Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "relates to car-couplings, and more especially to that part or portion of the mechanism usually termed 'link-lifters;' and the object of the invention is to provide means whereby the link can be lifted and caused to enter the draw-head of an approaching car by the operator when standing alongside the stationary car" (lines 7-14).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Small, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "consists in the combination of the draw-heads provided with projections, a coupling-link, an operating-rod loosely connected to each of its ends, and a suitable support or guide through which these rods move . . . The object of [the] invention is to provide a car-coupling in which the two cars are coupled together by means of a link which is provided with an operating rod at each end, both of the rods and the link being attached to one of the cars only" (lines 14-26).
Date: April 29, 1890
Creator: Campbell, Neil Franklin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Flower Pot Trellis (open access)

Flower Pot Trellis

Patent for a flower pot trellis which is used "to be applied to flower-pots of various sizes to support plants or vines without interfering with their roots" (p.2).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Brown, John Stoddart
System: The Portal to Texas History
Channel Cleaner. (open access)

Channel Cleaner.

Patent for a new and improved channel cleaner. This design "is to construct an apparatus which may be anchored in a channel where there are sand-bars, for the purpose of agitating the water and stirring up the sand, so that the current may remove it. [The] invention consists in a trunk or large tube perforated along the bottom and provided at one end with a flaring mouth for concentrating the current within the trunk; also, in the combination, with the trunk, of a stirrer and a motor-screw for driving the same" (lines 17-28).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Evans, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Churn. (open access)

Churn.

Patent for a new and improved churn. This design consists in "[t]he combination of the standards, the longitudinal bars connecting the same, the driving-shaft journaled on the upper bars, the counter-shaft journaled on the lower bars and provided with a crank-disk at one end, gearing between the driving-shaft and the counter-shaft, the balance-wheel on the counter-shaft, the rock-shaft journaled on the upper bars and provided with the oppositely-extending crank-arms between the said bars, the crank arm depending from the end of the rock-shaft, [and] the pitman" (lines 88-99).
Date: April 29, 1890
Creator: Anderson, Henry C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling-Press (open access)

Baling-Press

Patent for improvements in baling presses "in which the necessary motion may be imparted to the plunger in a rapid and effective manner, and which shall be productive of considerable saving of labor and power" (lines 15-19)
Date: April 29, 1890
Creator: Anderson, Zachariah J.
System: The Portal to Texas History