Today in 1889, US Patent 398330 A was issued, an invention of Benjamin F. Jacobs, for his “Hop-Shovel.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
The invention relates to improvements in hop-shovels; and it consists in the constrution and novel combination of parts, as hereinafter set forth.
It has been the practice to remove the hops from the kiln by means of a rake, which is objectionable, for the reason that when the hops are first dried and yet warm they break up very easily and are very sensitive to the handling they receive. When raked out of the kiln, they not only break, but lose their dust, which detracts materially from their marketable value. The object of my invention is to obviate this difficulty by providing a bag to hold the hops and the dust when it is desired to remove the hops from the kiln.
