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By Mary Bellis
Richard Spikes of San Francisco, California patented or developed the following inventions:
- railroad semaphore (1906)
- automatic car washer (1913)
- automobile directional signals (1913) - manufactured by Pierce Arrow
- beer keg tap (1910) - purchased by Milwaukee Brewing Company.
- self-locking rack for billiard cues (1910)
- continuous contact trolley pole (1919) - used on on the famous San Francisco Key Line.
- combination milk bottle opener and cover (1926)
- method and apparatus for obtaining average samples and temperature of tank liquids (1931)
- improved automatic gear shift (1932) - licensed the patent for $100,000
- transmission and shifting thereof (1933)
- automatic shoe shine chair (1939)
- multiple barrel machine gun (1940)
- horizontally swinging barber chair (1950)
- automatic safety brake (1962) - year Richard Spikes died.
Note: While Richard Spikes was working on his automatic safety brake in 1962, he lost his vision. As a result, Richard Spikes designed a drafting machine for blind people, in order to assist him in his inventing.
 Richard Spikes - Automatic gear shift U.S. Patent 1,889,814 issued 12/6/1932
Richard Spikes patented an improved automatic gear shift in 1932. His object was to develop a gear shift where the gears for the various speeds were in constant mesh. Richard Spikes invented a novel clutch mechanism for his gear shift, he used levers to shift gears.
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