Arthur Paul Pedrick

At one point he was resident in Selsey, Sussex, England, according to his patents. Sometimes his residence would further be listed as "One-Man Photo-Electric Research Laboratories", or "One Man Think Tank Nuclear Fusion Research Laboratories", and so forth.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} These laboratories were staffed by himself and a ginger coloured cat, sometimes referred to as "Ginger" although it is not clear whether this was actually his name. Ginger was of great help to Pedrick in developing his inventions. Unfortunately, it is recounted in some of the patents how Ginger was unable to secure financing to put the inventions into practice.

His patent for laser induced fusion includes these autobiographical notes:{{cite patent|country=GB|number=1439297|pubdate=1976-06-16|title=Initiating a controlled fusion reaction using deuterium and tritium pellets in imploding bullets fed with powerful laser beam pulses|inventor1-last=Pedrick|inventor1-first=Arthur Paul}}

It is my personal experience based on a severe bout of Dive bombing by Stuka dive bombers in a light cruiser HMS "Dido", in 1941, evacuating mainly New Zealanders from Crete, who had been sent in by the late Sir Winston Churchill, but who, after the battle with the Nazi paratroops had made the island untenable, Admiral Cunningham, the Naval C in C in Alexandria, realised must be got out if possible, that the surface warships just cannot survive attacks by large numbers of aircraft, on their own, and it is only the chance of fate that I happened to be in After Engine Room of the ship, when a bomb came down on B turret and created a carnage of twisted steel and bodies forward, that I am writing this now, but the memory of the experience still gives me a "nightmare" at times.

I have suffered all my life even from a by product of the 1914–18 war even if I was born after it. It is a personal fact that my father was a Lieutenant (E) serving in the disastrous K class submarines, by which the Royal Navy tried to create a Submarine which could steam on the surface at 20 knots to keep up with the Fleet, and he died of a lung infection created by the appalling conditions in such submarines, even before I was born. If a women [sic] is in bad metal [sic] state when she is in pregnant, it is obvious that she can pass on her state of mind to the foetus. This has made me a nervous individual all my life, and there are many times in my life I wish I had never been born. There are endless arguments about the subject of abortion on the "rights of the foetus", and these could all be settled if, in some way, the future could be predicted for the foetus and it could decide whether it "wanted to be born".

A patent titled "Photon Push-Pull Radiation Detector For Use in Chromatically Selective Cat Flap Control And 1000 Megaton Earth-Orbital Peace-Keeping Bomb".{{cite patent|country=GB|number=1426698|pubdate=1976-03-03|title=Photon push-pull radiation detector for use in chromatically selective cat flap control and 1000 megaton earth-orbital peace-keeping bomb|inventor1-last=Pedrick|inventor1-first=Arthur Paul}}

The idea was to detect the difference in fur colour between a ginger cat and a black cat. He came up with this idea because a black cat named "Blackie" from next door kept trying to steal his own cat's food. With Pedrick's new catflap design, if Blackie attempted to use the cat-flap he would not be allowed in.

An "Apparatus for extinguishing fires in high rise block buildings of uniform transverse cross-section or plan".{{cite patent|country=GB|number=1453920|pubdate=1976-10-27|title=Apparatus for extinguishing fires in high rise block buildings of uniform transverse cross-section or plan|inventor1-last=Pedrick|inventor1-first=Arthur Paul}}

Here, Pedrick suggests that fire curtains could be secured at the roof level of a high-rise building. When released, they would envelope substantially the entire building. The curtains could be provided with apertures which when the curtain is released are located opposite rooms in the building, these rooms being designated as ones in which the occupants should congregate in the event of fire. The concern however was that such large curtains would have prevented escape from the building as well as increase the risk of suffocation.

A patent titled "Arrangements for the transfer of fresh water from one location on the earth's surface to another at a different latitude, for the purpose of irrigation, with pumping energy derived from the effect of the earth's rotation about the polar axis".{{cite patent|country=GB|number=1047735|pubdate=1966-11-09|title=Arrangements for the transfer of fresh water from one location on the earth's surface to another at a different latitude, for the purpose of irrigation, with pumping energy derived from the effect of the earth's rotation about the polar axis|inventor1-last=Pedrick|inventor1-first=Arthur Paul}}

In this patent, Pedrick describes in extremely long detail, with pages of mathematical equations, how snow and ice could be passed along pipelines from the Antarctic to irrigate the dry Australian outback, creating a "granary of the East" that could feed the burgeoning population of the world. Since the flow of water from one region to the other through such pipelines would not be practicable, according to Pedrick, the suggestion is to instead compress the snow into hard balls that could be fired along these pipelines as projectiles.

