Roy Jerome Meyers^[1]

1879 - Yes, date unknown

• Name	Roy Jerome Meyers  [2]
  Birth	Aug 1879	Edgewood, Clayton Co., IA   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Yes, date unknown
  Person ID	I38684	First tree
  Last Modified	8 Apr 2018

  
  

  Father	Charles Morton Smith,   b. 6 Oct 1847, Vermillion Twp., Erie Co., OH d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Alzoa Amy Minkler,   b. 31 Dec 1852, Vermillion Twp., Erie Co., OH d. 23 Aug 1943, Humboldt Co., CA (Age 90 years)
  Marriage	6 Jul 1873	Beatrice, Gage Co., NE   [2]
  Family ID	F54107	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Carrie Weller,   b. Abt 1879   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F56071	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2013

  
  

• Notes

  Previously Roy James Smith, he changed his name to Roy Jerome Meyers; his stepfather was John A Bomgardner Roy J Meyers became famous twice in his life for inventions. The first time was 1912 when he cashed a bad check for a friend. While in prison in Arizona, he invented a machine that supposedly absorbed small amounts of electricity from the environment. He was released on his own recognizance to travel to Washington DC to apply for a patent. He was an obsessive, intelligent inventor, but lacked social skills. He was married to a girl from a prominent Southern family who stayed with him through his trials and tribulations. He obtained several US patents and patents from other countries. He was a self-taught electrician, mechanic, and machinist. He and his wife Carrie had one daughter. His inventions were featured in magazines such as Popular Science and newspapers across the US reported on his compressed air car. Around 1918(?) he was accused of insurance fraud, in New Orleans, and then later in the early stages of his air car work he was arrested when a financier accused him of making claims he could not back up. Nothing came of this arrest (as far as I know). This sort of things happens to inventors all the time when they get too excited and use someone else's money to "finish" an invention, only to find it is not possible to keep their promises to the financier. History suggests that at around this point he stopped using terms like "perpetual motion" and kept his claims within reason. Learning this lesson must have helped make him the most famous air car inventor of the 1930s.

  
  

• Sources

  [S3318] . [S2411] .