On Oct.
16, 1923, LeTourneau was granted his first U.S. Patent:#1,470,853.It was for a scraper.He was 34 years old.His last
patent was granted on July 13, 1965, when he was 77 years old.In the 42 years between these two inventions he was granted 297 more patents
and became on the top inventors of all time.
These
299 inventions included the bulldozer, scrapers of all sorts, dredgers, portable
cranes, rollers, dump wagons, bridge spans, logging equipment, mobile sea platforms
for oil exploration, the electric wheel and many others.
LeTourneau
built 70% of the heavy earthmoving equipment used by the allies in World War II.
During the height of the war, from 1942 to 1945, his fertile mind pumped out 78
inventions, many of which were instrumental in helping to win the war.
Although
LeTourneau had only a few years of formal education, his prodigious inventive
efforts were recognized with dozens of industrial awards and he was presented
with honorary doctorate degrees from five different colleges and universities.
