Founded in May 1848, the Associated Press (AP) claims to be the world's oldest and largest news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers.
... to a smaller extent by the slipping friction.
The device is covered by US patents 3,726,146 (1973) and 5,353,655 (1994) by L.A. Mishler and US patent 5,800,311 (1998) ...