Your TR Source
Mary O. Smith informs Theodore Roosevelt of her invention of the pluraphone–a multi-headed megaphone that broadcasts sound equally to all sides. Smith is soliciting feedback from people who she believes might be interested in such an invention before she approaches manufacturers with her idea, and asks Roosevelt for his opinion of it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-16
John P. Mallett would like a brief meeting with Theodore Roosevelt to discuss his discovery.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-03
Anthony de Choinski asks Theodore Roosevelt to help fund and promote his apparatus for preventing the “dismal and universal danger” of being buried alive.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-12-16
Drawing and specification of an apparatus for “discerning the apparent death, and for preventing Human Beings from being buried alive,” patented in December 1909 by Anthony de Choinski.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-12-28
George W. Watts appeals to Theodore Roosevelt as a fellow veteran to help him secure a patent on his invention: an explosive device that will destroy flying machines. In a handwritten note, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt instructs a secretary to inform Watts that her husband is in Africa.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-05-25
E. Parmly Brown sends President Roosevelt two of his inventions which he believes will be useful during Roosevelt’s African trip. The first is an inflatable pocket life preserver. The second is a needle pointed bayonet which Brown believes will be effective against even the toughest wild animals.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-03-02
Moreton Frewen informs Baron Charles William De la Poer Beresford that he has sent a line of introduction to Professor Elmer Gates, who is an inventor with a laboratory near Washington D.C.. Frewen believes Beresford will be very interested in Gates’s work.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-03-03
The article describes an early rotating gun battery invented by Theodore R. Timby and exhibited in 1843. It outlines the design and mechanics of the circular, steam-powered fort and argues for Timby’s recognition as the true inventor of the naval turret system.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-08
Mary O. Smith, of Auburn, Maine, invented a device she calls the “pluraphone,” which was recently used at the Maine State Fair. The newspaper article shares details of the device’s invention, as well as the reception it has received thus far.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-16
President Roosevelt pops a large ball of “Democratic campaign fallacies” with a “sound America common sense” feather. It drips into a “many inventions” bowl.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-08