The History of the Roller Cover, Part 2
Transcript:
Last time we talked about Norman Breakey–the likely inventor of the roller cover and the newly christened-by-me Father of the DIY home decorating movement. I’m Dan Hansen and this is a minute at RepcoLite.
Now, being the inventor of a tool that dramatically simplified the way paint is applied, you’d think that he’d have pulled in tons of money and fame.
But nope. Not the case. In fact, in the official records, he doesn’t even get credit for the invention. Turns out, when Norman created his roller cover he was granted a patent but then was unable to secure investors.
Then, worse still, he found his patent contested by a man named Richard Croxton Adams. The details are murky but it seems that Adams slightly tweaked Breakey’s idea and contested the patent. Adams had money to fight and Breakey didn’t. Which meant that Adams was declared the sole holder of the patent. He WAS able to secure investors and took the concept to production. Sadly for Breakey, he didn’t get any official credit or money for an idea that literally changed the world. The decorating world. And so we’re giving him a little shout-out here. I’m Dan Hanse and that’s a minute at RepcoLite.
