Apparatus for Destroying Insects. (open access)

Apparatus for Destroying Insects.

Patent for a new and improved apparatus for killing ants. This design "consist[s] of frame, levers, pivoted arms, piston-rod, piston provided with valves and openings, air-tight iron chamber having opening pipe, furnace provided with double lid, lugs, pipe, clamp, and wedge . . . whereby the flame as well as the poisonous vapors are injected into the insect chambers" (lines 50-58).
Date: August 2, 1881
Creator: Gray, Hiram Balderston
System: The Portal to Texas History
Breakwater. (open access)

Breakwater.

Patent for a new and improved breakwater. This design "furnish[es] breakwaters for protecting harbors and roadsteads, and keeping open channels through bars at the entrances of harbors, the mouths of rivers, and in other places, and which shall not be liable to be destroyed by the marine worm" (lines 13-19).
Date: August 9, 1881
Creator: Follett, Alexander Glass
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Chopper. (open access)

Cotton Chopper.

Patent for a new and improved cotton chopper. This design "consists in a novel construction and arrangement of devices for raising and lowering the hoes and throwing them in and out of gear" (lines 8-11).
Date: August 9, 1881
Creator: Helmecke, Friederich A.
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 construction and novel arrangement of the rack-bars seated in ways recessed in the sides of the draw-head, toothed segments engaging therewith, a shaft carrying said toothed segments, and also bearing within the cavity of the draw-head a vibratory arm and a setting-lever, from which the coupling-pin is suspended, connected to said vibratory arm" (lines 24-32).
Date: August 16, 1881
Creator: Stephens, Lawrence Earnest. & Pool, George Washington.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coffee Roaster. (open access)

Coffee Roaster.

Patent for a new and improved "culinary utensil primarily intended for use as a coffee roaster, but also . . . of any article which needs to be stirred while upon the fire" (lines 12-16). This design utilizes a crankshaft to stir the beans (or other foods) as they roast.
Date: August 23, 1881
Creator: Walling, Edmund Pendleton
System: The Portal to Texas History
Attachment for Harness. (open access)

Attachment for Harness.

Patent for a new and improved attachment for harnesses. This design "relates to attachments for harness; and it consists of a plate having a safety-hook, a back-band buckle, and guide-rings" (lines 20-23).
Date: August 30, 1881
Creator: Applewhite, David T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Chopper. (open access)

Cotton Chopper.

Patent for a new and improved cotton chopper. This design "consists, principally, in a cotton-chopper provided with a rolling support that is swiveled to the front end of the frame and trails behind such swiveled connection immediately in front of the cutting-blades . . . it consists, further, in the construction and combination of the various parts of the machine, whereby the same is enabled to operate across the row of cotton-plants" (lines 16-28).
Date: August 30, 1881
Creator: Wilder, Bert S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Weather Board Gage. (open access)

Weather Board Gage.

Patent for a new and improved gauge for weatherboards. This design utilizes a guiding loop and a hinged part to create a gauge that, "after it has been attached to the house, will support at least two boards in position while they are being nailed on, before it is necessary to the move the gage [sic] into another position, and which gage will be so securely held in place that the boards can be moved back and forth without displacing it in any manner" (lines 27-34).
Date: August 9, 1881
Creator: Lawrence, John Madison
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Stretcher. (open access)

Wire Stretcher.

Patent for a new and improved wire stretcher. This design "facilitate[s] the building of wire fences; and it consists in the construction and novel arrangement of the transporting bed or wagon, its spindles for the spools of wire, and its transverse windlass-rollers and their ratchets and pawls" (lines 16-21).
Date: August 2, 1881
Creator: Morter, John Letcher
System: The Portal to Texas History
Method of Working Hydrated Volatile Refrigerating Agents, and Apparatus for Ice Making and Refrigeration. (open access)

Method of Working Hydrated Volatile Refrigerating Agents, and Apparatus for Ice Making and Refrigeration.

Patent for a new method of working hydrated volatile refrigerating agents and a new refrigerator. This design "involve[s] the use of such highly volatile matters as are capable of hydration — as, for instance, ammonia, that being the refrigerating agent preferable to all others . . . [and] is a simplification in the mode of operation, and in apparatus which enables the employment of comparatively unskilled labor, the production of apparatus at comparatively low cost, and the working of the ammonia-gas at comparatively low pressure, thus obviating the dangers" (lines 13-24).
Date: August 2, 1881
Creator: Rose, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nut Lock. (open access)

Nut Lock.

Patent for a new and improved nut lock. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the end-cleft screw-bolt, of the wedge which is made of the same width as the diameter of the bolt, and provided with serrations corresponding to the screw-thread, and the fastening-wire which is wrapped around both bolt and wedge and lies in their respective grooves and serrations" (lines 72-78).
Date: August 23, 1881
Creator: McAllister, Lewis Campbell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway Switch Lock. (open access)

Railway Switch Lock.

Patent for a new and improved railway-switch lock. This design "consists in a novel construction and arrangement of parts whereby an independent key is used to unlock the latch or bolt of the bolt-case" (lines 14-17).
Date: August 2, 1881
Creator: Angus, Alexander & Phillips, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Street Car. (open access)

Street Car.

Patent for a new and improved street car. This design "has reference to the construction of steam and other street-cars, whereby the same can be readily turned around corners, having for its object the simplifying of the construction and lessening the cost of construction" of previous street cars (lines 22-27).
Date: August 9, 1881
Creator: Towell, Isaac
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Tongs. (open access)

Fire Tongs.

Patent for a new and improved pair of fire tongs. This design consists of "[a] guide device for preventing the legs of fire-tongs from crossing, consisting of a wing-plate having at one end an open eye to fit about one leg of the tongs, and attached thereto . . . and a slot-piece having open eyes to fit about the other leg, and a straight part attached to the said eyes and forming the slot through which the wing may move freely" (lines 91-99).
Date: August 16, 1881
Creator: Mangum, Wiley P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Farm Gate. (open access)

Farm Gate.

Patent for a new and improved farm gate. This design "has relation to that class of swinging farm-gates operated by an arrangement of levers upon both sides thereof, whereby the gate can be opened and closed by the driver or occupant of the vehicle without getting down from his [or her] seat" (lines 16-21).
Date: August 30, 1881
Creator: Wolfram, John Arnold
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway Rail and Chair. (open access)

Railway Rail and Chair.

Patent for a new and improved railway rail and chair combination. This design consists in "[t]he combination of the reversible rail and chair-plates . . . so as to leave an open crescent-shaped space below the middle part of the rail and above the inwardly projecting lips" (lines 94-98).
Date: August 2, 1881
Creator: Brown, Frederick H.
System: The Portal to Texas History