James William McGhee

James William McGhee (April 28 1882 - August 6 1968) was an inventor, manufacturer, prospector, carpenter, contractor, and interior design specialist.

Born in Eminence, Kentucky he was the inventor of the non-sew-on drapery hook and ring, currently being used in most homes and businesses throughout the world. He also had many other inventions and patents in the United States and Canada. McGhee was a builder, carpenter, and interior design specialist in the Los Angeles and Hollywood areas. Later in life he prospected for gold and other precious metals in the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino mountain ranges.

He co-founded McGhee and Jinks Manufacturing Co. in Los Angeles, California where he manufactured hooks, rings, and other drapery hardware. The non-sew-on drapery hook or the pin-in drapery hook is a useful invention. The drapery hook keeps the draperies attached to the traverse tracks and drapery rods. Without this invention the draperies would fall down. The invention adds to the ease in which people everywhere can install their own draperies. Draperies add insulation to homes and business and also insure privacy and have aesthetic appeal. The drapery hook helps people install this type of rudimentary insulation without the time consuming and labor intensive use of seamstresses and sewing machines. Insulating homes and businesses reduces energy use and helps reduce global warming.

Patent 1475306 was the subject of an infringement lawsuit that McGhee lost and appealed. He lost again on appeal when the court found that hook designs were not patentable:
With the lower court, we fail to find in plaintiffs' device any patentable novelty; certainly there is no invention in the hook member. Hooks of all shapes and materials are among the commonest things of life. In size, strength, and shape they are to be adapted to needs and tastes, and the adaptation of a hook to suit the pole, rod, bar, or rings from which the drapery is to hang is readily made by any person of common intelligence. There is no invention.

However his claim was upheld the following year in a lawsuit he bought against Kirsch Manufacturing Company and his Canadian patent number 246361 (drapery hook) was always upheld. It was common in those days for large corporations to “slap suite” and infringe on small inventors until there legal/financial resources had been depleted.

Death
His death was due to heart complications. He died August 6 1968, aged 86, at the county hospital in San Bernardino, California. He was survived by his children George L. McGhee and actress Maria Hart.

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