On February 11 of the year 1969, U.S. Patent No. 3,426,747 issued to Herbert "Zeppo" Marx and Albert Dale Herman for a wrist-worn device for detecting heart arrhythmia. Zeppo had been part of the comedy team, the Marx Brothers. Unsurprisingly, Zeppo is the normal looking guy, second from the left, in the lobby card for "Monkey Business" displayed above. Zeppo played the handsome, affable straight man in five of the Marx Brothers films: "Duck Soup", "Horse Feathers", "Monkey Business", "Animal Crackers" and "The Cocoanuts".
After completion of "Duck Soup", Zeppo decided to leave the Marx Brothers. In a resignation letter he wrote to his older brother "Groucho", Zeppo complained that “I'm sick and tired of being a stooge”. Although Groucho contributed to Zeppo's insecurity, Groucho did acknowledge that there was much more to Zeppo than what appeared on the screen. Groucho described Zeppo as: “Handsome, wooden, slightly obtuse, the fill in. His character brought logic to a basically illogical story and he was often an intrusion. In real life, the wittiest of men and a scrapper.”
Zeppo had exhibited mechanical aptitude from an early age, assuming the role of chief mechanic for the Marx family car. After leaving the Marx Brothers, Zeppo decided to pursue that mechanical aptitude. He began with a machine shop in his garage, where he manufactured parts for the DC-3 after meeting an aircraft executive at a racetrack. Zeppo incorporated this venture as the Marman Products Co. of Inglewood, California.
Business really took off for Zeppo when he ran into a down-on-his-luck inventor, who was looking for a sponsor for a clamp he had invented for coupling pipes and tubing. Zeppo entered into a business arrangement with the inventor to manufacture the clamp because Zeppo recognized the need for such a clamp in the aircraft industry to secure two pressurized hoses together with no drips. As such, the clamp became an instant success and made Zeppo incredibly wealthy. The clamp is still widely used today and is often referred to as a Marman clamp or simply a band clamp.
In 1955, Zeppo sold Marman Products to Aeroquip Corporation, which was later sold to the Eaton Corporation. With the money he made from Marman Products, Zeppo invested in other, more exotic ventures, such as a citrus orchard and a fishing trawler. He also engaged in his passion for tinkering, which led to the wrist-worn heart monitoring device of the '747 patent.
Zeppo's heart monitoring device included a control watch and a reference watch that were mounted in a case on a bracelet worn by a user. The operation of the control watch was controlled by the cardiac pulse of the user. When the user's heartbeat was normal, the control watch would be brought into synchronization with the reference watch. Thereafter, if an arrhythmia occurred in the user's heart, the control watch would fall out of synchronization with the reference watch, which would actuate an audible alarm.
While the heart monitoring device of the '747 patent presaged current wristband heart monitoring devices, it was not the first of its kind. A patent (US 2854968) had issued earlier, in 1958, for a wrist-worn heart monitoring device, which was similar to, but less sophisticated than Zeppo's device. There is also no indication whether Zeppo's device met with commercial success. Nonetheless, the heart monitoring device of the '747 patent was very clever and provides an insight into the genius of Zeppo Marx, who was certainly not a "stooge", as he had complained to his brother.
After completion of "Duck Soup", Zeppo decided to leave the Marx Brothers. In a resignation letter he wrote to his older brother "Groucho", Zeppo complained that “I'm sick and tired of being a stooge”. Although Groucho contributed to Zeppo's insecurity, Groucho did acknowledge that there was much more to Zeppo than what appeared on the screen. Groucho described Zeppo as: “Handsome, wooden, slightly obtuse, the fill in. His character brought logic to a basically illogical story and he was often an intrusion. In real life, the wittiest of men and a scrapper.”
Zeppo had exhibited mechanical aptitude from an early age, assuming the role of chief mechanic for the Marx family car. After leaving the Marx Brothers, Zeppo decided to pursue that mechanical aptitude. He began with a machine shop in his garage, where he manufactured parts for the DC-3 after meeting an aircraft executive at a racetrack. Zeppo incorporated this venture as the Marman Products Co. of Inglewood, California.
Business really took off for Zeppo when he ran into a down-on-his-luck inventor, who was looking for a sponsor for a clamp he had invented for coupling pipes and tubing. Zeppo entered into a business arrangement with the inventor to manufacture the clamp because Zeppo recognized the need for such a clamp in the aircraft industry to secure two pressurized hoses together with no drips. As such, the clamp became an instant success and made Zeppo incredibly wealthy. The clamp is still widely used today and is often referred to as a Marman clamp or simply a band clamp.
In 1955, Zeppo sold Marman Products to Aeroquip Corporation, which was later sold to the Eaton Corporation. With the money he made from Marman Products, Zeppo invested in other, more exotic ventures, such as a citrus orchard and a fishing trawler. He also engaged in his passion for tinkering, which led to the wrist-worn heart monitoring device of the '747 patent.
Zeppo's heart monitoring device included a control watch and a reference watch that were mounted in a case on a bracelet worn by a user. The operation of the control watch was controlled by the cardiac pulse of the user. When the user's heartbeat was normal, the control watch would be brought into synchronization with the reference watch. Thereafter, if an arrhythmia occurred in the user's heart, the control watch would fall out of synchronization with the reference watch, which would actuate an audible alarm.
While the heart monitoring device of the '747 patent presaged current wristband heart monitoring devices, it was not the first of its kind. A patent (US 2854968) had issued earlier, in 1958, for a wrist-worn heart monitoring device, which was similar to, but less sophisticated than Zeppo's device. There is also no indication whether Zeppo's device met with commercial success. Nonetheless, the heart monitoring device of the '747 patent was very clever and provides an insight into the genius of Zeppo Marx, who was certainly not a "stooge", as he had complained to his brother.
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