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Zeppo the Businessman
In addition to his role as an agent, Zeppo Marx was also active in engineering.
He established Marman Products Company, Inc. of Inglewood, California in 1941.
Marman Products made clamping devices and straps. During World War II,
like many other companies Marman was involved in the war effort. As part of this,
Marman Products produced the "Marman Clamp", which was designed to secure cargo during transport.
It was used, for example, to support the atomic bombs carried on the Enola Gay.
"A Marman clamp is a type of heavy-duty band clamp: this allows two flat cylindrical interfaces to
be simply clamped together with a ring clamp. Also sometimes known as a 'Marman ring'.
A common use for Marman clamps is their use as a quick-disconnect connector in wide-diameter fuel lines.
Another example is their use in space vehicles, for example on the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer on the Cassini orbiter.
Marman clamps are found in almost every modern moving vehicle.
In 1948 Marman Products also developed and marketed a short-lived 2-cylinder low-powered
motorcycle brand, the 'Marman Twin'."
(Information from Wikipedia).
Zeppo received three U.S. patents. On March 18, 1952, he received the patent #2,590,026, for a Vapor Delivery Pad for Distributing Moist Heat. He also received two patents, #3,426,747, patented on February 11, 1969, and #3,473,526, patented on October 21, 1969, as a co-inventor. Both of these patents pertained to cardiac pulse monitoring.
The links below will take you to Google's Patent website where you can view Zeppo's patents.
Zeppo wasn't the only inventor in the family. Gummo also held a patent, for a packaging rack.
