cuchulainn
Member
Rotary phone? Hmm? I prefer revolvers and stick shift cars, but at least I have a touchtone phone. 
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-5/106879320240750.xml
from The Star-Ledger.
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-5/106879320240750.xml
from The Star-Ledger.
It's not rocket science
No fan of 'smart' guns, retired inventor says he's come up with a childproof lock
Friday, November 14, 2003
BY KEVIN COUGHLIN
Star-Ledger Staff
Fred Hickerson thinks he has invented a child-proof gun lock.
But anyone who wants to market it will have to be determined.
Hickerson takes calls on a rotary-dial phone. No answering machines. No cell phones. Truth be told, his hearing's not so great anyway.
E-mail? The closest thing to a computer in his Sussex County farmhouse is an L.C. Smith & Corona typewriter. The contraption is so ancient that his wife, Louisa, must wind ribbons onto spools before transcribing his scrawled patent applications.
But don't be fooled by the lack of modern conveniences.
Fred Hickerson may be 81, with nine grandkids and 137 rolling acres in Newton to enjoy them in. But he's still a straight shooter. And he has news for the state Legislature, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and others pushing for a high-tech "smart" gun:
Designing safer handguns is not rocket science.
He should know. The retired rocket scientist has 22 patents, covering everything from a "Variable Thrust Rocket Engine" and a "Variable Buoyancy Underwater Missile" to a liquid dispenser and child-proof bottle cap.
"A lot of it is baloney," Hickerson said of NJIT's state-funded efforts to design a gun that fires only after recognizing its owner's grip.
Hickerson doubts the Newark school's patented technology ever will prove trustworthy. He claims the $2 million project is more about securing funds than lives.
A "cheap shot," fired back NJIT's Donald Sebastian.
NJIT is striving to deliver technology sought by elected officials anxious to curb gun violence. Gov. James E. McGreevey last year signed a law making New Jersey the first state to require smart technology for handguns sold here -- if such weapons are perfected.
Sensing a lucrative market, gun manufacturers and technology companies are experimenting with numerous ways to restrict access to guns. Innovations range from specialized combination locks to sensors that recognize a gun owner's fingerprints and signals transmitted from I.D. rings or bracelets.
Inspired by bottle caps, Hickerson's gun lock (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,526,684 and 6,578,308) is simple and cheap. He fashioned prototypes in his barn, warmed by a wood stove, using machine tools that look like museum pieces.
His lock has no grips to recognize, no keys to lose or fumble with in the heat of self-defense. He gave a demonstration in his dining room, with a Colt .45 and a .357 revolver.
A plastic rod was inserted into one of the gun barrels. Opposing thumbwheels at the protruding end of the rod caused flaps on the inner end to splay open.
The splayed flanges kept a bullet from entering the gun's firing chamber, and thwarted removal of the device.
A gun owner can remove the device swiftly, even in the dark, Hickerson said, but the thumbwheels are confusing to youngsters. Their tiny fingers cannot simultaneously turn them and grasp the gun, he contended.
Testing this hypothesis, he conceded, will pose practical and ethical challenges.
"I'm not a gun nut," said Hickerson, a member of the rifle team in his days at Clemson University in South Carolina. "My objective is to get something on the market that will truly save the lives of children."
So far, it's been a hard sell.
In 1999, a year after Hickerson started tinkering on his gun lock, the National Rifle Association pronounced it a "good idea, certainly better than many other safety devices." That's as far as it went.
Hickerson said he could not interest former U.S. Rep. Marge Roukema or NJIT.
Gun accidents killed 776 persons across the U.S. in 2000 -- including 86 under age 14, according to the National Safety Council. Gary Mehalik of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun industry trade group, said the best safeguard is common sense: Store unloaded guns and ammo separately, under locks.
NJIT's "dynamic grip recognition" stemmed from a request by the Legislature, which funded a feasibility study, Sebastian said. An Australian company has joined the project. Tests continue in Morris County at the Army's Picatinny Arsenal -- where Hickerson worked until retiring in 1980.
Sebastian said the problem with most gunlocks is that gun owners forget to use them. "If people used such devices," he said, "there probably would be no talk about smart guns."
But Hickerson, who files for patents without lawyers, is not easily discouraged. When young patent examiners gave him a hard time, he said, he went to Washington and showed his device to a supervisor. Patents followed in March and July.
Hickerson blames his lousy hearing on rocket engines -- he started at Rocket Motors in Rockaway Township, then tested rockets for the Navy. At Picatinny, the engineer helped design nuclear munitions, disposal gear for explosives and an FBI database on serial bombers.
Before leaving for World War II, the Morris Plains native met his wife at Picatinny. It was not an ideal setting for sparks to fly: Louisa worked there measuring explosive powder for detonators.
"I offered to buy her a new typewriter," a sheepish Hickerson recently told a visitor.
"No!" chimed his wife. "Then I'd have to do more typing!"
Why do they fuss over patents and inventions in their golden years?
"It's good to do mental things along with labor," said Hickerson. "It helps your mental ability if you try to stay active. It's not about money. Not at all."
If his latest brainchild saves a few kids, he said, that will be something.
Besides, Hickerson added, "I hate to see stupid legislators throw money around for stuff when they don't know what they're doing."
Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger.
