Patent Models
The Illinois State Museum collection contains a number of agriculture-related patent models. Patent models are small, scale models of an invention for which a patent was applied. In nineteenth-century Illinois, many inventors created new machines and tools, or improvements on previous machines, to make farming faster and better. They also wanted to make and sell their machines. Below are descriptions of the Museum's agricultural patent models. Full descriptions of the patents can be found on the Web site of the United States Patent and Trademark Office . Search by the patent number. Learn more about the Museum's Patent Models by clicking on the thumbnail pictures:
Carriage Gate
Wire Fence
Disk Harrow
Cultivator Sulky
Harrow Sulky
Roller & Harrow
