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Patent holder profile

George R. Carruthers and the image-converter patent record

Carruthers's route ties a federal-assignee patent to ultraviolet imaging and space-science public memory without replacing patent proof with legend.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

Carruthers 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 8 / not final rankStatus: source_reviewedSource grade: A-

Patent: 3478216: Image Converter
Issue date: 1969-11-11
Place: Washington, District of Columbia
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: 8 / not final rank
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Assignee: United States Department of the Navy / 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 record shows how federal laboratory work, Navy assignment, Apollo memory, and imaging patents need to be read in separate source lanes.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 3478216, issued November 11, 1969.
United States Department of the Navy as assignee.
NASA public context for Apollo 16 far ultraviolet camera/spectrograph memory.

What remains open

Patent-family relation to Apollo instrument history.
Naval Research Laboratory employment and assignment source trail.
Public-space memory versus patent technical record.

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

3478216 was issued on 1969-11-11 for Image Converter. The route also names United States Department of the Navy 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

Washington, District of Columbia 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 8Not public rankutility patenthigh

3478216: Image Converter

George R. Carruthers / 1969-11-11

Sprint 5 modern systems candidate. The patent row supports image-converter facts and the federal assignee; Apollo and NASA memory require separate public context sources.

Residence: Washington, District of Columbia
Category: space science / ultraviolet imaging
Source status: high
Chronology handling: modern_systems_candidate
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Assignee: United States Department of the Navy / 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 mirrorfederal assignee science-instrument patent record

US3478216A - Image Converter

Google Patents / 1969 patent record

Supports: Shows George R. Carruthers as inventor, the U.S. Department of Navy as assignee, and an image converter patent published November 11, 1969.
Limit: The patent record verifies invention data, assignee, and issue date. It does not by itself prove full biography, Apollo/NASA public-memory claims, commercialization, or economic benefit.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3478216A/en

Public memory

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

public agency articlefederal public-memory context

Looking Back: Dr. George Carruthers and the Apollo 16 Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph

NASA / NASA public article

Supports: Places Carruthers' ultraviolet camera/spectrograph work in Apollo 16 public space-science memory.
Limit: Does not replace the patent row or prove every instrument, NASA, Navy, or commercialization claim.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/looking-back-dr-george-carruthers-apollo-16-far-ultraviolet-camera-spectrograph/