102                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

    In the month of March, 1881, The Clay City Independent contained
the following paragraph descriptive of a safety device gotten up by a
resident of that place: “Nathan Fretz, of this place, is the inventor
and patentee of a safety nipple attachment for fire arms, which is certainly
a very valuable invention and appliance. It is actually a protection
against accidental shooting., and if generally used, would save hundreds
of human lives every year. Thousands of patents of much less practical
utility and value have yielded their inventors large fortunes.”
    After the suspension of the Commercial bank, of Brazil, in the
summer of 1884, Alexander Brighton’s attention was diverted from the
manipulation of currency to the production of economic utilities in house-
hold affairs. In the month of May, 1885, the local press gave the public
the following: “Alex Brighton has become an inventor, having two
applications for patents now pending, one being a smoothing iron holder,
and the other a button that is attached without the use of needle and
thread. The iron holder is a very simple device, consisting of two tubular
pieces of wood attached on one edge by two springs, the other edges
standing sufficiently apart to pass over the handle of the smoothing iron,
when a gentle pressure of the hand completely adjusts it. Being wood, it
is a non-conductor and may be used all day without burning the hand. It
is a practical and useful invention."
    At some time in the year 1907, Patrick J. Mooney, of Brazil, was
granted letters patent on what was named, “The Foraminous Fire Plate
Cover,” invented as a fuel saver. This device is an adjustable metal
cover to be placed on the burning coal in a heating-stove for the purpose
of retarding the consumption and incineration of the coal, as well as
to arrest the upward escape of the heat generated and diffuse it near the
floor. In other words, and in the purely economic sense, to make the same
quantity of coal last longer and at the same time dispense more equably
and comfortably the heat produced.
    Rudolph Stuckwisch, while engaged in business at Cory, twenty-five
years ago, invented an “Egg Tester,” by which to determine the quality
of the egg in the shell; also, a farm implement for rolling and pulverizing
the soil.
    George Schaefer, the Clay City cabinet-maker and stair-builder of
twenty years ago, invented and patented a piece of household furniture
known as “The Kitchen Cabinet.”
    In the summer of 1871, Jonathan Tibbetts, of Brazil, took out letters
patent for an improvement in draught devices for vehicles.
    Beginning with the year 1892 the passenger cars manufactured for
the Vandalia Railroad were equipped with the “American Car Door,” set
in plush, to facilitate easy movement and break the force and noise attend-
ing the closing, of which John L. Wagner, an employe of the Terre
Haute Car Works, was the inventor. Wagner was a native Clay countian.
He was also the inventor of the sleeping-car bearing the “Wagner”
name.
    John Gooden, a Brazil carpenter and builder, was granted a patent
on an “inside house finishing invention,” about the year 1890.
    A. D. Davis, of Brazil, invented an improved oil-can for the use of
railroad engineers in 1888.
    Thomas B. Reeder, a resident of Bowling Green prior to the Civil
war, who afterward located at New Castle, Henry county, where he was
elected County Recorder, invented and copyrighted a blank deed and