Resource Type

Suspenders (open access)

Suspenders

Patent for drawer suspenders. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Hengy, Frank J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hopper-Door. (open access)

Hopper-Door.

Patent for a hopper door especially designed to be used "with a vertically movable weighing hopper adapted to receive and weigh cotton seed" (lines 10-12). The specifics of how the door is hinged and operates is especially important to the design.
Date: July 16, 1918
Creator: Peck, James F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Footboard and Guard-Rail for Street-Cars. (open access)

Footboard and Guard-Rail for Street-Cars.

Patent for street car foot boards and guardrails that fold up and close the side passageways.
Date: July 16, 1901
Creator: Wassenich, Frank W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sliding Doors for Show Cases (open access)

Sliding Doors for Show Cases

Patent for sliding doors for showcases and structures such as vehicles. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Price, Robert L. & Delaplain, Guy A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Riding-Saddle. (open access)

Riding-Saddle.

Patent for a riding-saddle with a "short rigid tree, which constitutes the front or forked portion of the saddle, and [the inventor] construct[s] the body and cantle of pieces of thick but duly flexible leather" (lines 21-25). This makes the saddle more comfortable for both horse and rider.
Date: July 16, 1895
Creator: Padgitt, Jesse D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pump Mechanism (open access)

Pump Mechanism

Patent for improvements in well pumps involving protecting and lubricating parts during use.
Date: July 16, 1918
Creator: Layne, Mahlon E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fluid-Clutch (open access)

Fluid-Clutch

Patent for a fluid clutch for engines. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Carpenter, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Grubber. (open access)

Grubber.

Patent for a simple and durable grubber that has "a frame preferably carrying a caster-wheel at front, guiding-handles at rear, vertical cutting knives or shares at its sides, penetrating shares or points at the lower ends of said knives, and a transverse or horizontal knife or share at rear of said points, preferably in substantially the same plane therewith, and adjustable mounted to be tilted or inclined out of the horizontal and adjusting handles for the transverse share" (lines 20-30).
Date: July 16, 1895
Creator: Cameron, George W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway-Signal. (open access)

Railway-Signal.

Patent for improvement to the "construction of railway-signals and to provide a simple and comparatively inexpensive one adapted to utilize the light of a telegraph-office or other structure and capable of housing and protecting parts and of being readily operated for displaying either white or colored light" (lines 10-17).
Date: July 16, 1901
Creator: Walker, Millard Fillmore
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rail-Splice. (open access)

Rail-Splice.

Patent for a rail splice that joins the ends of railway tracks to one another to prevent spreading of the tracks and is easily taken on and off for repair work.
Date: July 16, 1907
Creator: Bonner, Benjamin B. & Bonner, Thomas W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pin for Engravers' Blocks. (open access)

Pin for Engravers' Blocks.

Patent for a pin for engravers' blocks for holding items to be engraved on the block. It has grooves of various widths on the sides to fit different size objects.
Date: July 16, 1907
Creator: Martin, Joseph Clay
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oil-Burner (open access)

Oil-Burner

Patent for an oil burner to be used in cement kilns. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Griffiths, Leonard L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Overall-Waist (open access)

Overall-Waist

Patent for connections between union overalls and coat (waist). This invention enables a close overlap between trousers and coat, "to avoid all loose or flying portions of the garment which might otherwise impede or obstruct the free use of arms of the wearer or catch in machinery" (p.1 lines 51 to 55) etc.
Date: July 16, 1918
Creator: Elliott, Joseph S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Dirt-Tamping Shovel (open access)

Dirt-Tamping Shovel

Patent for a dirt tamping shovel. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Sherman, Henry A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Picker (open access)

Cotton-Picker

Patent for a cotton picker that can be used on several rows of cotton at a time. Illustrations included.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Meier, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bale-Core-Operating Device (open access)

Bale-Core-Operating Device

Patent for bale core operating device which improves the bale core quality around which the bale is formed, including illustrations.
Date: July 16, 1918
Creator: Taft, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Brick-Machines. (open access)

Improvement in Brick-Machines.

Patent for the improvement of brick-machines, consisting in the arrangement, with the molds, of one or more valves of flood-gates in the bottom of the pugmill, for the purpose of controlling the flow of the clay into the molds, and a roller and knife upon each side of the mill for pressing the clay into the molds and dressing the tops of the bricks. It includes a description and illustration.
Date: July 16, 1872
Creator: Houghton, Gideon H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Railroad-Switches. (open access)

Improvement in Railroad-Switches.

Patent for improvement in railroad-switches by “mounting a frog on a plate, and provided with pivoted rails or rail-sections, arranged for operation in connection with fixed rail-sections upon the plate, to form a continuity with either line of main rail, and connected below the plate by pivoted bars or levers, to secure a relative action or adjustment of the pivoted or movable rail-sections, whereby a very perfect and simple frog operating to prevent break in the main line or lines is obtained, and which is capable of being adjusted by passing trains in opposite directions of travel.” (Lines 5-18) Illustration is included.
Date: July 16, 1872
Creator: Fitzsimmons, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cutter (open access)

Cutter

Patent for a corn or feed cutter with adjustable blades.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Currie, Malcolm M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adjustable Shade-Support (open access)

Adjustable Shade-Support

Patent for an adjustable window shade support.
Date: July 16, 1912
Creator: Dixon, Raymond E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Tool. (open access)

Combination Tool.

Patent for a new and improved multi-tool. This design consists in "the combination of the two overlapping fulcrumed or pivoted levers having handles and forward ends of flattened crescent shape bent in reverse directions to cause their extreme reduced ends to abut to form nippers, and provided with beveled shoulders at the bases of their inner edges to form cutters and with serrated projections in rear of the pivot or fulcrum, and an angular arm movably attached to said pivot or fulcrum, carrying a receptacle adapted to be adjusted under the nippers for the reception of staples" (lines 29-42).
Date: July 16, 1889
Creator: Carter, James T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coin-Controlled Vending Machine (open access)

Coin-Controlled Vending Machine

Patent for a coin operated vending machine for selling cigars or other objects in round or square packages which can deliver the correct number of products regardless of how many coins are inserted into the machine to equal the selling price.
Date: July 16, 1907
Creator: Wilson, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Desk and Map-Cabinet. (open access)

Combined Desk and Map-Cabinet.

Patent for a convertible writing desk that doubles as a cabinet for storing and displaying maps. Intended to allow multiple scrolled maps to be stored inside and easily displayed and retracted in classroom settings.
Date: July 16, 1918
Creator: Fanning, Samuel H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car-coupling meant to "provide in an automatic car-coupling improved means for holding and guiding the link into the draw-head" (lines 9-12).
Date: July 16, 1895
Creator: Rowell, John R.
System: The Portal to Texas History