Watering a farm
A sprinkler that drives itself around the field
A 5% royalty on every machine
Frank Zybach was a farmer who was tired of moving irrigation pipe by hand. Farms already used ditches and sprinklers. He put the pipe on wheels so water pressure walked it in a circle around the well.
The everyday problem
Watering a large field meant hours of labor. His change was mechanical and easy to picture: a long pipe that pivots, with sprinklers along it, moving itself. The crop circles you see from an airplane come from that idea.
The simple change
- He improved watering equipment farmers already owned in pieces.
- He received a U.S. patent in 1952.
- He and a partner licensed the manufacturing rights and collected a royalty on each system sold.
What happened
In 1954 they licensed the patent to Valley Manufacturing, now Valmont, for a 5% royalty on each system, shared with his business partner, until the patent expired in 1969. That license started the center-pivot industry that now waters millions of acres.
What you can take from this
A farm patent can be a better way to do a chore people already hate. Licensing let the inventor get paid while a manufacturer built the machines.
A public story, told here as an example. It is not a client of this practice, and I had no part in it. Results like this are rare. Most patents never earn money, and nothing here is a promise that your idea will be patented or will make money.