ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,359,809, issued on July 15, was assigned to Robertshaw Controls Co. (Itasca, Ill.).
"Back lit temperature knob" was invented by James E. Pearson (Itasca, Ill.) and Timothy M. Wright (Itasca, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A backlit temperature control knob for water heater valves used with water heaters and more particularly to gas water heaters provides a way to read the temperature indication not previously known in the art. Some embodiments rely on a thermocouple or thermopile normally used to power a safety magnet with the pilot light system as a source of electrical energy to selectively illuminate a Light Emitting Diode (LED) ...