Talk:Miller Camera Support Equipment

Fluid Head Inventor - Miller or O'Connor?

In the 1940s, Australian engineers Bob and Eric Miller developed a tripod fluid head for smooth panning and tilting of "cinematograph machines" and instruments, and filed a patent for their invention in 1946.

Australian patent 130,757
Application date: 5th December 1946
Published: 21st August 1947
Accepted: 4th January 1949

US2459040 A
Publication date: Jan 11, 1949
Filing date: Nov 12, 1947
Priority date: Dec 5, 1946

"The tripod head of this invention consists of two members each rotatable in a cylinder... Both cylinders are charged with a grease or liquid (referred to hereinafter as “liquid") which surrounds the members and permits a free and regular movement of the members without chatter."

According to the history published on O'Connor Engineering's website and the references given on Chadwell O'Connor's Wikipedia page, in the late 1940s O'Connor had a problem with smooth panning so set about developing a fluid head. He demonstrated his fluid head to Walt Disney in 1949 - two or three years after Miller's patent priority date. O'Connor filed his own patent eight years after Miller.

US2905421 A
Publication date: Sep 22, 1959
Filing date: Mar 29, 1954
Priority date: Mar 29, 1954

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that O'Connor invented his fluid head before the Millers in 1946.

Crētus (talk) 05:51, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

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