Resource Type

Clinometer or Slope Measurer. (open access)

Clinometer or Slope Measurer.

Patent for a new and improved clinometer. This design "is to provide a simple and inexpensive device for taking measurements in prismoidal formula and to avoid the calculation of the triangle and enable the slope to be readily written from the instrument" (lines 16-21). It "compris[es] the square composed of the stationary short bar or arm and the stationary long bar or arm rigidly secured to one side of the short arm or bar and provided on its face with a spirit-level and having a scale of graduations of which the length of the short bar or arm is the unit, the curved brace connecting the said parts" (lines 60-68).
Date: January 6, 1891
Creator: Parks, James Harvey
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Baling Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Baling Cotton.

Patent for a cotton baling machine in which, it would provide a mechanism for baling the fiber in packages, for the ease of transporting and handling; and to prevent the loss of cotton or fiber in transporting from the gin to the baling-press. Illustration is included.
Date: February 24, 1891
Creator: Rembert, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for an improved animal trap for “catching small animals in a trap which will be ever set and in operative position for catching an animal and which will be automatically reset” (lines 10-13), illustration is included.
Date: March 17, 1891
Creator: Bassinger, Stephen
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bank-Protector. (open access)

Bank-Protector.

Patent for improvements in bank-protectors by “providing doors, windows, and other openings with suitable metallic shields that may be readily placed in position by a slight movement of the hand or foot of the operator” (lines 19-23), illustration is included.
Date: March 17, 1891
Creator: Saxon, James A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Axle. (open access)

Axle.

Patent for improvement in axles by using a “combination of a bar, two skeins and means for holding the skeins in place upon the bar,” (lines 17-18) includes illustration.
Date: March 31, 1891
Creator: Stewart, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for improvements in animal-traps that would be capable of catching two animals; to set the trap, bait is placed upon the hooked ends of the bait-hooks, the jaws are elevated and retained in a position by the link-catches, which have the lower hooked ends engaging the trigger, which has its free end engaging the eye at the inner end of the bait hooks, thus setting the trap, (lines 66-73) ready to catch animals. Illustration is included.
Date: May 5, 1891
Creator: Anderson, Henry Clay
System: The Portal to Texas History
Corn-Sheller. (open access)

Corn-Sheller.

Patent for improvements in corn-shellers in which it would be easily-operated and consists of “a semi-cylindrical trough having serrations upon the sides and bottom thereof, so that upon pushing the ear back and forth in the trough the corn will be scraped off.” (Lines 22-25) Illustration is included.
Date: June 2, 1891
Creator: Townsley, Christopher C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton.

Patent for improvements in apparatus for handling and cleaning seed-cotton by “conveying cotton through a pneumatic tube and for automatically delivering therefrom to each of a series of gins an amount of cleaned cotton graduated at all times to the need of each gin. The flow of the main current in the tube is not interrupted by the several subtractions.” (Lines 17-23) Illustration is included.
Date: June 2, 1891
Creator: Elam, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton.

Patent for improvements in apparatus for handling and cleaning seed-cotton that “use a pneumatic tube, through which cotton is drawn by an exhaust-current.” (Lines17-19) Illustration is included.
Date: June 16, 1891
Creator: Thomas, Robert S.; Hardwick, Saunie W. & Elam, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Tread. (open access)

Animal-Tread.

Patent for improvements in animal-treads when “animal is placed in the tread, the single or double tree being attached to the arm c’, and thus in addition to his weight he will have his strength to operate the tread. The function of the rope and weight is to keep the traces and tree from under the animal’s feet in case he should slack his speed, and thus prevent his tripping.” (Lines 59-66) Illustration is included.
Date: June 16, 1891
Creator: Bevil, John R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adjusting Device for Compressing-Rolls. (open access)

Adjusting Device for Compressing-Rolls.

Patent for adjusting devices for compressing rolls which “employed for compressing into a continuous thin sheet cotton fiber; and the objects in view are to provide a simple and convenient means for binding the rolls in contact, and when so bound to prevent any undesired yielding.” (Lines 10-15) Illustration is included.
Date: June 16, 1891
Creator: Goldthwaite, Joseph G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Corner-Planter and Fertilizer-Distributer. (open access)

Corner-Planter and Fertilizer-Distributer.

