Small Office Home Office (SOHO) Tax Tips

Those Hungry Coin Controlled Parking Meters

May 13, 2010 Income Taxes

A US Patent was issued to Dual Parking Meter Company located in Oklahoma City, OK, US on May 24, 1938 for a coin controlled parking meter “for measuring the time of occupancy or use of parking or other space, for the use of which it is desirous an incidental charge be made upon a time basis.”

Carl C. Magee of Oklahoma City, OK, US invented this mechanical device to solve “downtown parking problems” according to the well-known blog, Wired.  Magee states in his patent how his device “will display a signal, the signal being arranged to disappear from view when the predetermined permitted time of occupancy has elapsed…”  Even in this original formulation, the inventor intended for the device to “expose to view the coin most recently inserted therein…” and a container for “money received by the machines.”   The advanced search feature in the Patents.com invention database shows similar, more current patent claims that relate to this original coin controlled parking meter such as ticket printing parking meters, wireless parking meters, smart parking meters, and green parking meters.

The inventor in his patent did not elaborate about the “container for receiving the coins” nor have we been able to locate specific patent claims regarding how revenues from the “coin container” were to be disbursed.   However, the blog posting mentions that Magee was a “fine upstanding lawyer, newspaper editor and occasional senate candidate…”!  Aside from allegedly solving inner city congestion and perhaps profiting from the manufacture of meters to other municipalities both near and far, we are struck by the parallel positioning of “senate candidate” and “money received”.

The vision of row after row of hungry, mechanical heads continually consuming our nickels, dimes, and now quarters, every hour of every day makes us sad as we search our pockets for more spare change!  The “incidental charge” for “time of occupancy or use of parking” has extended far beyond physical coin-operated parking meters in downtown Oklahoma City… Unfortunately even now, our quarters and dollars are still “sucked up” by little, gray mechanical “heads”.  Whether or not Magee made his way from Oklahoma City to Washington, DC, US, doesn’t matter; his innovative ideas did, and live on, without fear of patent infringement, throughout the halls of the US Congress!

Source: Wired

Reprinted from the Patents.com Community Blog