Resource Type

Colter Attachment for Plows. (open access)

Colter Attachment for Plows.

Patent for a new and useful colter attachment for plows, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 19, 1898
Creator: Haynes, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cattle-Guard. (open access)

Cattle-Guard.

Patent for a new improvement in cattle guards, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 4, 1899
Creator: Arnold, Eliphalet Lester
System: The Portal to Texas History
Door-Saddle. (open access)

Door-Saddle.

Patent for new and improved door saddles, which consists "of a longitudinal and cross-grooved arrangement of parts coacting with inclined surfaces and shields to cause a perfect drainage of water" (lines 11-15), including instructions and illustration.
Date: July 13, 1897
Creator: Vogel, Thomas.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Safety-Razor. (open access)

Safety-Razor.

Patent for new and improved safety razor, which will be similar to an ordinary razor, and "can be used either in its safety form or in the ordinary manner" (lines 15-16) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 20, 1897
Creator: Bradley, Richard Sherman.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Poke. (open access)

Animal-Poke.

Patent for "a light and effective head-frame for horned cattle, designed to prevent their going through or injuring wire fences or from goring persons or animals." (Lines 14-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 20, 1897
Creator: Moore, John H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electric motor. (open access)

Electric motor.

Patent for improved electric motor used in motor vehicles "which may be associated directly with the driving-wheel of a motor-vehicle" (lines 40-41), bypassing the need for other power-transmitting mechanisms. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 20, 1897
Creator: Perret, Frank A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Picking Machine. (open access)

Cotton-Picking Machine.

Patent for improvements to cotton picking machines "of that class in which the cotton-boll is caught on the end of a revolving picker" (lines 11-12). Improvements include a combination of a revolving drum with hollow tubular arms attached to the drum, as well as revolving pickers attached to those arms. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 27, 1897
Creator: Haring, Peter Paul.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for an improved animal trap that can catch a large variety of animals, including fish, and does not injure the animals. Bait is placed in the trap, and the door on one end is spring-activated. A hinged door on the top is where the operator can take out the animal.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Crockett, William E. & McAdams, Richard E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cattle-Guard. (open access)

Cattle-Guard.

Patent for a simple cattle guard for railroads "which may be applied conveniently and economically to a cattle gap, and which will prevent cattle from getting their legs caught between the sleepers above the gap, which will also prevent cattle from passing over the gap, and which will frighten the cattle from the track" (lines 16-22).
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Hills, Lorenzo
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
Combined Vegetable Slicer and Grater. (open access)

Combined Vegetable Slicer and Grater.

Patent for a combined vegetable slicer and grater that consists of a main frame with vertical arms and bearings, a screw that attaches the arms to the frame, a shaft journaled with an annular flange into the bearings, a cylinder made of sheet metal that serves as knives, and spring tongues that regulate the thickness of the cut vegetables.
Date: July 10, 1894
Creator: Harpst, Edgar S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Anti-Oscillating Attachment for Street-Cars. (open access)

Anti-Oscillating Attachment for Street-Cars.

Patent for an improved anti-oscillating attachment for street-cars. It has a car truck, equalizing pivoting bars secured between the truck ends, cushions on either side of the bars, adjustable bolts that hold the bars in place, and springs between the bolts.
Date: July 10, 1894
Creator: Chollar, Benjamin F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Coupling and Uncoupling Cars (open access)

Apparatus for Coupling and Uncoupling Cars

Patent for "a coupling of such construction as will permit the coupling and uncoupling of the cars to be effected by the engineer and to be entirely and at all times under his perfect control" (lines 16-20).
Date: July 8, 1890
Creator: McWhirter, Robert & Scheble, Eugene S.
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
Combined Pessary and Womb-Battery. (open access)

Combined Pessary and Womb-Battery.

Patent for a combined pessary and womb-battery. It is inserted into a woman's vagina and is used to deliver medication "and to stimulate the genitals to a healthy and normal action both mechanically and electrically" (lines 11-13). The device is worn without discomfort and can be worn while pregnant.
Date: July 7, 1896
Creator: Keller, Martha Ellen
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Tightener. (open access)

Wire-Tightener.

Patent for a new and useful wire tightener, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 5, 1898
Creator: Brown, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretching and Staple-Pulling Device. (open access)

Wire-Stretching and Staple-Pulling Device.

Patent for a tool "which is adapted for stretching wire for fencing purposed and which may also be used for drawing the staples from the posts and splicing between posts when such action is necessary." (Lines 9-13) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 20, 1897
Creator: McElroy, Jesse Roberts
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Tightener. (open access)

Wire Tightener.

Patent for a new and improved wire tightener. This design "has for its object to provide a novel, simple, economical, and efficient implement or tool for tightening wire fences by forming twists or loops in the fence-strands to take up the slack, and to provide a novel implement of this type wherein a rod or bar can be conveniently applied to increase the leverage in turning the implement to form the twists or loops" (lines 8-16).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Bellah, William N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

Patent for improvements in wire-stretchers by using a combination of two jaws coupled together and carrying pulleys, a cord to draw the jaws together passing around the pulleys, and a gripping device connected with the jaws to secure the wires. (Illustration is included.)
Date: July 7, 1891
Creator: Bigham, James Oliver
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wood-Preservative. (open access)

Wood-Preservative.

Patent for a compound with preservative qualities for protecting submersed wood from the destructive forces of water, whether sea or fresh, and from shipworms.
Date: July 9, 1895
Creator: Gallinowsky, Hugo
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wrench. (open access)

Wrench.

Patent for a pipe-wrench that has a shank with a fixed jaw, a handle for the shank, a movable jaw with two loops for the shank to pass through and a movable upper loop, a ferrule attached to the handle with a long opening, an adjustable screw with a milled collar in the movable jaw, and a pin attached to the shank.
Date: July 16, 1895
Creator: McElroy, Harry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

Patent for a simple, economical, and effictive wire-stretcher that uses "the fence-post as the fulcrum for the implement or tool in using the latter to stretch the wires longitudinally from post to post, and to provide a simple hand implement or tool by which a single person can rapidly string the fence-wires from post to post, stretch the wires, and kink or twist the same to take up slack" (lines 19-26).
Date: July 23, 1895
Creator: Cardwell, William C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine-Gun (open access)

Machine-Gun

Patent for an improvement in a "battery of guns, and has for its object the operating of any one of the guns by the recoil of another and in succession as long as may be deemed necessary" (lines 7-11).
Date: July 1, 1890
Creator: Greer, John William
System: The Portal to Texas History