Resource Type

Antifriction Clasp. (open access)

Antifriction Clasp.

Patent for a new and improved anti-friction clasp. This design "is to provide means whereby the wear due to the rubbing of inclosed rods or ropes against an inclosing casing may be reduced to a minimum and whereby the central alignment of the rods or ropes with respect to the inclosing casing may be accurately preserved" (lines 11-17). It consists in "a series of friction balls or rollers mounted therein and projecting from the periphery thereof and being divided into sections adapted to be clamped at any point around the rod or rope" (lines 97-101).
Date: October 25, 1892
Creator: Black, William L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for an animal trap meant to trap animals that burrow in the ground, such as prairie dogs. The trap catches the animal when it leaves its den and the animal cannot escape the trap.
Date: April 25, 1893
Creator: Manning, James
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Harrow and Cultivator. (open access)

Combination Harrow and Cultivator.

Patent for a combined harrow and cultivator that can easily change between the two. It consists of a beam with front and back removable tooth-seats, handles, adjusting holes in the beam, a perforated plate on the top and bottom sides of the beam, pins, and a wedge-shaped key between the bar and a slot in a tooth.
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: West, Edward B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Anal Speculum. (open access)

Anal Speculum.

Patent for a new and improved anal speculum. This design is "to so construct the several parts that there will be no rough or raised edges to interfere with its insertion in the anal passage; secondly, to so construct [the] improved speculum that it may be readily used as a bi-valve or dilator; thirdly, to form a locking-joint on the meeting edges of the shells forming the speculum, whereby the sections are prevented from overlapping each other to avoid pinching or injury to the walls of the anal passage while the instrument is being inserted; fourthly, to provide a plug for [the] improved speculum" (lines 17-29).
Date: March 25, 1890
Creator: Shuford, Quincy Adams
System: The Portal to Texas History
Angle-Cock. (open access)

Angle-Cock.

Patent for "a new and improved angle-cock so constructed that the plug cannot be turned by an unauthorized person without the knowledge of the engineer in charge of the train." (Lines 8-12) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 25, 1896
Creator: Waldron, William J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wagon Spring. (open access)

Wagon Spring.

Patent for a new and improved wagon spring. This design "is to provide a vehicle in which springs of great strength may be employed which will not require stay-chains, and which will not increase the height of the wagon-body and cause inconvenience in loading and unloading the vehicle and in getting in and out, and, furthermore, to provide a vehicle in which the wagon-body may be but slightly elevated above the axles, and in which the springs will have great play" (lines 17-26).
Date: February 25, 1890
Creator: Conley, Miles D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wagon-Brake. (open access)

Wagon-Brake.

Patent for improvements in automatically operated wagon-brakes using the combination of tongue, rods, hook, levers, spring and chains that connected with each other and secured beneath the wagon-bed to operate the wagon-brake. Illustration is included.
Date: August 25, 1891
Creator: Garrett, James B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing Machine. (open access)

Washing Machine.

Patent for a new and improved washing-machine. This design "is to simplify and improve the construction of washing machines and to enable clothes to be thoroughly washed without liability of injuring them" (lines 10-14). This design consists in "a frame comprising the legs, the rounds connecting the legs, and the parallel horizontal side bars connecting the upper ends of the legs at each side of the frame, the ends of the frame being open at the top, a diamond-shaped washing-machine body journaled between the sides of the frame, the spiral springs arranged at each end of the horizontal bars" (lines 89-98).
Date: October 25, 1892
Creator: Gardner, David
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type-Writing Machine. (open access)

Type-Writing Machine.

Patent for a simple, reliable, and easily operated attachment for a type-writing machine that continuously feeds paper to the type. "Several sheets, as they are printed may be severed in equal lengths, without disturbing the engagement of the continuous web with the paper-cylinder and feeding-devices" (lines 13-17).
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: Smith, John D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Window-Fastener. (open access)

Window-Fastener.

Patent for a new and useful window fastener, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 25, 1899
Creator: James, Will S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire - Fence Machine. (open access)

Wire - Fence Machine.

Patent for a new and useful wire-fence machine. This design is to "provide a simple, compact, light, and comparatively inexpensive machine adapted to be transported with facility to enable a single operator to readily distribute" (line 10 - 13).
Date: January 25, 1898
Creator: Allen, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton. (open access)

Machine for Handling and Cleaning Seed-Cotton.

