From ANGELA KINGSTON
On reading your Christmas issue, I felt a twinge of sympathy for the
Chelmsford choirboy who invented a gimballed candle-holder, only to find
that some naval smartarse had patented the same at the time of Nelson (Technology,
21/28 December).
When I turned over to the Patents page, I felt a surge of self-centred
rage at the item on someone who thinks he invented a two-handed glove for
hand-holding lovers. I invented this device in 1958 so that my boyfriend
(as we called them in those quaint old-fashioned days) and I could wander
together round Leeds University without getting our hands cold. It consisted
of a knitted bag, with two separate cuffs, large enough to hold two intertwined
hands, and was known as the ‘sex mitten’ by our friends. Unfortunately,
at the time, I was too starry-eyed to think of patenting this novel garment,
and now it is too late.
Angela Kingston Leeds
