By Holly Hobbs

While others enjoy the relaxation of watching a NFL football game on Sunday, Joe T. May views nervously. 

It's not because his team may lose, so much as that he’s worried the yellow line used to track each first down will falter.

Why would he care about that? Because May helped invent the technology.

“People are quite interested in it,” May said about the technology for the yellow line. May, known locally as Del. May (R-western Loudoun), is a Virginia statesman and inventor.

This year, he is running unopposed for re-election to the House of Delegates, an office he has held since 1994. When not creating laws, May is creating new technology for EIT, a company the Leesburg resident and his wife, Bobby, created in 1977 on their kitchen table.

Some years later, May was approached by a company in Princeton, N.J., to develop the yellow first-down line.

When asked how it works, May responds, “The answer is, it is a bit on the complicated side.”

The yellow line was first used at a San Francisco 49ers game, when the team played at Candlestick Park.

“It's actually a bit more accurate than the officials,” May said.

The yellow first-down line is probably the most high-profile of May's inventions, but another is used every day by drivers nationwide.

On every gas pump is a yellow sticker showing the octane rating and formula used to calculate octane levels in gasoline. May designed the formula during his early inventing years when he worked for DuPont in Wilmington, Del.

When he fills up his own tank and sees the sticker, May said, “I get a certain amount of satisfaction from that.

“I was three years out of school, and I was very proud of myself,” he said. The formula is May's second invention patented. He holds more than 20 patents with several more in the works.

For those of you currently writing wedding or graduation thank you cards, you may wish there was something that would you an extra hand to sign your cards.

May has invented the SignaSigner, a small computer with pen that reproduces handwriting.

“Congressmen love that because they can write personalized letters” in bulk, May said.

How does all this inventiveness translate to May's job in Virginia's Capitol Square, where state legislators meet annually to decide Virginia's future?

Once a year, Joe the inventor heads to Richmond to become Joe the statesman, bringing his creative tools with him for the legislative session.

As a member of the House Science and Technology Committee, May has worked on proposals to bury Dominion power lines that are planned for Loudoun.

Although towers will go up, May has had some success. “We will actually have four underground power lines in the next few years,” he said

“The primary advantage is you don’t ruin the appearance of the countryside, which quite frankly there is an economic benefit to that.”

May was also influential in getting legislation known as the rural rustic roads policy approved. In past years, he said, the Virginia Department of Transportation required all two-lane roads to be paved. May worked to change the scope of that rule, limiting paving to these roads’ original confines – saving VDOT $150 million during the last two years.

This year, the delegate is on track to improve the gas mileage of large trucks.

He decided to take on the task while watching “Myth Busters” on the Discovery Channel. During that week’s episode, the show's myth busters sought to disprove an urban legend that cars that drive too closely to trucks get fewer miles per gallon. The myth ended up being true, May said.

“It occurred to me that it was the turbulence around that tractor-trailer that caused that little car’s mileage to go sky high,” he said. He figured that the air turbulence reduces the trucks' mileage as well. The state is expecting federal stimulus money to help finish May’s research.

As a successful inventor and politician, May lives by a motto.

“I jokingly say our company motto is ‘Semper Gumby’ – you know the little green guy,” he said. “The literal translation is 'Always be flexible.'”

To learn more about Del. May, visit his Web site at www.joetmay.com.

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