Patent for improvements in machines for handling and cleaning seed-cotton by “taking seed-cotton from wagons or storehouses through pneumatic tubes and delivering it freed from dust and other extraneous matter to any number of gins. It includes devices for imparting flexibility to the feed-section of the tube for distributing the cotton and for disposing of the surplus when the cotton is supplied faster than it can be ginned.” (Lines 15-22) Illustration is included.
Date: August 25, 1891
Creator: Thomas, Robert Smith; Hardwick, Sauny Warren & Elam, William Erwin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Locomotive-Headlight. (open access)

Locomotive-Headlight.

Patent for an independent reservoir lamp for locomotive head lights. "?The conduit by which the reservoir and burner communicate is liable to be obstructed with sediment which not only interferes with the suitable flow of oil but corrodes the metal and necessitates repairs" (lines 13-17). The invention is convenient to use and inexpensive.
Date: April 25, 1893
Creator: Owens, Thomas B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Logging-Truck. (open access)

Logging-Truck.

Patent for a logging-truck that is a "simple and convenient apparatus which is operated by a team to raise the logs from the ground, and which thus obviates the necessity of using a hand windlass as is usually done" (lines 14-18). This is used in countries where it does not snow often.
Date: December 25, 1894
Creator: Brough, William, Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Lumber-Kiln (open access)

Lumber-Kiln

Patent for a "kiln proper . . . constructed with special reference to combustion of cinders or sparks, and thereby preventing their escape into the chamber containing the lumber" (lines 7-10)
Date: February 25, 1890
Creator: Anderson, Andrew T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Making Tablets (open access)

Machine for Making Tablets

Patent for a machine for making tablets. This patent describes improvements in tablet-making machines or molds, which will be simple in construction and which will make tablets of different sizes, there being provided plates which are perforated and of different sizes whereby the thickness which it is desired to mold the tablets may be regulated.
Date: February 25, 1896
Creator: Loving, Joseph H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Holding Wall-Paper. (open access)

Machine for Holding Wall-Paper.

Patent for a wall-paper hanging machine. It has a frame with a handle, a paste-pot, pasting rollers, a paper-holding roll, a pivoted matching-frame, a cutter, and a way of putting the frame out of use.
Date: August 25, 1896
Creator: Gowan, Richard H. & Gowan, Louise E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type-Writer Attachment. (open access)

Type-Writer Attachment.

Patent for a typewriter attachment that holds and feeds rolls of paper through typewriters. It is inexpensive and fits on several types of typewriters.
Date: August 25, 1896
Creator: Baker, Joseph B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Truck. (open access)

Truck.

Patent for a new and useful truck, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 25, 1899
Creator: Hooper, Johnson M., Sr. & Daniels, James R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Lantern. (open access)

Lantern.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in lanterns, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 25, 1898
Creator: Cadwallader, Aldes H. & Carolan, Eugene P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Lamp. (open access)

Lamp.

Patent for improvements to headlight lamps used in locomotives, with illustrations.
Date: May 25, 1897
Creator: Pitts, William Wirt
System: The Portal to Texas History
Staple-Setting Implement. (open access)

Staple-Setting Implement.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in staple setting implements, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 25, 1899
Creator: Schmidt, Charles Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Thill-Coupling. (open access)

Thill-Coupling.

Patent for a simple and inexpensive thill-coupling that "can be conveniently applied to any ordinary vehicle, which is arranged in such a way that rattling is positively prevented, and which, when the thills are dropped, permits them to be freely lifted from the coupling; also to a modified form of the device designed to prevent rattling only" (lines 12-18).
Date: December 25, 1894
Creator: Parker, Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Storage-Condenser and Lint-Cotton Conveyer. (open access)

Storage-Condenser and Lint-Cotton Conveyer.

Patent for a storage-condenser and lint-cotton conveyor. It forms lint-cotton into a bat so it can be delivered to a baling machine. with this invention, "a battery or batteries of gins can continuously discharge lint-cotton to a mechanism for conveying the same to a point in juxtaposition to cotton baling or pressing mechanism, and the necessity of stopping the gins during the time the bale is being tied, where a single press-box, or single pressing mechanism is used, is avoided, thus enabling the gins to continuously operate even when a single press-box or single baling or pressing mechanism is employed" (lines 18-28). Lint-cotton discharged from a gin is stored while a bale is being tied or pressed, and the bat the lint-cotton conveyor produces is even so the density of the bale is even. Air can escape from the bat-forming apparatus, eliminating dust from the cotton.
Date: February 25, 1896
Creator: Tennison, John S.
System: The Portal to Texas History