Victor Leaton Ochoa (1850 Chihuahua, Mexico – 1945 Sinaloa, Mexico) was a Mexican American revolutionary, journalist, union leader, miner, prisoner and inventor. He is best known for his invention of the Ochoaplane, the electric brake, an adjustable wrench, a pen and pencil clip and a windmill. He also participated in a fight to overthrow Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz in the early 1890s.
Ochoa was born in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico in 1850 and was of Spanish and Scotch descent. His exact date of birth is unknown. His father was Juan Ochoa, who was a customs collector in Presidio, Texas and owned a large lumber mill in Fort Davis, Texas. Ochoa has a brother named Esteban. His grandfather was Benjamin Leaton who was a captain in the Federal army and settled in the family property of the Ochoas. He also remodeled an old Spanish mission into a fort, until the government took it over and named it Fort Leaton. Victor Ochoa later then moved to Texas, then New York and New Jersey, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen in 1889. Ochoa was also a journalist who founded El Hispano American and El Correo del Bravo. He was opposed to the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz who had been in rule of Mexico from 1876 to 1911. Ochoa became involved in a fight by Mexican rebels to overthrow Porfirio Diaz in the 1890s. After this incident, Diaz put a bounty on Ochoa`s head for $50,000, "dead or alive". For his illegal actions, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest and was sought by the U.S. Marshall Service. believed to be the one who organized the fight. In 1894 Ochoa was arrested for his revolutionary activities where he was supplying and hiring Mexican dissidents in El Paso, Texas, which violated the United States neutrality laws. In the fall of 1894, Pecos County Sheriff A. J. Royal and Texas Ranger James W. Fulgham had arrested Victor Ochoa as they were rounding up suspected horse thieves. He was put in the Pecos Country jail and promptly escaped. Eventually he was found and returned to El Paso. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison at Kings County Penitentiary in Brooklyn and having his U.S. citizenship stripped, but had it restored by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. As committed to his revolutionary ideals, he was also committed to inventing. He worked with Watson E. Coleman who was a solicitor for patents, who helped him file for and obtain patents in other countries such as Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland and Spain. He is recognized by the Smithsonian Institution for his work.
Ochoa is the inventor of the Ochoaplane, one of the first planes ever built in the early 20th century. The Ochoaplane, was a plane with collapsable wings and flew as an ornithopter similar to a bird with 6 wings. Created around 1908-1911, Ochoa believed he had solved the problem with flight at this time.
Ochoa had created an adjustable wrench in 1923 as an improvement for turning pipes, nuts and bolts.
In 1907, Ochoa filed for U.S. Patent 873,587 for an electric brake intended to stop railway cars or trains using magnetic attraction.
Ochoa had invented a fountain pen and sold the patent to Waterman Co. in 1900. He also patented a pen and pencil clip for holding them in a pocket. In 1907 he sold that patent to the American Pen and Pencil Co.
Ochoa filed for U.S. patent 1,319,974, for an improvement of windmills intended to obtain electricity in a storage battery by installing a dynamo on the windmill. With this amount of electricity, it would be able to power a house or run small motors.
Ochoa, Elizabeth V. (17 May, 1997) Victor L. Ochoa Papers, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution "Victor L. Ochoa Papers"
Teresa Palomo Acosta, "Ochoa, Victor L.," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed August 07, 2024, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ochoa-victor-l.
Cooke, Matthew, 20, February, 2023, The Most Interesting Man in The World - Episode 2 - American Origin Stories The Podcast www.youtube.com