In an era when Britain led the world in technological innovation, a host of lesser inventors were also hard at work. Registering designs for copyright was quicker and cheaper than the convoluted patenting process; anyone with what they thought was a good idea could register a design. All manner of bizarre curiosities and their careful drawings were lodged with the Designs Registry (now held by The National Archives). Julie Halls looks at the world of lesser-known Victorian inventions and the historical context which gave rise to them.

1. Julie Halls
28 October 2014
Inventions that didn’t change the world
A history of Victorian curiosities

3. ‘The wants of society call for every man’s
labour. No one is permitted to be a blank
in the world. No rank nor station exempts
any man from contributing his share to
the public utility and good. This is the precept
of God; this is the voice of nature; this is the
the just demand of the human race on upon
another.’
The Mechanics’ Magazine, October 1839
Specification for an improvement in locomotive engines,
Robert Stephenson (MFC 1/203/49)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859)

4. Mechanical Poultry Feeder, 1843 (BT 45/1/54)
‘After a little experience a person can by these means feed about 100 fowls in one day . . . fowls fed in this way become fat and in good condition’
Front cover of a volume of registered designs

5. ‘Many Happy Returns of the Day’, William Powell Frith, 1856
Reproduced with the permission of the Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate Borough Council
Currently on display at MASTERSTROKES: Great Paintings from York Art Gallery,
25 October 2014 to 25 January 2015
House and Home

6. Extending Table, 1853 (BT 45/18/3436
‘This table supersedes all dining tables with
sliding frames, it will undergo 20 different
changes . . . ‘
A Clip for attaching grapes or other fruit to Epergnes, 1870 (BT 45/26/5196)
Improved Pickle Fork, 1860 (BT 45/22/4300)

7. Improved Self-acting Service Cistern for Water Closets,
1852 (BT 45/17/3392)
Design for “The Hydro Vapour Bath”, 1849 (BT 45/10/1863)
‘A patient may be submitted to an instantaneous ablution
of cold or tepid water, whilst immersed in the steam or
vapour bath, without any exposure of the body to the
atmosphere.’

8. Omnidirective shower bath, 1843
(BT 45/1/32)
‘Piercing jets of boiling, or ice-cold, water came roaring at one from the most
unexpected angles, and hit one in the
tenderest spots’

9. Apparatus for destroying insects on trees, 1851 (BT 45/14/2676)
Fruit gatherer, 1845 (BT 45/2/387)
Peach protector, 1850 (BT 45/12/2239)

10. Design for a Fire Escape, 1845 (BT 45/4/744)
A system of ropes and pulleys ‘by which persons may remove themselves or be removed from the window of one house to that of the next, or from floor to another, or if found more convenient the basket or cradle may be lowered to the ground’
Health and Safety

11. Design for a life raft, 1850 (BT 45/12/2458)

12. Apparatus for Saving Lives from Drowning, 1850 (BT 45/14/2603)
Design for Swimming Apparatus and Life
Preserver, 1845 (BT 45/3/545)

13. A Design for an Anti-Garotting Cravat
1862 (BT 45/23/4530)
‘The purpose of utility . . . Is that it
forms a protection against the
attempts of Garotters’

14. Improvement in the shape or
configuration of artificial leeches and
the lancets used herewith, 1848
(BT 45/9/1602)
Artificial leech, 1848 (BT 45/8/1571)
‘On releasing the instrument from the
pressure of the fingers, the tendency of
the elastic cylinder to expand and resume
its original form produces a sucking action
which continues until it is filled more or less
with blood’
Health and Medicine

15. An Improved Masticating Knife and Fork, 1851 (BT 47/3/82) ‘The purpose of utility to which the shape and configuration of the new parts of this design have reference is to enable persons who have lost their teeth and are unable to masticate their food to cut the same into small pieces’

16. Design for Double Spectacles, 1846 (BT 45/5/866)

17. Design for Cholera Belt, 1862 (BT 45/30/6563)
Design for the Chemical Sanitary Belt and Cholera Repellant,
1848 (BT 45/9/1610)

18. Design for an Improved Pneumatic Inhaler, 1847 (BT 45/6/1055)
‘Dr Snow administered that blessed chloroform, and the effect was soothing and delighful beyond measure’
Queen Victoria, 1853

