten also invented bubble lamps, submerged clocks, bird repellants, and diverse other devices.

3,455,509

Title = Fountain Inventor = J. Balkin (Jack Balkin) Filing date = July 26, 1967 Issue date = July 15, 1969 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

My comments about this patent.

• One unique architectural feature is that a different capillary tube leads to each spout, rather than a common basin.
• Mention is made of the effect of long capillary tubes: to help ensure even droplet spacing.
• The filaments are called "cords," in contrast to the terms "wires" or "lines" used in other patents.
• The holed plate/tray over the bottom basin is called a "shield."
• The possible fluids mentioned are "transparent hydraulic or transformer oil."
• The description fails to disclose recommended spout diameters, so fails to make the invention readily reproducible.

3,568,927

Title = Display Device Inventor = Robert H. Scurlock Filing date = July 29, 1968 Issue date = March 9, 1971 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

3,912,166

Title = Ornamental Device Having Lines For Gravity Descent Of Liquid Droplets Inventor = Victor H. Chatten Filing date = July 16, 1974 Issue date = October 14, 1975 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

My comments about this patent.

• This patent merely lists improvements on the inventor's previous rain lamp design and patent.
• One unique architectural feature is the central post for pumping, like in the Disneyland rain lamp.
• One unique feature is the fluid put under pressure, which is said to make the drip frequency very regular.
• A clever improvment is putting lines next to spouts instead of inside of spouts, making the lines easy to string.
• The preferred liquid mentioned is ethylene glycol, which has low electrical conductivity.
• An unusual feature mentioned is electric lines with lights immersed in the glycol in the central post.
• The spouts are described only as "tubular projections."

3,930,334

Title = Hanging Apparatus For Falls And Hanging Plant Inventor = Ervin F. Johnston Filing date = May 20, 1974 Issue date = January 6, 1976 Pages: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

General observations on rain lamp patents

• The titles are usually very general. Terms like "rain lamp" or "Shower-Lite" are never found even in the descriptions.
• None of the descriptions disclose recommended spout diameters, so all fail to make the inventions readily reproducible.
• All inventors were from Southern California. Rain lamps seemed to be a Los Angeles - San Diego phenomenon.

Online patents

In my experience so far, accessing patents online has been an extreme and unproductive frustration.

The following link supposedly accesses the Creators, Inc. Shower-Lite patent from 1965. However, I've never been able to get the site to work properly. Supposedly one can view the patent, which is in TIFF format, if one first downloads Apple QuickTime via their link. However, after I downloaded QuickTime, I could usually never see more than a single truncated strip at the top of each image. In the mean time, the U.S. patent office software kept giving error messages about timeouts and needing to access the image view instead of the text view, despite my already being in image view mode, and the QuickTime display would come up with an advertisement to buy a better copy of their (so-far worthless) software whenever I tried to save the partially viewed image. Then when I finally got fed up and tried to uninstall QuickTime, I couldn't uninstall it completely because one file was read-only and I couldn't change its privileges. I couldn't even manually delete their file from my computer! What a bunch of deceitful, worthless crap. But here's the link if you want to take chances on wasting your time and putting undeletable files on your computer:

patent #3,174,688 (1-2-05)

Another possibility for online searches is the following free nongovernment service. However, this site also requires Apple QuickTime, though the site itself says to use AlternaTIFF. But Apple QuickTime never downloads from their site via Firefox browsers. It just stalls indefinitely.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/search.html (1-6-06)

I decided all this was ridiculous so I obtained physical photocopies of patents directly from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and rescanned them myself into the manageable JPG format you see elsewhere on this page.