Patent for improvements in corn-planters and fertilizer-distributers is to combine the two into one machine by dividing the hopper into two compartments; one for fertilizing material and the other for corn-seeds. The bottom of these two compartments, each has its own opening design to dispense the seeds and fertilizers. Illustration is included.
Date: July 7, 1891
Creator: Davis, William Haywood
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clevis. (open access)

Clevis.

Patent for improvements in clevises in which a clevis can be used upon plows or harrows. When it is used, it “will obviate the necessity of using links or open rings in connection with the clevis and the singletree, as well as enable the plowman to cause his plow to run in the soil any desired depth or to cut a narrow or wide furrow.” (Lines 16-20) Illustration is included.
Date: July 28, 1891
Creator: Bruton, Alonzo D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Oiling Railway-Tracks. (open access)

Apparatus for Oiling Railway-Tracks.

Patent for improvements in mechanism for “applying oil to curves and switches of street railway tracks” (lines 6-7) by using an “oil-tank [that] is arranged in the upper position of the hood or shield over the car-wheel. The valve is in the bottom of the oil-space and may be controlled by a lever arranged to turn or lift in the valve, and under the valve is arranged the oiling-wheel, which runs lightly on the track or face of the car-wheel and applied the oil." (Page 2, lines 69-76) Includes illustration.
Date: August 4, 1891
Creator: Ennis, Thomas L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Delinting Cotton-Seed. (open access)

Apparatus for Delinting Cotton-Seed.

Patent for improvements in apparatus for delinting cotton seed: " Our invention relates to improvements in apparatus for burning off or removing the lint from cotton seed" (lines 14-16).
Date: September 1, 1891
Creator: Hollingsworth, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Corn-Sheller. (open access)

Corn-Sheller.

Patent for improvement in corn-shellers; in which “it consists in a perforated casting provided with radial teeth or projections which extend toward its center and which is to be secured to a support having an opening through it, combined with a double-ended handle which has an opening through its center and teeth projecting from the opening.” (Lines 13-20) Illustration is included.
Date: September 22, 1891
Creator: Bander, Charles Bornet
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Handling Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Handling Cotton.

Patent for an apparatus for handling seed-cotton. This apparatus is designed to move seed-cotton to gin-feeders, then from the condenser to the press, and also for conveying seeds and motes to an area of deposit.
Date: June 19, 1890
Creator: Eberhardt, Theophilus Charles.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Annunciator. (open access)

Annunciator.

Patent for improvement in annunciator by “providing a circuit-closing attachment for annunciators by means of which an electric lamp will be lit when the annunciator-drop falls.” (Lines 15-18) Illustration is included.
Date: October 20, 1891
Creator: Fouts, Lambert F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bank-Protector. (open access)

Bank-Protector.

Patent for a bank-protector that consists of vertically moving shields arranged just within the cashier's and teller's windows and the outer door of the bank, and a mechanism that allows the cashier to drop the shields and sound an alarm. Illustrations included.
Date: November 17, 1891
Creator: Saxon, James A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Andiron. (open access)

Andiron.

Patent for improvement of andirons, to accommodate fuel or sticks of wood and to burn either wood or coal fuel. Includes illustrations.
Date: December 1, 1891
Creator: Kimbro, Jeremiah H. & Kimbro, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ant-Trap. (open access)

Ant-Trap.

Patent for a new type of ant trap that captures ants by having them crawl up a wooden central chamber and then fall into a sheer metal pit. Includes illustrations.
Date: December 8, 1891
Creator: Walker, Stephen A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for improvements in bait-trigger traps for catching small animals, with instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 25, 1891
Creator: Edwards, Joseph H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Stretcher. (open access)

Wire Stretcher.

Patent for a new and improved wire-stretcher. This design "has reference more particularly to that class of devices which are adapted to be applied to and removed from the wires at will" (lines 9-11). It consists in "the rigid bar, hooks . . . pivoted to the bar, and a laterally projecting arm" (lines 69-71).
Date: January 6, 1891
Creator: Reed, Francis O.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wood-Working Machine. (open access)

Wood-Working Machine.

Patent for improvements in wood-working machine by using a combination of a toothed bar, a retractable slotted bar, a weight attached to the frame and a revolving wheel. With each single revolution of the drive-wheel, the slotted "bar is fed forward the distance of one tooth, and thus the cutter is gradually embedded in the material being operated upon at the same time it is rotated at a high rate of speed," (lines 94-97) illustration is included.
Date: March 17, 1891
Creator: Walton, George Washington
System: The Portal to Texas History