Patent for a new means of controlling the waters. This design "is to remove or prevent the formation of sand-bars at the mouths of harbors elsewhere, calculated to obstruct navigation; also, to prevent the overflow of navigable rivers and the breaking of levees or destruction of jetties. [The] invention consists in a novel means of accomplishing these and other like ends by mechanical forces applied to increase the natural current or outflow of the navigable water toward its outlet or the ocean through the instrumentality of suitably located and anchored vessels provided with propelling devices" (lines 8-21).

Patent for a new and improved dredging-scraper. This design "has for its object the production of a marine plow which shall serve to raise and remove obstructions and accumulations from the beds or channels of rivers, bays, harbors, and other water-courses; and the invention consists in a device for this purpose of novel construction . . . The plow, which is to be drawn over the bed of the water-course to be cleared—as, for instance, by drag chain or cable attached to a steamboat—operates to raise a few inches in depth of the deposit each time it passes over the bed or bottom of the water-course" (lines 9-22).