I know I haven't written much lately; have been terribly busy with 7 new books freshley in print, family life, etc. etc. But I just found something that has really thrilled me - and it only took me about an hour to figure out (1) how to get it in English and (2) how to print it off. Frederick Proctor Gorin was born in 1864 (no death date yet found) and was the son of Rev. Marcellus Gladin Gorin of St Louis MO, grandson of Dr Bartley William Gorin of Louisiana (Pike) MO and great-grandson of Henry and Sarah Pell Gorin. I knew he lived in St Louis and I knew he had patented the space bar on the typewriter - which we still use on the computer. A friend of mine sent me a photocopy of his book from National Archives which basically was a "Typing 101" book of how to type, how to use the space bar, etc. I couldn't find his patent but according to the publication, he held the patent on the first space bar. Tonight, I was watching one of my most favorite tv programs on PBS, "The History Detectives" and one of the stories dealt with patents and the statement that you could find any patent that had ever been issued in the US - a copy of the oriiginal patent with drawings, etc. Of course, I was in the other room when they gave the website so after about giving up on the US Patent Office page (only goes back to the 1970's), I decided to just do a yahoo search for Frederick Proctor Gorin. Bingo .... but not on the typewriter. I was taken to a German Patent page and double bingo - there was our Frederick. There were 21 pages of his patent for Gorin's Calculating Machine, complete with about 10 pages of diagrams on all the parts, how they worked, etc. Another hour passed as I tried to print off the PDF file - until I cleaned the bifocals and saw that there was a separate print function - page by page. But ... I have it! The patent, GB1290703764 was submited by Fred on 15 Feb 1907 and he had his patent Nov 14th of the same year. (Must have been a calm year for patents!). Whether is was a "biggie", we'll never know! Fred had worked for a typewriter office in St Louis when he devised the space bar, was also a bookkeeper in St. Louis. He moved to Seattle WA and became a patent lawyer there. I am dearly trying to find another patent ... if one was issued. Katherine Gorin (1893-1966) was the daughter of Jerome Pugh Gorin of Decatur (later of NY and NJ); granddau of Jerome Rinaldo Gorin of Decatur; great-granddau of John Darns Gorin and gg-granddau of Henry and Sarah Pell Gorin. She was a very noted concert pianist and gave concerts all over the US. According to several articles in the Decatur IL papers, she invented a typewriter (must have run in the family!) that didn't type numbers and letters but musical staffs and notes. It was demonstrated in Decatur and in NYC where she primarily lived ... but I can't find a patent for it yet. My apologies for being away so long and ignoring you all; I haven't had a lot of time to get back into the Gorin researching, just picking up little things here and there. Sandi Col. Sandi Gorin - Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ GORIN worldconnect website: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~sgorin