UB Archive Plunge: Mason Monogram Company Patents
- Giuseppe Cavaleri
- Dec 4, 2025
- 4 min read
Pulling what I can from the State University of New York at Buffalo archives.
Entered “Mason Monogram Company” with quotations, and without filters, in University at Buffalo’s OneSearch, which queries multiple archives in the University at Buffalo’s system.
3 items come up. All titled Interchangeable Electronic Display Apparatus.
First linked to the same US683133(A) – 1901-09-24 patent I’m aware of, but listed with the European Patent Office. Subjects: Advertising, Cryptography, Education, and Physics. Neat.
The next two are titled Interchangeable Electronic Display Apparatus, but associated with 1 new name and two dates! Deronda Levy, 1908, and 1903.
Ok. This is interesting. New patent unlocked. Bibliographic data: US728944 (A) ― 1903-05-26
INVENTOR, is listed as Levy Deronda, filing an application ON BEHALF OF Mason Monogram Company. The 1901 patent lists Mason himself so this must be some kind of expansion/ enhancement to the device.
INTERCHANGEABLE ELECTRIC DISPLAY APPARATUS.
Abstract not available for US728944 (A) at the European Patent Office.
Let’s see if I can pull up this new patent elsewhere…. INTRIGUING.
Not with google search. Unsurprising.
Let’s see US Patent and Trademark Office https://www.uspto.gov/patents/search
Huh. Neither the code US728944 (A) nor Deronda Levy’s name brought up anything. Nor variations.
Now searching Google for just his name.
Found- maybe!- his daughter’s group wedding photo from June 1st, 1930! Taken in Columbus, GA. Deronda is the bald man, second from the left. https://jewishmuseumatl.com/CollectionSpace/detail/1105931e-0e5c-4360-8301
Found his name listed in The American Jewish Year Book, Vol. 14, THE JEW AND AGRICULTURE (September 12, 1912, to October 1, 1913 / 5673), pp. 274-287 (14 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/23600795
A person with that name is listed here https://www.jstor.org/stable/23600795?seq=8 in Montgomery, AL as being appointed by the Governor to member of the Excise Commission of Russell County in 1911.
Found his name listed among birth records in Columbus, GA in 1913. It appears to be for another daughter? Addie or Adele https://www.cvlga.org/media/604 In the 1930 photo she’s listed as Adele and marked as bride’s sister!
There appear to be many duplicates for Deronda Levy, some list 1875 others 1876 as a birth year. Many include his brothers name, some his daughters.
I looked for George Mason, assuming he was born in 1855 per his age at death I might have found his records. No photo with him though. Found a maybe-headstone but it’s paywalled.
Found his date of death, which appears to be 03/10/1957 per interment.net records regarding:
Riverdale Cemetery
Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia
GPS: 32.449077, -84.977809
1000 Victory Drive
Columbus, Georgia
Published: June 26, 2016Total records: 14,257
As cool as all these finds are I’m moving to the next patent. Incredible finds about the person, Deronda Levy! So much more than George Lafayette Mason so far!
Bibliographic data: US875715 (A) ― 1908-01-07
INTERCHANGEABLE ELECTRIC DISPLAY APPARATUS.
Abstract not available for US875715 (A) at the European Patent Office.
Now is this patent anywhere?
Google search: Nope. Many variations too, just in case. Google AI overview/ Gemini, claims there’s a patent without the parenthetical A for some kind of roofing. When clicked, the patent DOESN’T have that number, at all, anywhere in the patent ID. And the roofing patent is from 1985.
US Patent and Trademark Office: Nothing.
Then, Google's AI overview suggested looking up the patents via "Google Patents", which I must assume would have been an automatic search merely 10 years ago. But, sure, yes, I will search directly with Google's patent directory.
I FOUND IT!
8 new pages of the puzzle! It’s for “improvements related to the interchangeable electric display apparatus, this apparatus being adapted for electrically producing display-signs, such as letters and numerals, by successively lighting different combinations of lamps arranged within a given field or space to exhibit in the light the formation of the letter or numeral desired.”
Line 17 of the narrative goes on to detail two of the previous three related patents.
Inventor
Current Assignee
MASON MONOGRAM Co
Worldwide applications
1905 US
Application US25399705A events
1905-04-05
1905-04-05
1908-01-07
Application granted
1908-01-07
1925-01-07
Anticipated expiration
Status
Expired – Lifetime
Ok so what about the 1903 patent!?
HERE IT IS! US728944A came up immediately!
Appears to be an earlier enhancement with a different angle towards input of letters and numbers.
These are exciting finds! When I found 1 entry related to taxes I was concerned the Mason Monogram Company blinked out of existence soon after the Pan-American exhibition. But the 1908 patent shows significant complexity in the improvements added to the device. Without a solid grasp for how much the R&D might have been, including fabrication, etc who knows—maybe these improvements, along with other factors, sunk the company?
If the Deronda Levy entry in Montgomery, Alabama from 1911 relates to the Deronda Levy listed as inventor, or even the Columbus, GA in 1913 (or both- that’s a lot of moving around back then especially from New York, but it’s possible!), these entries imply Mason Monogram Company didn’t persist long after US875715 (A) was granted in 1908.
Given that US875715 (A) was filed in 1905 and took 3 years to gain approval… that’s a long time to wait if MM Co. sought to corner the market before moving to produce these apparatuses in large quantities.
What a dive! What great finds! I especially love the little mechanical notations for figures 1-6 in 1903's patent, absent from the earlier and later patents. I wonder if they were unique to Deronda's notes?
Wonder what else I'll uncover in the coming weeks. Good night!
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