Bicycle-Wheel. (open access)

Bicycle-Wheel.

Patent for an improved rear bicycle-wheel. It has one hub, two rims, two sets of spokes and tires. This invention is meant to be safer and has the qualities of a tricycle. It is meant for a woman's bicycle.
Date: January 14, 1896
Creator: Broers, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Composition of Matter for Manufacturing Calcium Carbid. (open access)

Composition of Matter for Manufacturing Calcium Carbid.

Patent for a compound for use in commercial manufacturing of the product calcium sodic carbid claiming to reduce time and expense of production process.
Date: November 10, 1896
Creator: Eldridge, Hilliary; Clark, Daniel Johnson & Wambaugh, Mahlon W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for "a compress having a continuous operation, whereby one bale of cotton is being formed by the compress all the time the same is working, and thereby rendering it unnecessary to completely stop the working of the entire press for every single bale made until the bale can be wrapped and discharged out of the press." (Lines 15-22) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 14, 1896
Creator: Griffin, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bootjack. (open access)

Bootjack.

Patent for a new and improved boot-jack. This design is for an addition to existing boot-jacks that allows for wet or tight boots to be removed completely after the heel of the foot is loosened, all without the use of hands. This additional apparatus can be adjusted to different angles by way of eye-holes and screws.
Date: June 16, 1896
Creator: Ulferts, Ulfert Harms
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for a cotton-press with "new and useful roller-compresses for making bales of cotton into a cylindrical or roll-form, and also having simple and efficient mechanism for continuously forming a bale all the time the compress is in operation, which result has heretofore been impossible in presses of that character employing only one pair of compressing-rolls" (lines 9-17).
Date: June 16, 1896
Creator: Griffin, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coach and Car Step. (open access)

Coach and Car Step.

Patent for an attached coach and car step "to render it unnecessary to carry stools or stepping-boxes, as are now used to facilitate passengers to get on or off the car or coach from an extra height between the ground or depot-floor and the main bottom tread of the step, thus avoiding dangerous and fatal results from overturning of stools and boxes." (Lines 14-21) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 11, 1896
Creator: Taylor, Frederick A.; Farrell, Patrick W. & Quebe, Wesley S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Transplanter. (open access)

Transplanter.

Patent for a machine that transplants small plants while avoiding "clogging of the mud in soft soil" (line 20). It has a cylindrical cutter and a cylindrical plunger that fits just inside it. The plunger is usually away from the base of the cutter, and an adjustable rod extends from the plunger.
Date: August 11, 1896
Creator: Harris, Hiram S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Thill-Coupling. (open access)

Thill-Coupling.

Patent for an expansible coupling-bolt designed to not rattle and to "provide a simple but effective means for taking up the play between the coupling-pin in the lug-bearings" (lines 17-20).
Date: November 3, 1896
Creator: Stowe, John N., Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Envelop. (open access)

Envelop.

Patent for envelops "used to inclose articles of value, and provision of means and structural conformation whereby any surreptitious handling thereof will be detected." (Lines 11-14) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 8, 1896
Creator: Mayer, Walter S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rocking-Chair Fan. (open access)

Rocking-Chair Fan.

Patent for a rocking chair fan that spins when the operator begins rocking in the chair. It easily adjusts to any model of rocking chair and is noiseless.
Date: July 21, 1896
Creator: Martyr, Leonard W. & Martyr, Ernest E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gas-Generating Apparatus. (open access)

Gas-Generating Apparatus.

Patent for a gas-generator, especially generating acetylene, "with uniformity of flow of gas and at a uniform pressure" (lines 15-16). It is simple and can be constructed in many sizes. "This apparatus is especially adapted for generating gas and mixing it with air from that class of chemicals that generate gas from water by decomposition thereof and by affinity for oxygen or hydrogen" (lines 25-30).
Date: September 15, 1896
Creator: Eldridge, Hilliary
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rail-Joint. (open access)

Rail-Joint.

Patent for rail-joints that are a "firm and secure support for the abutting ends of rails to maintain their treads in the same horizontal plane and prevent them from being mashed down at the ends" (lines 13-17). This makes train passengers more comfortable and lengthens the rail's and the fish-plates' lives, and makes fish-plates more stable.
Date: November 3, 1896
Creator: Wambaugh, Mahlon W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mergenthaler Linotype-Machine. (open access)

Mergenthaler Linotype-Machine.

Patent for an improvement "to the elevator-arm of the Mergenthaler linotype-machine, and its object is to prevent the rubbing of the matrices against the inner walls of the channel-plates when being raised therefrom." (Lines 9-13) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Sundstrom, Herman Theodor
System: The Portal to Texas History