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Patent holder profile

George E. Alcorn Jr. and the imaging X-ray spectrometer patent record

Alcorn's route reads a NASA-assigned X-ray spectrometer patent as team-based space-science memory with co-inventors kept visible.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Alcorn is a public-record memory story.

This belongs on CultureUp because the patent record connects invention to place, public institutions, work systems, laboratories, employers, federal or corporate assignment, and the limits of public records.

Sprint 5 priority 11 / not final rankStatus: source_reviewedSource grade: B+

Patent: 4472728: Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer
Issue date: 1984-09-18
Place: Mitchellville, Maryland
Record strength: Patent-record facts are attached with at least one public context source. CultureUp still separates patent proof from biography, adoption, commercialization, and identity claims.
Identity evidence: Public context source attached where available; CultureUp does not use the patent row alone as race, ancestry, lineage, or Indigenous Black identity proof.
Sprint priority: 11 / not final rank
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Co-inventors: Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., Francis E. Marshall
Assignee: NASA / federal assignee
Needed before promotion: Promotion language should remain limited until source-led context, assignment, co-inventor, and commercialization review is complete.
Why this record matters: The route connects Black patent memory to NASA instrumentation while keeping team invention and federal assignment visible.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 4472728, issued September 18, 1984.
Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., and Francis E. Marshall as co-inventors.
NASA as assignee.
NIHF public context for Alcorn and the X-ray spectrometer.

What remains open

NASA Goddard career source detail.
Full patent-family and instrument-development history.
Assignment and federal ownership context.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

4472728 was issued on 1984-09-18 for Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer. The route preserves Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., Francis E. Marshall as co-inventors. The route also names NASA as federal assignee, because inventor status and assignment are different public-record facts.

The person in the record

The attached public context sources support a reader-facing profile frame. Any deeper life history, family record, school record, employment file, or community memory needs its own source trail.

Place attached to the claim

Mitchellville, Maryland is the public place anchor used for this route. CultureUp does not infer local family continuity from the patent row alone.

The invention

The invention is summarized from the public patent title and source trail. Technical, market, institutional, and adoption claims stay limited to what the attached sources can support.

Business, labor, and use

Modern patent records often separate inventor, employer, assignee, licensee, and beneficiary. CultureUp keeps those categories apart instead of treating a patent as proof of ownership, wealth, adoption, or public impact.

What the record cannot prove

The patent record does not by itself prove full biography, race, ancestry, Indigenous Black identity, commercialization, institutional adoption, economic benefit, modern product lineage, or community memory.

Identity and correction note

CultureUp treats this as Black American patent memory only through public, reviewable sources. The page does not certify ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, family history, or private identity.

Send stronger patent images, assignment records, employer records, licensing documents, public biographies, or source corrections through CultureUp's correction path.

Patent records do not prove final rank, private identity, solo credit when co-inventors appear, employment ownership, commercialization, adoption, or later public impact.

Indexable as a source-led Sprint 5 profile with visible source limits.

Employer, assignee, and inventor status are not interchangeable. CultureUp names assignees when the patent record does.

Do not use this page to make absolute first, ownership, adoption, or commercialization claims without a separate source trail.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

modern_systems_candidateSprint priority 11Not public rankutility patentmedium high

4472728: Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer

George E. Alcorn Jr. / 1984-09-18

Sprint 5 modern systems candidate. The route must preserve Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., and Francis E. Marshall as co-inventors and NASA as assignee.

Residence: Mitchellville, Maryland
Category: space science / X-ray spectroscopy
Source status: medium high
Chronology handling: modern_systems_candidate
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Co-inventors: Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., Francis E. Marshall
Assignee: NASA / federal assignee
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Electronics, audio, and space systems

Sources for precision electronics, microphones, imaging, optical transmission, detector systems, and science instruments.

patent text mirrorco-inventor and NASA assignee science-instrument patent record

US4472728A - Imaging X-ray Spectrometer

Google Patents / 1984 patent record

Supports: Shows Patrick A. Grant, John W. Jackson Jr., George E. Alcorn, and Francis E. Marshall as inventors, NASA as assignee, and an imaging X-ray spectrometer patent published September 18, 1984.
Limit: The patent record verifies invention data, co-inventor names, assignee, and issue date. It does not by itself prove solo invention, full biography, NASA career context, commercialization, public memory, or economic benefit.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4472728A/en

Public memory

Objects, museums, and public interpretation records that help readers see how an invention remains visible.

public inventor profilepublic inventor context

George Edward Alcorn

National Inventors Hall of Fame / current public profile

Supports: Identifies Alcorn with the imaging X-ray spectrometer and places the invention inside NASA Goddard public-memory context.
Limit: Does not erase co-inventors, NASA as assignee, or the need to distinguish patents from career biography.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://www.invent.org/inductees/george-edward-alcorn