II. Historical Context

A. Elkhart County: From brainstorms to brand new markets

What forces combined with what chemistry, to create Elkhart County's rich innovative curiosity? To tinker and tweak, to fiddle and finesse, and to start over and try again; these seem hard wired in the sinews and synapses of our generations.

The solitude and spark of the barn and garage space, with moments of incubation and inspiration, put a recreated America into a home on wheels. The trumpets and flutes of a century of symphony and jazz were crafted here. Lives, crops, diseases and tummy aches were all managed by the innovations and fortunes launched in our laboratories. Patents were applied for, trade secrets secured, and trademarks garnered in the thousands. Elkhart entrepreneur Charles Gerard Conn (1844-1931) was an avid musical instrument patent and trademark applicant, hundreds of times over. Dr. Franklin L. Miles (1845-1929) started a dynasty with home remedies based on his hypotheses on the central role of the nervous system. Miles Laboratories went on to create the first multivitamin, first clinical laboratory diagnosis products, a new fermentation process for creating citric acid, the first commercially available restriction enzyme for recombinant DNA, and of course Alka Seltzer ® . (As extraordinary as the science behind the brand names was the marketing genius of this international company, whose campaigns and slogans plopped and fizzed in consumers' minds long after their use.)

Dr. Miles' relentless curiosity is certainly what created the Miles culture, and mirrored others' pursuit of better living through risk taking, and taking their curiosity to new places. In 1906 Dr. Miles 'retired' to Florida for relief from chronic bronchitis. He became a quick study of horticulture, conducting many experiments to help the subtropical fruit and vegetable industry. He was recognized for his contribution to advancing the markets there.

A half century later, a young chemist rose to become chief researcher in the Ames division of Miles, making many strides in the reach and scope of the diagnostics field. Chester "Chet" Sutula left in the early 1980s to bring those same skills to a science new to him, horticulture. The company he founded, Agdia, performs diagnostic tests on plant specimens and manufactures test kits to increase crop production all over the world... from its headquarters in Elkhart.   

The focused economy of operations like Agdia's may make patents an expensive and impractical course of protection for their intellectual property. That could be the case for many patent-worthy processes in Elkhart County's small to mid size firms, who choose to refrain from telling the world how they do things. This is where patent quantities - or lack thereof - may not tell the whole story of the enterprising local entrepreneur or researcher. But follow the path of some who left Miles (later called Bayer), and you'll see continued productivity and commercial success. Serim Research Corporation, lead by Dr. Robert Boguslaski, develops, manufactures and markets test strips based on Serim's dry reagent technology. Miles Laboratories' commemorative history published in 1984 recognized Dr. Boguslaski's leadership of its drug-assay instrumentation team a generation ago.   Thirteen patents have been issued to Serim, all within the county's busiest classifications of biochemistry and measuring/testing.

Why is this Indiana community distinguished by a higher per-capita quantity of patents applied for and won? If it's not in the water, what factors make discovery and dreaming 'globally' almost a genetic trait of Elkhart County innovators?

B. Transportation and markets converge here

Elkhart County - a solid, square quilt piece affixed at the center of Indiana's top tier of communities - is like no other place. Seemingly there is nothing to recommend it - certainly not its bone chilling winters - but fertile resources ripe for the first Americans, for the pioneer, and for the biofuels farmer. The formula's first ingredient, according to many sources, is its proximity on the route of the nation's westerly moving populations. Just as many packed all they had to test the promises of milk and honey further out, Elkhart County towns were showing off urban centers with many conveniences, connections back to the world they left, and jobs. Even better, one could start a business along Main Street, or find investors for an industry that filled a need far away.

Another gift to the up and coming industrialist was Elkhart County's magnetism for the railroads, which not only traversed but anchored themselves here, intersecting with local economies and resident livelihoods.

Early on, the transportation network was buoyed by river access to materials and supplies of the northwest and other regions. The St. Joseph and Elkhart rivers were paths of least resistance, busily bringing the fuels of commerce and invention into the county.   Later, on hard ground, paving reinforced old trails to population centers like Ft. Wayne, White Pigeon, and South Bend. The Lincoln Highway designation for what would become the US 33 route was well earned recognition that Elkhart County truly is an address on the Main Street of the nation. But it's not just the vacationing public taking that route; trucks, trailers, motorhomes and haulers of all kinds have the highest profile in the traveling landscape here.

C. Inventors not of a single breed

The break out success of Elkhart's musical instrument industry is what carried the day in the era before it was titled The RV Capital of the World. Pharmaceutical brainpower made Elkhart an early achiever in life science research. But there were other sectors that generated their share of patents, and continue to make manufacturing a going concern in the county, with advanced manufacturing gaining a strong foothold.

The industrial revolution released new, unrelated ventures here, mostly calling for high output manufacturing processes. For decades these lines of products distinguished themselves on open markets far and wide. Inventions relating to things as simple as ladders and hand trucks made Goshen a brand name for about a century. Its several rubber companies changed to keep up with the retooling of industrial America until the end of the 1900s. From the early 1900s until the Great Depression, 14 car manufacturers in Elkhart, and one in Bristol, launched a total of 35 different models. Elkhart County turned this mechanical bent to recreation vehicles and motorhomes, patenting many variations that add to their ability to pop out, pop up, slide out and cram as much as possible within their moving walls. Even Goshen Stamping ventured into the field with a crank-up lift system for tent campers, and stampings for swivel pedestals for vans and motorhomes.

Our rivers' creative and laborious diversion to millrace duty sparked energy for one factory and foundry after another in Bristol, then in Goshen. The furniture, linseed oil, millwork of many kinds, and other products stocked downtown shelves and embellished the stately homes of 19 th century Elkhart County. Nappanee's earliest businesses were ironworks, saw and planning mills, with furniture and cabinetry soon to follow.

The farmland created its own enterprises, such as George Freese' poultry and dairy plant, churning out 6,000-10,000 pounds of butter each day. Since the mid-1970s, upwards of 100 patents were awarded for local efforts to find better ways to do things on the farmstead.

And some represented P. T. Barnum's "15 minutes of fame," fleeting moments in the patent spotlight. A Millersburg inventor is credited with fashioning one of the first voting machines to record totals in early 20 th century polling places. It could not make the transition to primary elections where parties were differentiated, so it was soon overtaken.

D. Retooling the past to transform our future

The most successful businesses follow the advice of IBM's Buck Rogers, who preached flexibility and resilience in long range planning. "The buggywhip industry failed to realize it was in the transportation business. Complacency is deadly. Success is fleeting. People reflect too long on their accomplishments. Don't wait; look ahead. Occasionally you must knock your best products off the pedestal."

A good example is CTS, headquartered in Elkhart where it moved from Chicago in 1906 as Chicago Telephone Supply. Today it's in the communications business, with cutting edge instruments and networking services, and provides switches, sensors and other technologies to the automotive industry.

This patent study was commissioned so that Elkhart County's stewards of industry and its quality of life can protect the innovative assets in our care today. It is often said that it's far easier to retain, through various means of support, viable businesses and sectors than to recruit new ones. The attention this analysis may receive must be directed toward fanning the glowing embers of Elkhart County's entrepreneurial spirit.

Knowledge of our past, and awareness of our current intellectual property productivity, will empower us to make bold plans and differentiate Elkhart County's uniqueness in the world marketplace. We'll continue to hold ourselves to the high expectations of our forebears whose shadows can still be recognized in every bright corner of our community.

 

 
 

© 2006 Enovent