A Few Inventions That Didn’t Get Their Day

Cheese-Filter Cigarette

Inventor: Stuart Stebbings of De Pere, Wisconsin
Year: 1906
Patent: 3,234,948

The filter is confined between plugs of any appropriate material capable of restraining the filter material without unduly impeding passage of smoke. Cotton or a narrow roll of fibrous material such as paper or fabric, may be employed as a plug.

A mixture of particulate cheese with particulate charcoal will remove a materially higher percentage of tars and nicotine from tobacco smoke than can be removed with grated cheese alone or with pulverulent charcoal alone.

Grave Attachments (Periscope)

Inventor: George Willems of Roanoke, Illinois
Year: 1908
Patent: 901,407

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in grave attachments and has as its object to provide a novel device of this character, whereby a body may be observed or watched after being interred.

In order, the interior of the coffin may be suitably illuminated as to create the desired reflection, an electric lamp is fixed to the under surface of the lid.

User Operated Amusement Apparatus for Kicking the User’s Buttocks

Inventor: Joe W. Armstrong of Lenoir, Tennessee
Year: 2000
Patent: 6,293,874

An amusement apparatus including a user-operated and controlled apparatus for self-infliction of repetitive blows to the user’s buttocks by a plurality of elongated arms bearing flexible extensions that rotate under the user’s control. The apparatus includes a platform foldable at a mid-section, having first post and second upstanding posts detachably mounted thereon. The first post is provided with a crank positioned at a height thereon which requires the user to bend forward toward the first post while grasping the crank with both hands, to prominently present his buttocks toward the second post. The second post is provided with a plurality of rotating arms detachably mounted thereon, with a central axis of the rotating arms positioned at a height generally level with the user’s buttocks. The elongated arms are propelled by the user’s movement of the crank, which is operatively connected by a drive train to the central axis of the rotating arms. As the user rotates the crank, the user’s buttocks are paddled by flexible shoes located on each outboard end of the elongated arms to provide amusement to the user and viewers of the paddling. The amusement apparatus is foldable into a self-contained package for storage or shipping.

Bird Trap and Cat Feeder

Inventor: Leo O. Voelker of Linn, Kansas
Year: 1979
Patent: 4,150,505

This invention relates generally to a bird trap and more particularly, but not by way of limitation to a bird trap for catching sparrows and feeding the sparrows to a cat.

Heretofore, there have been a variety of different types of bird traps, pigeon traps and the like for receiving birds in a bird housing and trapping the bird in different types of cages. None of the prior art traps disclose the novel features of catching a sparrow and including means for feeding the sparrow to a cat.