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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

-0001

1958

  • Work on this object began.

2014

2025

  • You found it!

Pocket Notebook Of Inventions (USA)

This is a Pocket notebook of inventions. It was made by Joseph B. Friedman. It is dated 1958. Its medium is ink on paper.

Joseph Friedman’s best-known invention is the flexible straw, but the range of his inventive activities encompassed writing implements, improvements to engines, and household objects. Friedman frequently sketched on loose scraps of paper—he was especially fond of envelopes—working out ideas and solving problems, as here, where his list of ideas reads as a to-do list or a series of reminders: "Rem: Toy spinning top/ Stroboscopic/Rem: air service station/Rem: Pro-carbon paper/Self-sealing carton…Rem: Barbecue spit/Selfautomation."

It is credited Joseph B. Friedman Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, 2001.3031.

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Dyer's Record Book (USA)
  • label: leather binding, pen and ink on paper pages, cotton samples.
  • Gift of Frederick J. Whitehead from the collection compiled by his father....
  • 1945-55-20
  •

Its dimensions are

H x W (closed): 12.5 x 7.5 cm (4 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.) H x W (open): 25.2 x 7.5 cm (9 15/16 x 2 15/16 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Tools: Extending Our Reach.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/51682493/ |title=Pocket Notebook Of Inventions (USA) |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=6 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>