Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a simple, efficient, and reliable car-coupling that is meant to be especially safe. When the cars become uncoupled, the coupling is automatically reset to couple another car, and it can be easily applied to a drawhead to a car in use.
Date: February 5, 1895
Creator: Schneider, Adolph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Stretcher and Tightener. (open access)

Wire Stretcher and Tightener.

Patent for a wire stretcher and tightener meant for wire fence rails. It is easy and convenient to use, and consists of a lever with a fixed pulley on one end, a rope or chain passes through the pulley, and the rope or chain has hooks attached to its ends.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Farmer, Francis Marion
System: The Portal to Texas History
Lattice. (open access)

Lattice.

Patent for a simple, strong, and economic lattice that is meant for use in jail cells. It allows air and light into the cell, and they are formed with "alternately opposite depressions and elevations for the reception of the bars running at right angles thereto" (lines 12-24). It should have alternating bars of steel and iron.
Date: February 5, 1895
Creator: Hull, William S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mail-Bag Catcher and Deliverer. (open access)

Mail-Bag Catcher and Deliverer.

Patent for "a device capable of catching or transferring mail bags from a mail bag hanger to the mail car while the car is in motion, the device also acting to deliver a mail bag at the same station, if necessary, one operation in no manner interfering with the other." (Lines 8-14) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 5, 1895
Creator: Sliger, Charles F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Well-Bucket. (open access)

Well-Bucket.

Patent for a simple and efficient well-bucket that are used in bored, drilled, and dug wells. This invention will not get caught on things when it is being raised and lowered, can, by design, can withstand wear, and is meant to be automatically filled and emptied of its contents.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Goodwin, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mode of and Means for Baling Fibrous Materials. (open access)

Mode of and Means for Baling Fibrous Materials.

Patent for a mode of and means for baling fibrous materials, especially materials that can be made into a lap or web. The invention doesn't have the issues that other balers have and uses a core, supported by the base, to wind the material around. The bale it forms is square so it can be easily shipped and the risk of fire is decreased. Caps for the bale are secured before the bale leaves the compress.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Bruner, Thomas H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Muzzle. (open access)

Muzzle.

Patent for a muzzle for horses that can be easily applied. It prevents the animal from eating while its head is upright, and opens while the horse lowers its head to graze. This prevents the horse from damaging orchards.
Date: February 5, 1895
Creator: Lipscomb, Cicero D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hasp. (open access)

Hasp.

Patent for a hasp that "may be adjusted longitudinally to compensate for expansion or contraction of the parts to which it is applied, or which it is designed to connect, the means for adjustment being such that they may be manipulated without displacing or altering the relative positions of any of the parts of the device, and furthermore, to provide means whereby the hasp is capable of universal movement, whereby it is operative irrespective of the planes in which the surfaces of the connected parts are arranged" (lines 10-21).
Date: February 5, 1895
Creator: Hutton, Milton Calhoun
System: The Portal to Texas History
Street-Sprinkling Appratus. (open access)

Street-Sprinkling Appratus.

Patent for an inexpensive street-sprinkling apparatus. It can be steam, electric, cable, or horse powered, and can sprinkle a wide or narrow street. "The invention consists in a vehicle preferably running upon a railway-track and provided with a water-tank and with independent sprinklers or final-distributors or sets of distributors, the one located at an end or the ends of the vehicle and discharging by gravity, and the other at the sides thereof, toward an end or the ends, and discharging under pressure or by force" (lines 24-33). Water is pressurized in the tank, and uses the force of gravity to distribute it.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Campbell, Louis W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Method of and Apparatus for Treating Mineral Pitch. (open access)

Method of and Apparatus for Treating Mineral Pitch.

Patent for an "improved method of and apparatus for treating mineral pitch and similar material to readily separate the asphalt and asphalt-oils from sand, bituminous rock, and other impurities contained in the mined material and removing the sand and impurities" (lines 12-17). The method circulates the material in hot water to separate the asphalt and asphalt-oils from the sand and impurities. The asphalt and oil rise to the top of the water and the impurities sink.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Sellers, Harvey Lee; Conyngton, Hugh Ronald & Conyngton, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rotary Engine. (open access)

Rotary Engine.

Patent for "improvements in rotary engines by which a flanged or bladed disk is made to revolve in a steam tight chamber or chest." (Lines 7-10) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 5, 1895
Creator: West, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railroad-Tie. (open access)

Railroad-Tie.

Patent for a railroad-tie that improves on a patent granted to John C. Lee (No. 513,792). The improvement that simplifies and makes the tie stronger and uses less materials.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Mansfield, Robert Allen
System: The Portal to Texas History
Match-Box. (open access)

Match-Box.

Patent for a match-box that prevents "the wholesale removal therefrom of large numbers of matches by users and borrowers and their consequent wasteful expenditure, which, when this happens, as it commonly does in hotels and stores, makes the cost of matches an item of considerable expense to the proprietor" (lines 14-20).
Date: February 5, 1895
Creator: Holm, Martin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Design for a Cabinet. (open access)

Design for a Cabinet.

Design patent for a cabinet with a rectangular body and an internal horizontal partition.
Date: April 5, 1895
Creator: Carolan, Eugene P.
System: The Portal to Texas History