Wood Pavement. (open access)

Wood Pavement.

Patent for a new and improved wood pavement. This design "consists in a pavement consisting of wooden blocks stripped of bark, cylindrical in shape, and sawed at right angles to the axis of the blocks. Said blocks of live bois d'arc or other hard timber, about six inches long, and placed on ends on a road-bed of bank sand and gravel after the same has been well and compactly rolled, and the spaces between the blocks filled with screened gravel and rammed until solid, and then coated with tar and pitch" (lines 12-22).
Date: July 1, 1884
Creator: Johnson, William M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bellows Attachment for Barrels. (open access)

Bellows Attachment for Barrels.

Patent for a new and improved bellows attachment for barrels. This design "provide[s] means for securely attaching the bellows to the barrels, so as to exclude the admission of air, except such as is forced in by the bellows; and a further object of the same provides for the shutting off the flow of liquid, as desired" (lines 13-18).
Date: July 1, 1884
Creator: Park, Hardy B.
System: The Portal to Texas History