Observations on the world around him include the following:

• "Almost 2000 years ago, a strange character called Jesus Christ went about Palestine saying we should all love our enemies, but he was crucified before much notice was taken of him, and it is curious that the very land of Palestine is now one of the World "Trouble spots" in 1974."
• "It being the opinion of my Ginger Cat, that those cats that you see sponsoring various brands of tinned cat food on T/V are just as hypocritical as the various actors one sees sponsoring on T/V various commercial products, and in fact my Ginger Cat prefers ordinary Corned Beef to most brands of Cat food."
• "Unfortunately it is fact that thermo-nuclear weapons can be contained with the noses of Interncontinental-ballistic-rockets which results in the fact that distrust between governments of nations able to manufacture nuclear weapons, for example the USA and USSR, results in such nations keeping in readiness large numbers of such rockets to be used as a so called "deterrent" against an attack by such other nations.

:"Clearly if one such nation, for example the USA, could be assured by some system, which would be quite automatic, that any other nation making a nuclear attack upon it, would be sure to bring upon itself a similar nuclear devastation, it could then allow a run-down of its own thermo-nuclear weapons stocks for the deuterium and tritium to be used for peaceful purposes to overcome the "energy shortage""

:"As Ginger pointed out to me the whole unfortunate situation might have been avoided if Albert Einstein had not "doodled out" his equation E = mc², in the Swiss Patent Office around 1905 instead of getting on with the work he was being paid to do."[http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?CY=ep&LG=en&IDX=GB1361962&QPN=GB1361962 Earth Orbital Bombs As Nuclear Deterrents]

"Funny" patents, such as those published by Pedrick, and their popularisation in the media upset many patent examiners who feel they tend to trivialise the subject.CIPA Journal, January 2008, Volume 37, number 1, p. 32

A selection from over 160 patents filed between 1962 and 1975:

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1453920

|title=APPARATUS FOR EXTINGUISHING FIRES IN HIGH RISE BLOCK BUILDINGS OF UNIFORM TRANSVERSE CROSS-SECTION OR PLAN

|gdate=27 October 1976

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1439297

|title=Initiating A Controlled Fusion Reaction Using Deuterium And Tritium Pellets In Imploding Bullets Fed With Powerful Laser Beam Pulses

|gdate=1976.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1421240

|title=MORTARLESS BRICK WORK TO REDUCE HOUSE BUILDING COSTS

|gdate=1976.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1415487

|title=REDUCING THE TENDENCY OF A GOLF BALL TO SLICE OR HOOK BY ELECTROSTATIC FORCES

|gdate=1975.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1391569

|title=MINIATURE-IMAGE PRODUCING SPECTACLES AND BINOCULARS

|gdate=1975.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1388517

|title=ELECTRICALLY OPERATED INDEX AND COMPARISON SYSTEM

|gdate=1975.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1361962

|title=EARTH ORBITAL BOMBS AS NUCLEAR DETERENTS

|gdate=1974.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1351926

|title=Tea Strainers

|gdate=1974.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1348477

|title=COLOUR TELEVISION USING LIGHTRAY CREATED IMAGES

|gdate=1974.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1340664

|title=VARIABLE SPEED MAGNETIC MOTOR WITH MINIMAL SERVICING OR MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1339414

|title=EXPLODING BOMBS TO CREATE UNDERGROUND SHELTERS

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1334640

|title=SPEED OF LIGHT REGULATED CLOCK

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1334503

|title=COLOURED LIGHT RAY SCANNING SYSTEM FOR NTSC PAL COLOUR TV TRANSMISSIONS

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1333548

|title=INTERNALLY EXPLOSIVE NAIL

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1333194

|title=Electrical Comparison Systems

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1332079

|title=ELECTROMAGNETICALLY OPERATED TUBULAR PUMP

|gdate=1973.

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1331862

|title=ARRANGEMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING A PIPE LINE ACROSS DEEP SNOW SUBJECT TO FREQUENT FRESH SNOW FALLS IN A MANNER SUCH THAT THE PIPE LINE WILL BE RETAINED ON THE SURFACE OF THE SNOW LAYER

|gdate=1973

}}

• {{Cite patent|country=GB|number=1251780

|title=Golf tee

|gdate=1971

}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080216024540/http://www.cpaglobal.com/ip-review-online/widgets/notes_quotes/more/1747 The prolific Arthur Pedrick – IP Review]
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A22958292 The High-rise Fire Curtain – BBC article]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2327327.stm A patently absurd invention? – BBC story]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141210200532/http://www.theargus.co.uk/archive/2002/11/01/6749047.Crazy_creations_of_infamous_inventor/?ref=arc Crazy creations of infamous inventor – The Argus]
• [http://www.patentlyabsurd.org.uk/pedrick2.html Arthur Paul Pedrick's Patents]

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Category:Patent examiners

Category:1918 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:20th-century British inventors

Category:People from Selsey

Category:British humorists