Language

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.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Arm for Telegraph - Poles. (open access)

Arm for Telegraph - Poles.

Patent for a new and useful arm for telegraph poles.
Date: March 8, 1898
Creator: Anderson, Lee
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bathing-Suit. (open access)

Bathing-Suit.

Patent for a new and useful improvement in bathing suits.
Date: March 29, 1898
Creator: Davis, Jesse W D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Advertising Device. (open access)

Advertising Device.

Patent for "a simple and inexpensive advertising device adapted to be placed on street corners and other public places and capable of exciting the curiosity and attracting attention, and thereby directing the attention of persons to the advertisement" (lines 11-16).
Date: March 20, 1894
Creator: Attaway, Henry F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Burning Garbage. (open access)

Apparatus for Burning Garbage.

Patent for an apparatus for burning garbage that is made up of a roasting chamber, a grate to hold the garbage, two furnaces, a passage for the ashes, a third furnace connected to the passage, flues, a smokestack, non-combustible absorbent material around the flues and beneath the grate, and flues beneath the grate.
Date: March 27, 1894
Creator: Risley, Ward
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cattle-Guard. (open access)

Cattle-Guard.

Patent for a cattle-guard that does not let cattle become entangled and killed in the guard, and does not allow cattle to pass over the rails. Cattle also will not get thrown or trip on the guard, and the trains will not be endangered.
Date: March 13, 1894
Creator: Hills, Lorenzo
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Washing and Scrubbing Gas. (open access)

Apparatus for Washing and Scrubbing Gas.

Patent for a washer-scrubber that cleans gas from "tarry matter, ammonia, sulphureted hydrogen, carbonic acid and other impurities" (lines 14-16). The machine divides gas into streams, sprays it with washing liquor, spreads it over reticulated and perforated plates.
Date: March 7, 1893
Creator: Fitzgerald, John H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bank-Punch (open access)

Bank-Punch

Patent for "a punch for the use of banks, counting-houses, &c., which will cut figures and characters out of the material of la check or other paper, and which will cut in the said paper before and after the figures representing the value of the check a star or other character to prevent the raising of the check by the addition of other figures" (lines 21-28).
Date: March 18, 1890
Creator: Lane, Alvin V.
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
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
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
Apparatus for Aging Whisky. (open access)

Apparatus for Aging Whisky.

Patent for a barrel for heating and aging whiskey, which accelerates aging time. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: June 15, 1891
Creator: Halligan, John H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adjustable Standard for Plows. (open access)

Adjustable Standard for Plows.

Patent for improvements to foot pieces that allow for easy adjustment of plowing depth. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 1, 1891
Creator: Teague, Jasper K.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Elevating and Cleaning Seed-Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Elevating and Cleaning Seed-Cotton.

Patent for a steam-powered device for cleaning seed-cotton. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 10, 1891
Creator: Robinson, Albert S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Condensing Flue-Dust. (open access)

Apparatus for Condensing Flue-Dust.

Patent for an apparatus for "condensing and saving the flue-dust passing with the waste gases through the chimney of lead-smelting furnaces." (Lines 9-12) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 3, 1889
Creator: Hizon, Hiram W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Handling Lint-Cotton. (open access)

Apparatus for Handling Lint-Cotton.

Patent for an apparatus for handling lint-cotton that allows air to move freely without back pressure while putting the fiber into a bat. It has a "trunk into which a series of gins deliver, of a primary condenser having a high surface speed, so that it will rapidly remove the fiber and prevent the bat from building up of such thickness as to check the escape of air, and a second condenser having a slower surface speed and arranged to receive the lint from the first condenser and form it into a thicker bat" (lines 29-37).
Date: March 19, 1895
Creator: Campbell, Douglas M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Artificial Stone. (open access)

Artificial Stone.

Patent for artificial stone made of a special combination of cement that hardens and stays hard under water. It also does not conduct heat.
Date: March 19, 1895
Creator: Power, John H. & Power, Rufus M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Angle-Cock. (open access)

Angle-Cock.

Patent for "a locking device for the train pipe valve or plug, and a connection separate from the train pipe and under the control of the engineer, to manipulate the said locking device and secure the valve or plug in position." (Lines 13-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 19, 1895
Creator: Waldron, William J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Stretching and Tying Device. (open access)

Wire Stretching and Tying Device.

Patent for a "device capable of enabling the wires of a fence after the latter has been erected or during the construction thereof to be readily tightening to the desired tension without necessitating the removal of staples or other devices for fastening the fence-wires to the posts." (Lines 12-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 2, 1897
Creator: Kirby, Thomas W.
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
Wrecking-Frog. (open access)

Wrecking-Frog.

Patent for "an improved frog for use in placing derailed cars or locomotives upon the rails, exceedingly simple and durable in construction, and formed substantially in one piece - that is, not in sections - and having improved means to lock the frog to the rail." (Lines 17-22) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: June 11, 1891
Creator: Wilmore, William Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Twister and Tightener. (open access)

Wire Twister and Tightener.

Patent for a wire twister and tightener for wire fences. With this invention, "the fence-wire is caused to be contracted, twisted, and made taut" (lines 17-18). It is a set of toothed ratchet wheels that have v-shaped slots for the wire. Pawls act on the teeth, and springs and levers move the pawls.
Date: March 17, 1896
Creator: Stafford, George A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Jack Wrench for Oiling Vehicle Wheels. (open access)

Jack Wrench for Oiling Vehicle Wheels.

Patent for a new and improved jack-wrench. This design consists "of the flat bar which has its inner end bent into a hook, so as to catch over the top of the axle, and which has secured to its outer end a rod, upon which the wheel is to be moved, and a handle which has a wrench formed in its outer end, with a slide which is adjustable . . . a screw-rod which passes through the slide and has its upper end bent so as to catch underneath the axle, and a thumbscrew . . . The object of [the] invention is to provide a combined wrench and jack" (lines 15-29).
Date: March 4, 1890
Creator: Henshaw, Fred M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wagon (open access)

Wagon

Patent for "relates to the construction of wagon beds or bodies; and it has for'its object to provide a simple means for bracing such beds-or bodies to prevent the sides thereof from spreading under a load, and whereby the heavy standards usually employed may be dispensed with" (lines 23-30).
Date: March 18, 1890
Creator: Haupt, William W.
System: The Portal to Texas History