Murfey received three more journal-bearing patents, continuing to expand her packing and bearing portfolio into a second full year.
On December 12, 1871, Eliza Murfey was granted three additional patents — US 121,804, 121,805, and 121,806 — further extending her journal-bearing and packing portfolio into a second consecutive year of prolific invention. These grants demonstrate that her inventive output in 1870 was not a singular burst but part of a sustained, multi-year program of research and patenting in railroad bearing technology.
By this point, Murfey had been granted well over a dozen patents across roughly eighteen months, a pace of invention that placed her among the most active patentees — of either gender — in the mechanical arts during this period. The continued focus on journal bearings suggests she and her industrial partners were refining earlier designs in response to practical feedback from railroad use, iterating on materials and mechanical configurations to improve durability and lubrication performance.
This sustained output reinforced Murfey's standing as a serious, professional inventor rather than a one-time or incidental patentee, a distinction that mattered greatly in an era when women inventors were frequently dismissed or their contributions attributed to male relatives or business partners. Her continued appearance in the patent record throughout 1871 helped secure her later recognition in the official U.S. Patent Office compilation 'Women Inventors to Whom Patents Have Been Granted, 1790–1888.'