The Ragner Story

Ragner Industries is the incubator for all of the creations and co-creations of our President & Chief Technology Officer, Gary Ragner. From here, each viable invention (based on market testing and analysis) will be assigned to a separate entity depending upon whether there are co-inventor(s), the approach through which each creation will become a product (licensing, contract manufacturing, joint venture, etc.), and other factors.

With 800+ documented inventions and numerous additional sub-inventions in a wide variety of fields, Gary Ragner likely has one of the most diverse and extensive portfolio of inventions of any person alive today. Gary obtained his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Oregon and his Master's in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida. He has about 70 issued U.S. and international patents to his credit, and many pending U.S. and international patent applications.

Gary Ragner's passion to understand how things work, and for discovering innovative alternatives, started early. By age 7 he had already designed a robot - and throughout his childhood he enjoyed taking apart and putting back together various household electronic devices and appliances. He began documenting his inventions while in high school in his now dozens of invention books which record his 800+ inventions to date.

While obtaining his undergraduate degree, he invented a large wind machine which enables people to do low altitude indoor 'sky diving'. One of his professors liked the idea, so Gary granted him permission to commercialize it. There are now many locations where you can learn to 'skydive' in these large vertical wind tunnels of various designs.

In the early 1980's, Gary submitted a winning essay to a national "future-of-technology" contest sponsored by Honeywell, Inc. in which he predicted autonomous computers capable of writing programs, vacations in space, robocalls and other developing/existing technological advances

Gary drafted and filed his first patent application in 1991, which was for a safety needle he invented to try to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS to physicians and nurses. He was awarded that first patent on March 3,1992, titled "Safety Needle With Spring-Loaded Shield", U.S. Patent # 5,092,851. Other inventors and medical device manufacturers piggy-backed on Gary's idea and now syringes with plastic spring-loaded shields are routinely used in medical care.

Within a couple of years thereafter, he met his primary co-inventing colleague, Executive Vice President Robert deRochemont, Jr., and together they developed and marketed various vacuum and attachment technologies, which turned into products that were made and sold by well-known brands, including Electrolux, Tacony, and others.

They later realized that if the flow direction were reversed (instead of sucking air in, water flowing out), their vacuum hose technology could be applied to garden hoses to create a much lighter and more user-friendly garden hose. The result, as described in more detail below, became expandable garden hoses which have sold more than $3 Billion worldwide. Gary & Robert's vacuum and garden hose technologies were assigned to Ragner Technology Corporation, click the logo below to visit its website:

Gary continued work in various other fields as well. In December, 1997 he received a patent for what he called "Stun Bullets" (U.S. Patent # 5,698,815), which disclosed a new technology to use electronic projectiles to be fired from a firearm which shot them with sufficient force to puncture an assailant and then pass an electrical current through the individual to incapacitate them. An anonymous buyer purchased this patent from Gary for a relatively small sum and it was assigned to Taser, International (n/k/a Axon Enterprise, Inc.). Variations of Gary's stunning technology have now been used worldwide in law enforcement for about two decades. If only Gary could go back in time to ask for a royalty on that patent and continue work on that technology...

During the late 90's/early 2000's Gary developed safety lights for bike/skate wheels and other uses, as well as other recreational items and then turned his attention to wind energy. For his research and development work obtaining U.S. Patent # 6,523,781 "Axial-Mode Linear Wind-Turbine", a NASA scientist would later identify him as an "expert" in the area of using kites to generate wind energy.

Gary later 'took his talents' to telecommunications (a reference to our beloved LeBron James for those of you who don't follow basketball) after he learned about potential problems with cell phone use, so he co-developed a safety antenna for mobile devices intended to reduce the amount of electromagnetic radiation that a mobile device user is subjected to. His team obtained two patents: U.S. Patent # 6,741,215 for "Inverted Safety Antenna for Personal Communication Devices," and U.S. Patent # 6,825,810, titled "Audio Extension for Wireless Communication Devices." These patents were assigned to an entity which engaged in extensive litigation with numerous telecommunications companies and retailers, obtained some settlements in the form of royalty payments and, eventually, there was a finding of non-infringement. There was also a cell phone drop protection system Gary developed that, upon sensing freefall, extends springy arms to protect the device upon impact which are then pressed back into the edges of the device or its case. (U.S. Patent # 7,059,182 "Active Impact Protection System") Pretty cool, but probably ahead of its time.

First Page of U.S. Patent # 7,059,182 "

Active Impact Protection System

Drawings from U.S. Patent # 7,059,182

Garden Hose Market Disruption

On September 27, 2005, Gary and Robert were issued U.S. Patent # 6,948,527, "Pressure-Actuated Linearly Retractable and Extendible Hose," which traces its patent history back to a 2001 application. This patent was the genesis of a major shift after about 70 years of little to no change in the form and function of garden hoses.

First pg of First Expandable Hose Patent

First Page of U.S. Patent # 6,948,527

Pressure Actuated Patent Drawing_edited.

Drawings from U.S. Patent # 6,948,527 showing application of retractable vacuum hose technology to garden hoses.

Through a couple corporate entities which are now Ragner Technology Corporation (RTC), Gary, Robert, and their team sought to raise sufficient funding and started building an expandable hose manufacturing and distribution business. During that years-long and painstaking process, the technology was revealed to the wrong people and thereafter spread among certain DRTV companies and Asian manufacturers. By 2012, there were at least two companies marketing expandable garden hoses and RTC was forced to license the technology or risk missing the market completely. Numerous lawsuits arose from this situation, which still continue on today.

Some other patents issued to Gary cover:

Hand Tools: U.S. Patent #'s 8,955,416, 9,289,891, 9,533,407, 9,770,820, & 9,925,654;
Computer Security Systems: U.S. Patent # 7,814,554; and
Manufacturing Machines and Industrial Devices: U.S. Patent #'s 6,994,387, 8,371,143, & 7,617,762.

Believe it or not, there are countless other breakthrough technologies and inventions in Ragner Industries' portfolio, come back often to see the latest, or just subscribe below and we'll keep you updated!