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Boykin's first patent was
given to him on June 16th, 1959. The patent was for the wire
precision resistor. Boykin's wire precision resistor is now
found in computers, radios, television sets. That invention
helped to make all of the products less expensive. His next
invention was an electrical resistor, which he patented on
February 21st, 1961. Then he continued to make 26 more electronic
devices. Among his many other inventions are a burglar proof
cash register which helped to bring down the risk of theft
in stores and a chemical air filter to prevent toxins from
entering the body. He is not well known for these two inventions,
both of which he never patented.
one of two of Boykin's inventions
that he is famous for is a circuit that is found in all guided
missiles. Known as a polyphem missile, it possesses a range
of 60 kilometers. It is able to hit it's targets by taking
in pictures through an infra-red camera positioned in the
nose of the missile. The images are then transmitted through
fibre-optic cables to it's firing post. Once the images are
analyzed they appear on the weapons operator's screen. The
weapons operator then transmits instructions back to the missile,
telling it where to go. The missiles have incredible accuracy
in day or night, due to it's infra-red camera, and can beset
targets both mobile and nonmobile. One missile type, known
as the Tomahawk is able to fly through a football field hundreds
of miles away, fly through both end's goal posts and detonate
30 feet away, on a good day. The missiles normally detonate
in a15 foot radius of their unfortunate target. The Polyphem
imager is mounted on a gyro-stabilised dual axis platform
providing image sharpness for the processing system and operator
display.
His second onvention was
a control unit for an artificial heart stimulator (pacemaker).
Invention Economic
Impact:
The innovations in resistor design reduced the cost of producing
electronic controls for radio and television, for both military
and commercial applications.
Its simple mathematics,
if you reduce costs, you have more profit per unit. If the
market opportunity is large and thus one has volume, more
units with less cost per unit creates opportunity for capital
wealth accommodation which in turn means more jobs and an
increase in the national GNP.
Otis F. Boykin was born on August 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas. After graduating
high school, he attended Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee.
He graduated in 1941 and took a job as a laboratory assistant
with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois.
He undertook various tasks but excelled at testing automatic
aircraft controls, ultimately serving as a supervisor. Three
years later he left Majestic and took a position as a research
engineer with the P.J. Nilsen Reseach Laboratories. Soon thereafter,
he decided to try to develop a business of his own a founded
Boykin-Fruth, Incorporated. At the same time, he decided to
continue his education, pursuing graduate studies at the Illinois
Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois. He attended
classes in 1946 and 1947 but was forced to drop out because
he lacked the funds to pay the next year's tuition.
Despite this setback, Boykin realized that a Masters Degree
was not a pre-requisite for inventive competence. He set out
to work on project that he had contemplated while in school.
At the time, the field of electronics was very popular among
the science community and Boykin took a special interest in
working with resistors. A resistor is an electronic component
that slows the flow of an electrical current. This is necessary
to prevent too much electricity from passing through a component
than is necessary or even safe. Boykin sought and received
a patent for a wire precision resistor on June 16, 1959. This
resistor allowed for a specific amounts of current to flow
through for a specific purpose and would be used in radios
and televisions. Two years later, he created another resistor
that could be manufactured very inexpensively. It was a breakthrough
device as it could withstand extreme changes in temperature
and tolerate and withstand various levels of pressure and
physical trauma without impairing its effectiveness. The chip
was cheaper and more reliable than others on the market. Not
surprisingly, it was in great demand as he received orders
from consumer electronics manufacturers, the United States
military and electronics behemoth IBM.
In 1964, Boykin moved to Paris, creating electronic innovations
for a new market of customers. Most of these creations involved
electrical resistance components (including small component
thick-film resistors used in computers and variable resistors
used in guided missile systems) but he also created other
important products including a chemical air filter and a burglarproof
cash register. His most famous invention, however, was a control
unit for the pacemaker, which used electrical impulses to
stimulate the heart and create a steady heartbeat. In a tragic
irony, Boykin died in 1982 as a result of heart failure.
LINKS:
- MIT
- List
of Patents
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