10/9/2010:
Albert Hoiland was a North Dakotan inventor from the early 1900s. Throughout his life, he invented many contraptions, including a wild oat separator, a cow trainer, a “flying machine” (a helicopter), highway guards, and furnace grates – and he left a great legacy of helpful tools.
On this date in 1954, the Fargo Forum reported that he had just come up with a new gadget – a bracket that allowed owners of the “modern automobile” to change their rear tires easier, by jacking the car up only two inches. Hoiland was also in the process of working on a new type of car wheel.
But perhaps most interesting of all was that the prolific inventor had not stopped working...and he was 85 years old!
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Fargo Forum, Saturday Evening, Oct. 9, 1954, p.3
WPA interview, Bio of Albert Hoiland