-Submitted photo
Gary Myers' corn silker is demonstrated: The ear of corn is dropped into the tube, spins with the nylon brush to get the silks off, then falls into a pail below. Myers, of Estherville, said a person can silk 10 dozen ears of corn in 15 minutes using his invention.

ESTHERVILLE — Farm families have, for generations, had a love affair with sweet corn. But the job of shucking and silking it is the first arduous part of getting sweet corn on the table or in the freezer.

Gary Myers found a way to make the silking part of the process simpler, and the patent he earned on his new “corn silker” proves it.

“The job of removing the silks is so tedious,” said Myers with a laugh. “There’s a silk for every kernel on the cob.”

The patent also shows his name, along with the name of his grandson, Reid Hendrikson of Ventura, now 14, who also worked on the project.

Myers, of Estherville, said the corn silker was born around 2018 as he was thinking about how to create something that would simplify the time-consuming corn silking process. He ended up using a 28-inch length of four-inch PVC pipe and inserting a three-inch nylon brush into the bottom of it, and attaching a half-inch drill to power the silker’s brush. A piece of rebar attached to the drill lets the user hold the drill while using the silker. The ear of corn is dropped into the tube, spins with the nylon brush to get the silks off, and falls into a pail below.

-Submitted photo
Gary Myers' corn silker is demonstrated: The ear of corn is dropped into the tube, spins with the nylon brush to get the silks off, then falls into a pail below. Myers, of Estherville, said a person can silk 10 dozen ears of corn in 15 minutes using his invention.

Myers said a person can silk 10 dozen ears of corn in 15 minutes.

“I’ve found that if you get the husks off and put the ears into a cooler of water, the water acts as a lubricant of sorts, and the silker does a better job,” he said.

Myers tried various brushes to test out their textures, as he wanted to maintain the integrity of the kernels on the cob. The nylon brush seemed to get the silks off without harming the corn kernels.

“It’s really safe to use — you can stick your finger in there while it’s running,” he said.

Myers said he decided to use a drill as a power source as opposed to an electric motor because with the motor, he would have to have it “UL” rated, which he said was very expensive.

-Submitted photo
Reid Hendrikson, Gary Myers' grandson, was only in third grade when he began working with Myers on his corn silker design. Hendrikson enrolled himself as a third-grader in an invention competition six years ago at his school — Garner-Ventura-Hayfield. Myers said Hendrikson wanted to make a corn silker to take to the competition, so Myers mentored him as he put one together.

“Everybody’s got a drill, and it works especially well with an older drill that goes slower,” said Myers. “If someone would happen to be horsing around and get hurt, it’s their own drill powering it.”

Myers took the corn silker to the 2019 Clay County Fair’s “Town and Country Innovation Show” and entered it in the adult small exhibit category, winning first place with it.

“It was fun to watch the judges’ reactions when I demonstrated how it worked,” he said of the promise the silker held for possible advancement in patenting it.

Myers said the most gratifying part of the project was his grandson’s involvement from the beginning to completion. Hendrikson was just in third grade when he started the thinking part of the process with Myers, and contributed ideas as it was being developed.

“He has always had an engineering mind,” said Myers, who has mentored him along the way.

Hendrikson enrolled himself as a third-grader in an invention competition six years ago at his school — Garner-Ventura-Hayfield. Myers said Hendrikson wanted to make a corn silker to take to the competition, so Myers mentored him as he put one together.

His invention won the school competition and went on to regional competition in Mason City, which included exhibitors from 12 counties. Hendrikson’s silker advanced to state, but the competition was canceled due to COVID; so it automatically advanced to the national contest. He competed there against people from M.I.T., etc., yet Myers said his corn silker did well, considering the level of competition and the fact that as a young child, he built that silker himself.

“As I watched him compete it got me thinking — there were so many people who were excited about (the silker) … if he hadn’t done that competition, I would have never done what I did (getting it patented),” said Myers. “That’s why I listed him on the patent as a co-inventor. If he wanted to go to college to be an engineer, I thought that would look good on his resume.”

Myers took the corn silker and designs to an Estherville attorney, who helped him find a Des Moines-based attorney to help him get the patent process started. He had to get a “provisional patent” in place first, which he said “time stamps” an invention and keeps the idea from being stolen.

Myers said the attorney told him the idea may be rejected many times before it is actually accepted, but encouraged him to continue. He said the attorney found the invention to have exceptional merit.

The date of the patent says “Nov. 14, 2023.” The patent consists of a packet with the date of certification, an engineer’s drawings of the silker’s design, the story of how the silker works, each of the parts it takes to put one together, and a list of the people involved in the design.

Myers kept his grandson’s name on the patent a secret from him until Myers received an official copy of it. Last Thanksgiving when the extended family was together, Myers let Hendrikson in on the surprise.

“I knew the patent number by heart, so I told him to write it down and Google it — and when he did, his eyes got so big,” said Myers. “Then he had tears coming down his face. He told me he didn’t think it was ever going to happen.”

Myers said he has been contacted by companies wanting to help him manufacture and sell the product of the silker itself. For now, he’s comfortable making them for friends and acquaintances until he figures out what he and Hendrikson will do with the patent.

Myers said he hopes to make enough money off of the corn silker to pay for his steep attorney fees for the patent process, then if there is money remaining, he would like to distribute it six ways to help grandkids with college fees.

Myers — in working not only with his grandchildren, but with other 4-H kids whom he mentors with welding and woodworking — says he likes to help kids learn to think. He said it’s something his own father impressed upon him as he grew up.

“I don’t like giving kids answers,” he said. “I like for them to figure things out for themselves with my help. It makes a lot of difference in the way they feel about their projects.”

He added, “I’m proud of this project because when I was a kid growing up with Dad … and to be able to really (tell him) I would someday have a patent — I would have never in a million years figured that would happen. Dad’s been gone for awhile now, but I brought it to Mom, and she was so proud.”

This corn silker has been six years in the making for Myers and Hendrikson, but he said it’s been worth the work and the wait to have their names on a successful patent.

“It was just fun to do this,” said Myers. “I don’t know of anyone else that has a patent for something like this for sweet corn. But the most fun of it was watching the enthusiasm of my grandson as we went through the process. He learned patience, but he understood the process from the beginning — even in the third grade.”