On November 11, 1856, U.S. Patent Np. 16082 issued to Henry Bessemer on the Manufacture of Iron and Steel:

Bessemer’s steel-making process was the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century. Bessemer system involved blowing air through molten pig iron to remove the impurities, make steel easier, quicker and cheaper to manufacture. Bessemer also made at least 128 other inventions in the fields of iron, steel and glass. He was knighted for his contribution to science in 1879, and in the same year was made a fellow of the Royal Society.

On November 10, 1964, U.S. Patent No. 3,156,177 on Food Preheating, Cooking and Warming Device issued to Harlan Sanders:

A few years later, the Colonel received a second patent, U.S. Patent No. 3,245,800 on a Process of Producing Fried Chicken Under Pressure:

Interestingly, in the Process of Producing Fried Chicken Under Pressure it is the chicken that is under pressure, not the poor cook behind the counter.

On November 9, 1842, U.S. Patent No. D1 issued to George Bruce on a type face. While the text of the patent survives, the actual type face does not:

Since then, thousands of typefaces have been patented, including U.S. Patent No. D262037, which protects the typeface used in the Star Trek franchise:

On November 8, 1910, U.S. Patent No. 974785 on an Electric Insect Destroyer issued to William M. Frost:

However electric bug zappers go back even further. 20 years earlier, on April 1, 1890, Francois Scherer received U.S. Patent No. 424729 on an Electric Trap:

On November 1, 1988, Claude G. Coots received U.S. Patent No. 4,780,985 on an Electric Mouse Exterminator

The metaphor “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” originated in a different form with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who in 1855 wrote:

If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.

In 1882, a month after his death, the following quotation was attributed to Emerson by The Cincinnati Enquirer:

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.

Whoever edited Emerson to add “mouse trap” knew what he was doing — the USPTO has issued more that 4400 patents, on mouse traps, the most recent being U.S. Patent No. 12,446,567, on a Rodent Disposal Device, which electrocutes the rodent and projects the rodent out with a spring:

On October 2, 1888, U.S. Patent No. 390311 issued to C.A. Pinckney and C.J. Hamilton on a Spring Air Gun:

In 1882 Hamilton, along with some investors, started the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company to produce a vaneless windmill that Hamilton had invented a few years earlier. In 1886, Hamilton began designing a steel air rifle to compete with the popular Markam Air Rifle that was also made in Plymouth, Michigan. Hamilton partnered with Cyrus Pinkney, and the air founded the Plymouth Air Rifle Company in 1888. Unfortunately, in 1894 Plymouth Air Rifle Co. suffered a catastrophic fire, and didn’t have the money to rebuild.

Hamilton did not give up, and brought one of their air rifles to the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company, demonstrating the gun to the Board of Directors. After General Manager Lewis Hough test fired the gun he exclaimed “Boy, It’s a Daisy!” The windmill company put the gun into production, and renamed it the “Daisy” air rifle. A year later the company was making more money selling Daisy rifles than windmills, so the company was renamed the Daisy Air Rifle Company.

In 1897 Lewis Hough bought Hamilton out, so that Hamilton could pursue firearm designs he had been working on. The next year Hamilton and his con Coello started the Hamilton Rifle Company, designing, producing, and selling inexpensive .22 rifles. The company patented serveral of their designs:

After the senior Hamilton’s death in 1902, Coello continued the business, and continued patenting new rifle designs:

The Company’s most popular rifle, the Model 27, was introduced in 1907, and remained in the market for 23 years:

On October 1, 2002, Carl E. Hanson received U.S. Patent No. 6,457,474 on a Method of Treating Chest Pain:

Hanson’s medical breakthrough, apparently based upon a clinical study of one, is to administer lime juice instead of nitroglycerin to treat chest pain:

The patent expired July 31, 2017, removing the threat of contributory infringement or inducement of infringement of bartenders everywhere, who no longer have to make sure their patrons are not suffering from chest pains before serving that gimlet, Moscow mule, or Margarita.

On September 29, 1914, Thomas Edison received U.S. Patent No. 1,111,999 on a phonograph record. The patent covered both the cylindrical phonograph record and the more widely adopted disk version:

For Edison fans, Rutgers University maintains an archive of Edison’s papers, which include this letter to his legal department about the above-invention:

Of the 199 U.S. Patents that Edison obtained related to the phonograph, sixteen related to the records themselves: U.S. Patent Nos. 382,418, 382,462, 400,648, 406,659, 406,576, 414,759, 414,761, 430,274, 437,429, 488,191, 839,372, 1,111,999, 1,158,659, 1,158,660, 1,234,450, and 1,248,468.

On September 19, 1876, Melville Reuben Bissell received U.S. Patent No. 182346 on a Capet-Sweeper:

Bissell improved the design and obtained a second patent (US Patent No. 199612) two years later in 1878. He went on to obtain at least eight more patents on carpet sweepers, the last issuing after his death from pneumonia in 1889. U.S. Patent Nos. 217322, 217854, 233137, 233596, RE9783, 239924, 240224, 349684, and 435268).

Bissell and his wife Anna formed the Bissell Carpet-Sweeper Co., which survived a fire in 1884 that destroyed his first factory, but he was able to overcome the loss and continue to expand the business. After Mellville’s untimely death on March 15, 1889, at 45, his wife Anna took over the Company, becoming the first female CEO, continuing to build the company. She established new guidelines on trademarks and patents and moved Bissell carpet sweepers into the international market. In 1919 she became the chairman of the Bissell company.