George Selden received his patent for a gasoline powered automobile on this day in 1895. Selden, a patent lawyer, was inspired by his short stint in the cavalry in the Civil War. 

Selden’s vision never came to fruition, superseded by Henry Ford and others. Selden spent many years in patent fights, though he did manage a significant income stream from the patent itself.

What is most demanding of our attention is the cross-current of entrepreneurial and technical innovation in the upper mid-West in late 1800’s and early 20th century. 

Though a lawyer, selden was scientifically minded and a tinker, who spent more time at the Sheffield School, a pioneering science college, than in law classes while at Yale. 

Solder’s patent was witnessed by George Eastman, a local bank teller in Rochester who later created the Eastman-Kodak company.