ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,339,345, issued on June 24, was assigned to Sheaumann Laser Inc. (Billerica, Mass.).
"Water catcher for beacon" was invented by John Gary Sousa (Nashua, N.H.), Andrew Carlin (Acton, Mass.) and James Skinner (Medford, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A beacon with a preferably anodized aluminum body, cylindrical in shape, and threaded. The exact diameter and thread size of a water catcher cap is defined by the accompanying MWIR/LWIR beacon it threads onto. The accompanying component male thread allows the water catching cover to be threaded down completely for when the MWIR/LWIR beacon is powered on, thus creating an IR iris for the b...