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Mr. Frog, that is too funny, had to be one of those people who claim their Great Great Grandmother was a Cherokee Princess, ha! I had a gal in the chair the other day that said "don't piss me off, I'm 1/32nd Cherokee Indian" like one ethnicity can actually have a bigger temper than another while looking at me with those blue eyes and blonde hair. We got under way and I asked her "Just where is this full blooded Cherokee in yer Family tree?" and she said that "On my Grandmothers deathbed, she confessed to my Mother that her Grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee Indian" like some dirty secret or what, but the simple math had eluded her and I replied "Then yer 6.5%", she was looked stunned and all, so I started using my digits on the hand explaining that she would be 6.5% and then I asked her if she were part Irish and if that could be the blame for the "hot temper" she has, she wasn't taking to that to well. She didn't tip either. That lady has prompted me to start using the comeback to the Cherokee Princess line with "I'm 1/32nd Wicken", ha! I just want for it to happen just once where somebody tells me how her Great Great Grandmother was raped by an Indian on some wagon trail back when, it's never the "buck". Wickens are always a trip too, gotta explain EVERYTHING, "Earth Based Religion" I'd prefer extra terrestrial outer space moon rock, I best buy a mood ring to keep on hand to pick up and look at and then look to the customer and say something like "Wow, your appear to be angry today" to counter the BS, ha! Gotta keep it entertaining.

Here is the link that Ed Young sent me today, didn't see the online obituary around here and I'm hoping I'm posting this in the proper spot on this site and sorry if it's not. Pinky Bing Kwan Yun 1927 - 2010 - Obituary - Tributes.com

Hot Damn that was great readin! Thanks so much for sharing that and how much you relish the memory. I was supposed to visit him in March of last year and the chips didn't fall right. To read how much you savor the moments and knew that the company you kept was of greatness is the best compliment someone like Pinky could ever want out of a lifetime of tattooing, to be appreciated. The only person tattooing and otherwise that I knew of who was truly ambidextrous, could draw simultaneously a pair of panthers on paper, panthers facing each other and be exact, always made me wonder if he had a dominant eye or not, what an artist. Early on he could tattoo either hand, then he settled into drawing it left handed and tattooing right handed. And to think how a Veteran could get work from him in Hong Kong and meet up with him again in the Sates is amazing also. When Pinky first came to the States some of the surrounding shops would work on customers with the angle that they shouldn't go down to see him and instead get a tat from an American shop was to deny his obvious talent. The man worked hours that 80% of tattooers today couldn't handle and in smoke filled rooms with the "expected" drunken Sailors of the era's he'd seen, hell if that atmosphere wasn't something out of a Norman Rockwell with a Salvador Dali twist era. He lived a long and happy life doing what he knew best and your post supports what he meant not only to a customer but to the art, you certainly compliment the man and his Family. Thanks again for sharing!

Yep, and it didn't work either. The electro magnetic dual coil was around long before the O'Reily patent and even Samuel didn't use it as the case of O'reily vs. Getchel proved. In the case where Getchel was defending himself from O'Reily, Getchel proved that the patent that he was accused of profiting on was a tool that was neither effective or used by the public to apply tattoos. Samuel was interested in cornering the market on tattooing and was an amazing self promoter who ultimatly lost his case in court over the patent and the patent upon examination was somwewhat void to it being similiar and in effect no diferant than Edison's Papirograph pen in it's patent form. Non the less it was still the historical first patent of such an item, but to give credit where credit is due would be to say that Edison was the mastermind of our elaborate doorbell.

I hope the post of this picture comes through, it shows the top left machine of Walter Cleveland's using the Condenser, the 2nd and 3rd from the left are the two frame styles he used and came to be known for. The two of his rubber band/coil spring A-Bar machine are chopped Bill Jones squareback frames and considered his first attempts in making them a working machine. Something to note is that these machines really work well! Amazing the way the rubber band machines work, the machine with the longer teeter totter on it is the shader and the shorter the liner. Also, when you connect and disconnect the condenser, it appears to have no less effect than a capacitor, the spark is arrested. I called Scott and spoke with him at Tattoo Charlies in Baltimore, Scott learned from Dennis Watkins and Watkins from Charley, point being, Dennis's machines have the oldest form of a capacitor I can find. After thinking about the question, I figured as to what the earliest could be so I looked to the earliest example of a capacitor on a machine and what I found was Dennis Watkins from Tattoo Charlies to be the earliest I could find. Scott is gonna get back to me after he ask's around about it. Also bear in mind that Dennis worked closely with Paul Rogers and there would be a likely connection, I just hate to assume and post anything without backing it up with hard proof. Enjoy the pic.

