U.S. Bayonet Letters Patent CD-ROM by Frank Trzaska

Description

This CD-ROM for your PC or Mac contains 181 bayonet and related U.S. patents that span the years between 1811 and 2001 — 638 pages’ worth! Complete illustrations and text are provided for all patents, and everything is fully indexed.

Fascinating, easy to use and bargain priced, a great reference!

BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by KNIFE WORLD Staff

The computer-based CD-ROM has not yet proven itself able to compete with knife books in terms of sales, but as a compact, convenient, and voluminous medium, its potential is tremendous. U.S. Bayonet Letters Patent, the latest venture into this arena, is a collection of material that simply could not be better suited for this exciting format.

“U.S. Bayonet Letters Patent” sounds a bit intimidating, like most military terminology does, but like many military terms it’s not as complicated as it seems. In fact, it’s a collection of all the bayonet-related U.S. patent records that our stalwart military researcher and writer, Frank Trzaska, has been able to turn up. These patents span the years between 1811 and 2001, and each includes all of its original illustrations as well as the complete text, which is often important for understanding a patent’s true nature.

Several years ago, a book entitled 101 Patented Knife Designs enjoyed moderate popularity. It was a big, thick volume with mediocre photocopies of 101 patents, and sold for about $50.00. By comparison, this new CD offers nearly twice as many patents (181) for well under half the price, and throws in much better quality images and a better index to boot. If you prefer a hard copy, you can just print one out. Be forewarned: there are 638 pages’ worth here!

The main portion of this CD-ROM, including introduction, index, and all of the patents, is included in both PDF and JPG formats. The latter format is readable with any photo editor or web browser, the former with the universally available Acrobat Reader, included on the CD just in case you don’t already have it. An Excel spreadsheet containing all of the index data is also included as a bonus. That’s a nice touch, for it allows compleate searchability or even re-sorting of the index if you were to so choose. You could even add other patents to it in the future. While designed to work with any PC, this CD-ROM should also work on most Macintosh computers (it works on ours).

Fascinating, easy to use and bargain priced, U.S. Bayonet Letters Patent is a great resource for the bayonet and military knife collector, or to anyone interested in using these patents as the basis for their own innovations. Highly recommended.

CD-ROM, all PC/Windows and Mac compatible (works with Acrobat Reader, provided)