Skip to content

The Fishing Reel Patent Archive

The mechanical heart of American angling

Browse Dates Inventors Types About

Yielding shell drag

Patent drawing showing a side-mounted fishing reel with a spoked spool, a slotted cylindrical shell drag, a bent thumb-piece lever near the pole clamp, and detail views of the threaded stud and cone-piece assembly.

FISHING-REEL.August F. Meisselbach and William Meisselbach · November 3, 1891

United States patent drawings and specifications are works of the U.S. government and are in the public domain — they were never copyrighted. Download them, print them, frame them. Our commentary and descriptions are © 2026 The Fishing Reel Patent Archive.

About · Terms · Privacy · Corrections welcome — this archive gets better when collectors write in.