Patent model for William Austin Burt, new equatorial sextant, U.S. Patent 16,002 (1856). This instrument could apparently be used to take azimuths, altitude, and time with one observation, and thus enable one to easily obtain the position and bearing of a ship at sea. It was ingenious, but never found much of a market. Burt is better remembered for the solar compass that he introduced in the 1830s.
Ref: John S. Burt, They Left Their Mark. A Biography of William Austin Burt (Rancho Cordova, Ca., 1985), pp. 128-130.
Parmelee’s “Artificial Leg” included an atmospheric pressure-conforming rubber bucket molded from the patient’s remaining limb. Parmelee held several patents using India-rubber.
Description
Patent model for DuBois D. Parmelee, “Improvement in Artificial Legs,” U.S. Patent 37,737 (Feb. 10, 1863). Dubois Duncan Parmalee (1829-1897) was a chemist and inventor in New York City.
Ericsson’s improvement in the construction of ordnance was one of many inventive achievements, including the design for the battleship U.S.S. Monitor during the American Civil War. In 1863 he was granted a patent for this improved gun carriage. It allowed the cannon to recoil backward in its tracks when fired and was made to be worked by fewer hands within a confined space such as a gun turret.
In 1844 Charles Goodyear of New York, New York received a patent for a machine used for the manufacturing of corrugated or shirred rubber fabrics. Rubber strips were sandwiched between fabric, stretched and pressed between two rollers, one calendared, creating a rubber impregnated cloth.
Patent consists of a method of preparing photographs for coloring: first immersing the photo in a "clearing solution of rosin and parrafine, each previously dissolved in turpentine, and then applying to the face a coat of rosin dissolved in alcohol, and to the back a coat of the clearing solution..." Common oil colors are then applied to the back "in the usual way."
Small metal model or example of a design for a spring clasp mechanism to securing an earring to the ear lobe. The design specifications also allowed for and concave/convex discs to help the earring seat itself on the ear lobe or a pin on the disc incase the wearer had pierced ears (This model does not show the pin). The model also shows two eye hooks. One allowed for a dangle and the other allowed a chain and hair clip that would attach to the hair for security.
For Bigelow’s invention of a “Loom for Weaving Piled Fabrics,” he received one of his many patents, which included patents for his celebrated looms for weaving Brussels, or looped, carpets.
Durand's improvement in "Dulcimers" was his only patent. He owned a dulcimer shop in Connecticut and offered instructional literature in the use of the instrument.
This telegraph receiver is associated with United States patent 4,453 granted April 11th, 1846 to Samuel Morse. The patent covered the use of a magnet in the telegraph receiver to amplify current from the battery and magnet connected to the main telegraph line. This enabled the telegraph to receive messages over longer lines. The patent also specified a combination of apparatuses to move and mark a paper roll in order to record the incoming message.
Packard’s improvement in “Cooking Utensils,” her only patented invention, included a new design for a frying pan using rounded recesses to keep eggs in place on the pan while cooking.
Rennie described her only patented invention, for a “Dust Pan,” as having a “peculiar construction” which would assist with “Sweeping Stairs and Floors of Apartments.”
Jennings held patents for a variety of inventions, including the friction match and a threshing machine. This one, for a “Vapor Burner,” related to lamps and lighting.
Dick’s improvement in “Signal-Lights for Locomotives” included a combination of a stationary and a moveable headlight which could also identify the train name or number.
Pauline Hortense Gontard, of Cortébert, Switzerland, submitted this brass model with her patent application for an improvement in the winding mechanism in a stem winding watch or keyless watch. By the time, she applied for the patent in the United States in 1879, American watchmakers were mass producing watches and competing with European watch makers.
Stem winding watches were invented by a French clock maker in 1842 and patented in Europe in 1845. Before this time a key was necessary to wind a watch mechanism.
David Rawl, of Batesburg, South Carolina, submitted this model with his patent application for an improvement for picking cotton 1882 to the United States Patent Office. The mechanism could be wheeled over the top of a cotton row. A frame is balanced over wheels and as the picker is moved the stalks are guided through spindles where the boll is removed and the cotton drops into a carrier.
Mechanical engineer Frederck Sickels devoted his career to improving steam engines and advancing their use at sea. He was particularly interested in developing steam-assisted steering, a topic dear to many inventors as ships became larger and heavier through the middle of the nineteenth century. This patent model demonstrates Sickels's idea for a steering apparatus where steam pressure in a pair of cylinders would both control the side-to-side motion of a vessel's rudder but also hold the rudder stationary against the force of the surrounding water.
Inventors C. Latham Sholes and Matthias Schwalback of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, submitted this typewriter model with their patent application for an improved up strike key lever mechanism for printing onto paper. The inventors received number 182,511 on September 9, 1876. The typewriter has two rows of keys in roughly alphabetical layout as well as the numbers 7 and 8. When struck, the keys would rise up and hit the piece of paper lying horizontally on the platen of the typewriter. The carriage would have to be lifted for the typist to see their typed words.
Sewing Machine Patent model, Improvement in Sewing Machines, 1873. Helen A. Blanchard, of Boston, Massachusetts. Patent No. 141987 Issued August 19, 1873. This patent model for an improvement in sewing machines introduced the buttonhole stitch. Blanchard received some twenty-eight patents, many having to do with sewing. She is best remembered for inventing the zigzag overstitch sewing machine.