Well, you'd be amazed at the sort of things that have had patents granted.
Anyway, if anyone does have the time and interest to search patents one by one at the USPTO website, which can be kind of fun in a perversely nerdy way, the brass cap thingamajig, if indeed it was actually patented in November 1875, would have a patent number between 169,327 and 170,653 if it was a standard patent, or between D8764 and D8819 if it was a design patent. We looked at a few in that range and have already ruled out its being a broom-machine mandrel, a shingle-packer clamp, or a nasal douche.
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