Cattle-Yoke. (open access)

Cattle-Yoke.

Patent for a new and useful cattle yoke for preventing them from breaking, tearing down, jumping over, or crawling through the openings in fences (line 6 -8).
Date: March 22, 1898
Creator: Kirk, Robert S.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Attachment for Sulky-Plows. (open access)

Attachment for Sulky-Plows.

Patent for a sulky-plow that "is designed to secure an even and steady movement of the plow when turning furrows across listed ground, whereby the work is facilitated, the draft lightened, and the task of the laborer reduced" (lines 9-13).
Date: October 13, 1896
Creator: Mann, John Quincy
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Tightening Implement. (open access)

Wire-Tightening Implement.

Patent for a wire-tightening implement meant to tightening wires in fences by making loops or twists in the wires. It has two handles forming jaws around a fulcrum, the jaws have flat faces with parallel grooves, and the jaws coming together at their ends. The grooves in the jaws form different sized loops.
Date: October 15, 1895
Creator: West, James M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Load Lifter and Carrier. (open access)

Load Lifter and Carrier.

Patent for an improved, simple, efficient, and inexpensive load lifter and carrier meant to be used in warehouses in order to load and unload barrels, bales, and other loads.
Date: November 14, 1893
Creator: Butcher, Tilman H.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type-Writing Machine. (open access)

Type-Writing Machine.

Patent for a type-writing machine that allows the spacing mechanism to operate in conjunction with other parts so that the paper-carriage releases and return the paper automatically at the end of the line. The springs automatically release and return to action with each release.
Date: April 16, 1895
Creator: Butler, George H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Vest and Drawers Holder. (open access)

Vest and Drawers Holder.

Patent for new and improved suspenders. This design consists, "[a]s an improved article of manufacture, the vest and drawers holder . . . consisting of the main bar having the arm bent downward from its upper end and provided with a clasp for connecting with the drawers, the main bar being also provided near its upper and lower ends with safety-pins for connection with the vest" (lines 60-67).
Date: September 27, 1892
Creator: Lustig, Albert
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Operating Blowers. (open access)

Means for Operating Blowers.

Patent for the improvement and simplification of the construction of blowers and to enable a forge-blower to be readily operated by the foot, to leave the hands of the operator free. Includes illustration.
Date: December 8, 1891
Creator: Murphy, Thomas A.; Murphy, John H. & Carroll, J. Y.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow (open access)

Plow

Patent for "a plow of simple and inexpensive construction capable of being readily and easily changed from an ordinary plow to a ditching-plow, and vice versa" (lines 10-14).
Date: July 29, 1890
Creator: Lesueur, Sam C. & Holsey, Theodric M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Paint Compound (open access)

Paint Compound

Patent for "a fire and water proof compound for roofs and the like, possessing great elasticity and capable of contracting and expanding under cold and heat without cracking and peeling off [while also forming] a body equal to cement for covering the nail-heads of roofs and the like" (lines 12-20).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Jackson, Abner A. & Neal, Columbus M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing Compound (open access)

Washing Compound

Patent for a washing compound that can be employed in cleansing fabrics without danger of causing colors to fade.
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Odell, Jacob
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hoisting Apparatus. (open access)

Hoisting Apparatus.

Patent for "an improved hoisting apparatus for use in loading and unloading freight from and upon a wharf, bluff, bank, or other elevated place." (Lines 8-11) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 14, 1891
Creator: Davis, Benjamin F. & Davis, Matilda L.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hoisting Apparatus. (open access)

Hoisting Apparatus.

Patent for improvements in hoisting apparatus by “employing two cables and two sheaves that one cable and one sheave operate to elevate the weight or object in an approximately-vertical plane, so as to avoid contact with any side obstruction, while the secondary cable can subsequently be slackened sufficiently to permit the traveling sheave of the hoisting-cable to run off in a lateral direction and carry with it the sheave of the slackened secondary cable, for the purpose of transferring the object or weight to a desired position out of the line of the approximately-vertical direction first given to it.” (Page 2, lines 4-16) Illustration is included.
Date: March 22, 1892
Creator: Davis, Benjamin F.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stove Flue Cleaner. (open access)

Stove Flue Cleaner.

