My Family
Art, Gizmos and Patents
Through the generations, there seems to have been a creative thread
flowing through the Leebrick family. Virginia Hartzell Leebrick is certainly a good example of that. Over the years she has
created hundreds of works of art, mostly in pastel, but a few in other mediums. Her work is found in many High Plains homes,
as well as in banks, libraries, museums and
church organizations.
We are trying to collect photos of all her work. If you own a piece of her artwork, and would like to submit a photo of it to
include in these pages, we'd be happy to add it.
|Western|Portraits 1|Portraits 2|
This item was given to me by a Leebrick relative. What do you think it is? It is
about 5 inches long when fully extended, as shown here. 
It has a simple hook on one
end of the arm. The sheath that it folds into has the following words engraved into it:
LEEBRICK
1535 W. MADISON ST.
CHICAGO
Click least here for a larger view. Make an entry in the guestbook if you think you know what it might be!
The earliest Liebrich/Liebrick to whom a patent was issued, seems to be Conrad Liebrich
of Philadelphia. On May 2, 1854, he was awarded patent # 10862 for a
trunk lock.
Recently a trunk having this lock was auctioned on eBay. One of the features of this lock
is that it pops out when it is released. Virtually every suitcase has that feature now. He
invented a number of other things, including a padlock and a children's toy.
Begining in January 1965 and extending into the early '70s, a chemist, John R. Leebrick,
patented dozens of organometallic
chemicals. Some of them were biologically active, and were
useful in retarding the growth of various kinds of bacteria and fungus. As a result of his
creativeness, John was listed in the ......
I have been awarded three patents
as a result of my work in the semiconductor field.
One of my patents has actually found commercial success.
If you are aware of any other Leebrick/Liebrich inventors, please drop me an
email and I will be glad to add them to this list.
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