Charles Blakeley, Inventor

Here's something that surprised me. It looks like one of my great-grandfathers was an inventor.

The patent is for some kind of improved way to make a socket for an incandescent bulb, applied for by Charles Bakeley of Covington, Kentucky in 1903.

Name's right. Name's rare. Town's right. Date's about right. I think it's the right guy.

I knew all 3 of this man's daughters - my grandmother and 2 great aunts. None of them ever told me he invented anything. Maybe they didn't know. They probably weren't born yet. And probably he never made any money from it. Most patented inventions don't make money. Most never go into production at all.

Finding a patent
for an incandescent socket
for me is like finding
a long lost locket.