Brenenman's 1966 Patent US3373432 described 1-Bay, 2-Bay and 4-Bay
Bowties (4-Whiskers each) with
Screen Reflectors. All Feedlines were parallel, except for a cross-over to the outer bays on the 4-Bay Bowtie,
which we recognize as the unique combination of design elements used in most of today's Bowtie antennas.
The references cited in this patent included:
a) Middlemark with Back-To-Back Forward Swept Dipoles +
Solid Reflector,
b) Bouchard (1959) with 4-Bay
Bowties +
Screen Reflector, 4-Whiskers each with INNER 2 Bowties fed from
OPPOSITE side of the NON-CROSSING FEEDLINE. ["Equivalent" to today's Crossover on OUTER Bowties.]
c) Durham (1964) 2-Bay LOOP with
Screen Reflector (not really relevant),
and
d) McMullin (1967) Vertical Stack (Turnstile) of Vertical Dipoles (not really relevant).
Bouchard (1959) Patent also references his earlier (1957) Patent 2803011, which appears to be same
4-Bay
Bowtie, except ALL whiskers attach as we see them today...but NO OUTER FEEDLINE CROSSOVER:
http://www.google.co.uk/patents/about?id=hTpmAAAAEBAJ&dq=2803011
FYI: Searching through antenna patents I've downloaded in the past (about 100+):
Bohm (1934) US1964190: 4-Bay Dipoles, NO FEEDLINE CROSSOVER.
Bohm (1935) US1988434: 4-Bay Dipoles, NO FEEDLINE CROSSOVER.
Gothe (1936) US2055100: 2-Bay Dipoles, FEEDLINE CROSSOVER.
Wheeler (1936) US2064774: 1-Bay
Bowtie with 4-Whiskers, No Reflector.
Renatus (1937) US2095083: 5-Bay Dipoles, Alternately Connect OPPOSITE FEEDLINE (like Bouchard's 1959).
von Radinger (1939) US2163770: 3-Bay Dipoles with
Plate Reflector, FEEDLINE CROSSOVERS.
Kandoian (1947) US2429629: 4-Bay Dipoles, FEEDLINE CROSSOVER on Outer (like today's 4-Bay).
White (1951) US2615005: 1/2/4-Bay (OUTLINE)
Bowties. 4-Bay schematic shows Outer FEEDLINE Reversal.
Also shows OUTLINE Bowtie being used as a passive Reflector.
Bouchard's (1959) patent claimed that the opposite feedline connection for the INNER whiskers
"lowers the Q" compared to usual CROSS-OVER (presumably like Kandoian). There might be
another patent which we haven't found yet.....but if none exists, and since none were cited
as "prior art", it appears Brenenman's (1966) patent may be the earliest that describes ALL
of the unique features found in the current version 4-Bay Bowties.