Innovation Patent Models and Prototypes

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History shared some impactful and innovative american patents and prototypes on their website! Take a look at the full list!

Some of the innovations shown here had a profound impact on human history, like Samuel Morse’s telegraph and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Others focus on small changes to existing devices. All represent stories of creative men and women endeavoring to reshape the future.

Macaroni Box, 1884–1885
Dorr E. Felt, Prototype

This model was the prototype for the Comptometer, the first commercially successful adding machine with a mechanism driven by pushing the keys. Comptometers were used primarily in businesses and government offices. Dorr E. Felt made the model from a wooden box that had been used to ship macaroni. (Gift of the Heirs of Dorr E. Felt)

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