Funny Patents and Inventions:
Is there anyone out there who isn’t familiar with the high five celebratory gesture made by two people, each raising one hand to slap the raised hand of the other?
It dates back to 1944 when in the movie, Cover Girl (1944), Phil Silvers’ character, Genius, tears up a telegram and attempts to “high five” co-star, Gene Kelly.
US # 5356330 is a patent for an American apparatus simulating a “high five.” It consists of a lower arm portion with an attached simulated hand, an upper arm portion, an elbow joint, which pivotally secures them both and a spring element, which directs them both nowhere near Nirvana but closely towards a pre-determined alignment.
It is not known why inventor Albert Cohen from Troy, New York, believed this would be an item every self-respecting household should have at least one of, nor why any market (self-respecting or otherwise) would stock such an item. Still, anything goes today.
Photo by USPTO.