19. The Carriage Telegraph, 1847 (BT 45/6/1101)
‘Persons inside Railway Carriages can communicate with the Guards or conductors in the outside thereof by
pulling down the handles, which actuate the wire chain or rod and put the apparatus or Carriage Telegraph
In action’
Transport and Travel

20. Combined umbrella handle and railway
Carriage door key, 1880 (BT 47/9/3360)
The Pillow Cap for Travellers, 1860 (BT 45/22/4321)
Design for a Railway Rug or Carriage Wrapping, 1856
(BT 45/20/3883)

21. A Design for a Gold-Digger’s Dwelling, 1853 (BT 45/18/3440)
Gold washing Cradle, 1852 (BT 45/17/3328)

22. Design for a Flying or Aerial Machine adapted for the Arctic Regions, 1855 (BT 47/4/669)

23. A receptacle for containing the ball (and arranged to
the belt) employed in the game of lawn tennis, 1880
(BT 47/9/3276)
New and Useful Design for an instrument to be attached to Lawn Tennis rackets for picking up balls from the ground, 1878 (BT 45/29/6085)
Sports and Leisure
Apparatus for Scoring the Game of Lawn Tennis, 1882
(BT 45/30/6540)

24. Design for the ‘Umpire’ Croquet Register
1870 (BT 47/7/2032)
Design for a Croquet Clog, 1872 (BT 45/275355)
Cartoon by Tom Browne, 1904 (COPY 1/216/119c)

25. The World of Work
Cordwainer’s Standing or Sitting Machine, 1844 (BT 45/1/183)
An Early Calling Machine, 1851 (BT 47/3/103) ‘H’ is the tape or other material that is attached to the wheel and also to the person to be called. The purpose is to Awake Persons at a Time desired.

26. Improved Telekouphonon, 1851 (BT 45/16/3046)
‘To give a signal from the pipe (A) the piston (P) is forced in by hand which sounds the whistles and blows out the indicators (N) and (J). The person at the other end can see which tube the signal is coming from and indicates using the whistles that he is ready. The whistles are removed to converse with one another through the pipe’
The Universal Reservoir Inkstand, 1850 (BT 41/11/2175)
The Oblique Pen Holder, 1851 (BT 45/16/3008)

27. The Epanalepsian Advertizing Vehicle, 1852
(BT 47/3/369)
‘Inside the framing of the vehicle are to be fixed
rollers (dd); the surface to be used for the
purpose of advertizing marked (i) is continuous
and passes over the rollers (dd) and (ee) as
shewn in Fig 5 and has the appearance of a
broad continuous belt’
COPY 1/163/179 (1900)

28. Clothing and Personal Care
The Duplex Hat, 1878 (BT 47/8/2960)

29. The Bona Fide Ventilating Hat, 1849 (BT 45/10/1823)

30. The Amphitrepolax Boot, 1868 (BT 47/6/1892)
‘The purpose is the great amount of extra wear
gained by a Rotary Heel, which may be turned a
complete revolution; hence, always ensuring a
perfectly Flat and Even-worn Heel’
Design for Cantab Braces, 1850 (BT 45/13/2442)
Sunette Parasol or
Umbrella, 1844
(BT 45/1/198)

31. Volunteer Reversible Trowsers, 1862 (BT 47/5/1345)
‘The purpose is to render a pair of trowsers reversible,
so suitable for Military men, Tourists and others’
The New Uniform Front, 1858 (BT 45/21/4122)

32. Design for a Spring Muffler, 1849 (BT 45/11/2036)
Design for a Cigar-Holding Pencil Case Knife
1851 (BT 45/14/2638)
Design for a Cigar Cane, 1852 (BT 47/3/378)
‘The purpose is to obviate the inconvenience
of carrying in the pocket the cumbrous cigar
cases now in use’

33. Design for a Corset with expansible busts, 1881 (BT 45/30/6400)
‘India rubber or other air proof bags . . . are fitted with a
Suitable mouth piece whereby the busts may be
Expanded as required when the corset is on the body’
Portable Rotary Hair Brushing Machine, 1864
(BT 45/24/4659)
‘Obtains a greater velocity for the brush than has
Heretofore been obtained by such hand machines’