Thanks, worked with a J G Russell machine and Dennis Watkin's old Percy Waters today in commemoration and they performed very well.

Happy Birthday! Samuel O'Reily patent was approved 119 years ago today on Dec. 8th 1891.

The first capacitors were not capacitors at all, they were condensers, as in the "Points coil effect" of Edison applied to the internal combustion engine ignition of the points and coil adding the condenser to preserve the burning of the contact points in the ignition became necessary to prevent machines falling out of time with an enlarged point gap in need of burnishing of the contact points from the excessive snap of electricity. Working similar to the capacitor of today that fills and only releases X amount, the condenser simply arrests the spark. The true origin to the 6 volt condenser application to the later creation and application of the capacitor, as the capacitor in the form we use today post-dates in "electronic's" and not the dawn of the "combustible gasoline engine", can be found in Walter Cleveland's tinkering and among allot of his creations or experiments in the elaborate door bell concepts. The 6 volt condenser can still be applied and work, it's just BIG, you can do so by attaching the single wire spade connector to the contact screw binding post and you can still get the 6 volt and a 12 will work equally and pick them up in auto supply stores, I use early Harley 6 volt replacement condensers. The point made of the use of the condenser versus the capacitor are that the condenser works to arrest and save your points from burning quickly, in the day that the guys at the shops were running off of a bank of machines that ran all day and all night knocking out tattoos on sailors while in port for a few days strait, they needed to keep things from falling into repair and running smoothly as we all know, when things are not, it makes for more time consumption when time was essential. The Capacitor however works as just that, it limits the capacity, so two different electric components with two different applications. Lyle put in print once that Walter was the man accredited to inventing the "capacitor" in use of the tattoo machine but I don't believe Walter ever reached the days of the capacitor advent that we use today and it most likely came from necessity through someone who knew enough about transistor radios/electronics to make the switch or someone who burnt the devils lettuce and figured it and then the passage from then on became part of tattoo machine evolution. The "facts" are, the West Coast appeared to have capacitors on machines in use and photo form prior to anything else I have found. I know this doesn't answer the question of the "who and when" but it does lend to the advent of controlling the flow and operation of both mechanical and electrical evolution of the machine, Spaulding was offering them in the 1970's and I can't remember when I switched to using them, didn't use them until the early 80's. Other things to note of Walter's experiments would be, the rubber band and coil spring controlled A-Bar machine, the side mounted nipple on the A-Bar which became antiquated by the use of constant changing of the needle bar for each customer as the needle bar was drawn tight to the nipple then to be considered "fixed" until the pins wore out, the use of mixing 8 wrap and 10 wrap coils, his work at developing a very light weight machine, square coil cores, the creation of what now has come to be known as "true spring" of cutting an angle into the A-Bar for the spring "pitch". As a footnote for evidence, I have examples of all of the above, from reworked early Waters frames and hacked Jonesy frames to what he came to use most commonly which were seconds supplied by J.G.Russell, they always appear "shop floor paint green" and have notches evident on the frame that is evident of a factory second as they are casting flaws and not always consistent. I would like to think that Walter was "the Father" of the capacitor but it is an important thing to keep the candle lit on facts when the record of history is of concern. Most important to note and to Walter's credit would be that he really invested time and care in understanding the machine long before there was so much that we see now and to mention that he had to have a love for what he did as he was born left handed and tattooed left handed for many years until he lost the fingers from a saw mill accident, Stoney mentioned he lost them in WW-I but we know now that the saw mill was the culprit, regardless, he continued to tattoo by understanding how to work with the right hand. This is not to mention all of the greats that he worked with and the circle he kept in a day and age that had no internet of cell phone. He certainly had a true love for his trade and the Cleveland Family certainly carpeted the halls we walk today and should never be forgotten.