Treasure Hunting

Have you ever thought about the early days of metal detecting? We were curious, so we checked Google Patent Search for the very first patent ever filed for a metal detector. Surprisingly, the patent we found didn’t look much different than the metal detectors of present day.

The patent for the Electrical Metal-Detector was filed, get this, January 29, 1889, by Jesse F. Kester of Terre Haute, Indiana. Jesse describes his invention as a “metal-finder for detecting the presence of metal - such as gold, silver, copper - which can be used either for exploring the bottom of streams or for searching the earth, either at the surface or several feet below the same.”

Something I found really interesting is that, on line 85 of the patent, they claim the devices, when used in very deep waters, can be grouped and suitably connected. Sounds like they could attach a bunch of these together for some sort of super metal detector.

For more information, click on over to the description of the first patented metal detector.

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