From Rum Runner to WWII Inventor
Days after Pearl Harbor, Alonzo Patterson, a rum
runner turned customs agent, donated to the US government the
technology that he once used against them--a smoke screen
of a kind that the millitary had dreamed of but had never been able
to develop. Patterson gave up all desire for profit and turned over all
of his revolutionary methods, his secret fog oil formulae and 10
portable working smoke screen apparatuses to give his
government a needed edge in the war. This smoke screen, developed by a rum runner to avoid confrontation with government agents, would go on to save thousands of lives. This WWII invention saved naval ships from kamikazee attacks, protected paratroopers from enemy gunfire, and obscured amphibious landing invasions from enemy guns. Troops everywhere felt safe under the protection of this smoke screen.

First Successful Large Scale Smoke Screen
The development of a smoke screen was tried for over 2,000 years by the worlds greatest armies: the Romans, Vikings, British, Germans, the United States, and others, but not until this WWII invention did a smoke screen become a significant component in the arsenal of the millitary strategist.

Each WWII invention had a major impact on the outcome of the war, and we feel that this contribution by AC Patterson is among the great ones.

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