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
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
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
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
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