Tom Benjey's Weblog

Some time back I wrote about Nicholas Longfeather being granted a patent in 1912. Now I have stumbled across three more former Carlisle students accomplishing this feat. The Balenti brothers, John, George and Michael, attended Carlisle. The boys were the offspring of a soldier, Mike Balenti, who was originally from Austria. Balenti was stationed at Ft. Reno and married a 17-year-old Cheyenne girl who lived nearby. Before her marriage she went by Cheyenne Bell (sometimes Belle). She had six children, three of whom didn’t go to Carlisle. Those who did attend Carlisle were known as excellent students. Mike was also known as a very good football and baseball player. He had the misfortune of being a quarterback when Frank Mt. Pleasant and Louis Island also played that position. Back to the patents.

In 1915 Mike and George Balenti filed a patent application for an “Attachment for Jumping Standards.” Patent number 1,193,972 was awarded to the brothers on August 8, 1916. “This invention relates to standards used for determining the hight of high jumps, pole vaults, or analogous athletic endeavors, and the primary object of the invention is to provide an attachment for standards of this nature, which will accurately record substantially the exact height of the jump.” The patent application can be seen at http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT1193972&id=yLBGAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=mike+balenti.

In 1919 Mike and John Balenti applied for a patent for a “Pancake Machine.” The purpose of the machine was described as follows: “This invention relates to an improved pancake machine and the principal object of the invention is to provide a machine in which pancake dough may be mixed and held while being used, improved valve means and actuating means for the valves being provided for controlling passage of the pancake dough out of the outlet opening in the bottom of the receptacle or container.” The patent, which was awarded on December 28, 1920 can be viewed at http://www.google.com/patents?id=mQlDAAAAEBAJ&dq=mike+balenti&jtp=1.

The high jump standard attachment looks too complicated to be of practical use but I swear I’ve seen the pancake machine in use in restaurants.

Tags: Bell Balenti, Cheyenne Bell, George Balenti, John Balenti, Mike Balenti, Nicholas Longfeather, patent

This entry was posted on December 12, 2008 at 9:11 am and is filed under Carlisle Indian School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.