Friday 31st January 1862

Born on this day, Curtis Veeder, US inventor of the odometer and tachometer and the founder of the Veeder Manufacturing Company. Curtis Veeder received his first patent at the age of 18 for a new type of bicycle seat. He started his own company in 1895 in Hartford, the Veeder Manufacturing Company, to produce cyclometers – distance trackers for bicycles. The company soon expanded to other counting and precision manufacturing devices. At the time of his death in 1943, Veeder had 169 patents.