Title-Dog-Patent-Myth-Podcast

About the Dog

Our mascot comes from US Patent US5023850 "Clock for keeping time at a rate other than human time."  The inventor was Rodney Metts from Columbia, SC, and his patent issued on 11 June 1991.

Essentially, it is a watch that runs in "Dog Years."  How cool is that?

Here is the abstract:

A novelty clock, watch, and the like for keeping time at an animal's rate, defined in terms of a multiple of human rate by dividing the average lifetime of a particular animal into the average lifetime of a human being. The multiple for dogs is seven, for example. The device comprises a housing, a source of reference frequency for producing pulses, means for producing 60 pulses per second times the multiple for the particular animal, means for accumulating time, and means for displaying time. The display is the usual clock face with the speed of the hands altered, preferably also with the data indicated as the number of days since the last "new year" in animal days. A digital display of time in human terms may be provided with an analog display of time in animal terms or, alternatively, a capability to switch from one to the other may be provided. Preferably, a variable resistor, between the frequency source and producing means allows the user to change the multiple for different types of animals.