Patent for a new and improved stove-flue cleaner. This design "has for its objects, among others, to provide a simple device by which the soot may be removed from the flue and gathered into a receptacle without danger of getting it on the floor" (lines 11-15). It "consist[s] of a vessel with a tube extending therethrough and a handle fitted to slide through said tube and carrying a scraper" (lines 52-55).
Date: July 26, 1892
Creator: Mothershed, Thomas Bortley
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Soap. (open access)

Soap.

Patent for a system of making soap and the amount of the ingredients therein.
Date: August 30, 1892
Creator: Gray, John & Simmons, Abner
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Feed Trough. (open access)

Feed Trough.

Patent for a new and improved feed trough. This design "is to provide a portable feed rack and trough adapted to hold a quantity of feed and to discharge the same as is found necessary" (lines 10-13). It consists in "a platform mounted on runners and provided at its sides with troughs, bins arranged at the ends of the platforms and provided at the lower ends of their sides with openings" (lines 99-102). It further consists in "slides arranged in . . . recesses and adapted to vary the size of said openings, strips arranged on the outer edges of the inclined bars, and set-screws connecting the strips" (lines 3-7).
Date: April 19, 1892
Creator: Anderson, John Stow
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Feed-Water Regulator For Boilers. (open access)

Feed-Water Regulator For Boilers.

Patent for a new and useful feed water regulator for boilers, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 1, 1899
Creator: Bowles, Hardy
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Saw Attachment. (open access)

Saw Attachment.

Patent for a handsaw attachment that gauges the depth to which one wishes to cut. It is a bar with an extended foot and clamping devices for attaching the device to the top and handle of the saw.
Date: July 21, 1896
Creator: Gowdan, Richard H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stovepipe Attachment. (open access)

Stovepipe Attachment.

Patent for a new and improved stovepipe attachment. This design "consists of a receptacle formed in two parts, which are secured together around the stovepipe just below the point where the latter enters the chimney immediately above the stove. The object of [the] invention is to construct an attachment which may be readily secured to or detached from the pipe for the purpose of catching any dirt or soot which may drop from the chimney, thus preventing it from reaching the stove" (lines 14-24).
Date: May 17, 1892
Creator: Pearson, Harriet N.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Air-Brake. (open access)

Air-Brake.

Patent for "a direct air brake system [that is] adapted to be used in combination with an automatic system, whereby the brakes can be applied by either the automatic or quick system, or the direct, or by both, as the conditions may require" (lines 8-13).
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Pinkston, Lucien A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Shipping-Case. (open access)

Shipping-Case.

Patent for a shipping case that has an improved means for fastening the case. Air circulates freely and is especially designed to ship eggs, fruit, and other perishable things, although it can ship general things as well.
Date: March 26, 1895
Creator: Boatwright, William Thrift
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fence. (open access)

Fence.

Patent for a new and improved fence. This design "compris[es] the main end and intermediate posts anchored in the ground, the longitudinal wires connected to said main end posts and let into said intermediate posts, said end posts being suitably braced and said longitudinal wires being connected together by tie-wires, and the supplemental posts, to which are also bound or secured said longitudinal wires, having the horizontal feet of approximate figure-8 shape resting squarely on the ground or surface" (lines 69-79).
Date: May 27, 1890
Creator: Kerr, James, Sr.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Root or Sod Cutter. (open access)

Root or Sod Cutter.

Patent for a new and useful root or sod cutter, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: June 14, 1898
Creator: Melton, Pink
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fuse for Shells. (open access)

Fuse for Shells.

Patent for a new and improved shell fuse. This design "relates to that type of percussion-fuses wherein a fuse-tube is secured in the point or end of a shell and contains a plunged connected with a friction-wire embedded in the fulminate in such manner that when the flight of the shell is suddenly arrested the friction-wire is drawn forward by the plunger, thereby igniting the fulminate and setting fire to the powder-charge for bursting the shell. The objects of [the] invention are to . . . provide novel means which not only insure bursting of the shell, but avoid premature bursting at the muzzle of the gun" (lines 8-48).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Phillips, George
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History