Talk:Howard R. Hughes Sr./Archives/2016

Inventor

It was unlikely that he actually invented the bit, but his law training helped him understand that the patent was the most important part of the financial life of any invention.

But in an interview in Look magazine, Hughes, Jr. said: The men in Houston worship him - why not say "his father, though a brilliant inventor, was prone to be extravagant." I wouldn't like anything about his management. [1] Even the Howard Hughes article says that he learned to appreciate all things mechanical from his father. --68.224.247.53 05:58, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Hughes was not the Inventor. "Granville Humason sold his roller bit rights to Hughes for $150"[2] [3] --178.13.76.138 (talk) 09:13, 13 June 2012 (UTC)

That article has Humason inventing a different bit; Hughes invented the two-cone bit; he is the named inventor on that patent. That source says,
"The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) notes that about the same time Hughes developed his bit, Granville A. Humason of Shreveport, La., patented the first cross-roller rock bit, the forerunner of the Reed cross-roller bit.
Biographers note that Howard Hughes Sr. met Granville Humason in a Shreveport bar, where Humason sold his roller bit rights to Hughes for $150."