According to an article in The Courier Journal dated Feb. 20, 1899, a Bowling Green man invented an umbrella with such a revolutionary design that umbrella repairmen would soon be out of work.

Mr. W.B. Atkinson had several other inventions under his belt, but this new umbrella was his pièce de résistance, consisting of ball-bearing rib attachments. The article explains that the new design “is so constructed that if one rib (of the umbrella) should become misplaced or broken, it would nowise interfere with the use of the umbrella, except to some extent weaken it.”

– “Way Back When in Warren County” is compiled by researchers at the Warren County Public Library and appears twice weekly in the Bowling Green Daily News. For more information about the library, visit warrenpl.org.