Bruce Alvin Kock
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[edit] History
A student of art at the California College of Arts and Crafts, Bruce was considered by all who knew him to be a renaissance man, active in the natural and scientific world, as well as an accomplished artist in mediums as diverse as oil, charcoal, watercolor and bronze.
For 25 years he was the Curator of Horology at the California Academy of Sciences. He also served as President of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors for two terms. He was an avid collector of fine art, and horological, scientific and navigational instruments through out the course of his life.
[edit] Inventions
Bruce A.Kock was an accomplished inventor developing a hydraulic braking system for commercial trucks and a transmission system that surpassed the engineering of the standard automatic shifting method. He was well known for creating the financially successful Teeter Totter Watch. This unique watch, a children's toy capable of keeping accurate time, is the only watch with traditional moving parts ever produced entirely of plastic.
He died peacefully at the age of 87 on Good Friday, April 6, 2007. He was a devoted husband to Velma Harriet Kock and loving father to their twins, Arlene Dorothy Kock and Bruce James Kock. Bruce was born in San Francisco on September 22, 1919, thirteen years after the San Francisco Earthquake. His parents were Henry Franz Kock and Arliss Vivian Kock.
His patents include the following inventions (incomplete list):
US Patent Number 3613353 - the Teeter Totter watch: http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT3613353
US Patent Number 4122663 – the stop watch: http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT4122663
US Patent Number 3685282 – the watch mechanisim: http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT3685282
US Patent Number 3540208 - the Hydraulic Watch: http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT3540208
