Cotton Picker's Wagon. (open access)

Cotton Picker's Wagon.

Patent for a new and improved wagon for cotton pickers. This design "consists in a suitable frame-work supported on wheels and covered on top by canvas or other suitable material to protect the pickers from the rays of the sun or from the rain, and on one or both sides of the frame, preferably both, is a trough for receiving the picked cotton" (lines 10-16).
Date: February 21, 1882
Creator: Collins, Charles P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "form[s] the central opening of the draw-bar with a tup-bar having rearwardly a spiral spring. The forward end of this tup-bar is inclined forwardly somewhat at an angle at the top, so that when the said bar is pushed forward by the spiral spring at its rear end, the coupling-pin will rest upon this forwardly-projecting end of the bar, while the link will rest beneath, so that in dropping the pin will rest within the link, and not on the outer side, which would be the case if this bar were square" (lines 15-26).
Date: December 15, 1885
Creator: McAllister, Sanders F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Wrench. (open access)

Combination Wrench.

Patent for a new and improved multi-tool. This design consists in "[t]he bar having the nut-wrench and the hammer-head formed at one end, the pipe-wrench formed at the opposite end, and the slot made in one side, the spring located in the bottom of the slot or opening, and the blade pivoted in one end of the slot or opening and bearing on the free end of the spring, the said blade forming a screw-driver" (lines 52-59).
Date: May 4, 1886
Creator: Wright, Augustus Washington
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Sweep. (open access)

Cotton Sweep.

Patent for a new and improved cotton-sweep. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the frame, having the longitudinal beams and with the detachable shanks of the blades or points each composed of the outer long arm and the inner short arm, making the front angle of about forty-five degrees with each other, and having their lower front edges sharpened" (lines 83-90).
Date: May 8, 1888
Creator: Knight, Thaddeus Warsaw
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Fan. (open access)

Automatic Fan.

Patent for a new and improved automatic fan. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the attaching-plate, the depending rod, the fixed plate on the lower end thereof, the socket arms pivotally connected to said plate at their inner ends, and the fans held in the sockets in said arms, of the plate loosely mounted on the rod above [the] plate, having arms, the rods pivotally connecting the outer ends of said arms, the pitman connected to [another] plate, and the operating crank" (lines 67-76).
Date: October 9, 1888
Creator: Goodspeed, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Brake. (open access)

Car-Brake.

Patent for improvement to train brakes by using a car brake apparatus.
Date: July 21, 1885
Creator: Sledge, Clarence Linden
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Packer. (open access)

Cotton-Packer.

Patent for an improvement that "relates to that class of cotton-packers which receive cotton from the condenser after ginning and pack it in a box preparatory to being pressed and tied into a bale; and its object is to provide means whereby the cotton may be packed int he box automatically" (lines 8-14).
Date: September 29, 1885
Creator: Hart, Alfred
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Cultivator. (open access)

Cotton Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design consists in "the wheeled frame, the two laterally and vertically movable drag-bars jointed thereto, and each provided with shovels, the horizontal rotary-shaft lying between the drag-bars and provided with a blade arranged to revolve between the shovels of the respective beams, the transverse shaft mounted on the frame and connected by driving devices with the ground-wheel, and the intermediate shaft connected to the [other] shafts . . . by universal joints" (lines 17-27).
Date: June 21, 1887
Creator: Hutchins, Charles Nelson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bag. (open access)

Bag.

Patent for a new and improved bag. This design is "compris[ed of] the body divided down its front, one edge having staples and the other edge having openings adapted to engage said staples, a covering-flap provided with an opening adapted to engage one of said staples, and a flexible fastening device secured to said bag and adapted to be passed through said staples for securing the edges and covering-flap" (lines 62-71).
Date: July 19, 1887
Creator: Franks, Lewis Wigfall
System: The Portal to Texas History
Corn and Cotton Planter (open access)

Corn and Cotton Planter

Patent for "a machine for planting corn or cotton, that may be attached to almost any kind of plow, simple in construction, easily repaired by an ordinary blacksmith, and capable of use in a satisfactory manner for planing where stumps and rocks would interfere with the operation of machines of ordinary construction" (lines 9-15).
Date: August 31, 1880
Creator: Krüger, Theodore Charles Herman
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Clothes Washer and Churn. (open access)

Combined Clothes Washer and Churn.

Patent for a new and improved combined clothes washer and churn. This design "is to facilitate the operations of washing clothes and churning, and also to avoid the necessity of having a separate mechanism for each use. The invention consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of parts" (lines 16-21).
Date: March 6, 1883
Creator: Bridges, Mary Jane
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Picker's Wagon. (open access)

Cotton Picker's Wagon.

Patent for a new and improved wagon for cotton pickers. This design consists in "the combination of the frame, supporting wheels, cover, side-curtains, troughs, and partitions" (lines 53-55).
Date: May 1, 1883
Creator: Collins, Charles P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ventilating Cover. (open access)

Ventilating Cover.

Patent for a new and improved ventilating cover. This design "consists in the detailed construction of the same . . . whereby the contents of . . . vessels are protected from dust, insects, and all kinds of impurity, and at the same time are thoroughly ventilated by free communication with the atmosphere, and so that any gases arising from the contents of said vessels will not be confined with the contents, but will pass off through the ventilating-cover into the surrounding air" (lines 16-26).
Date: April 28, 1885
Creator: Smith, Ralph Julius
System: The Portal to Texas History
Packing attachment for cotton presses. (open access)

Packing attachment for cotton presses.

Patent for improvement of packing attachment for cotton presses.
Date: October 6, 1885
Creator: Bradford, John B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Motor for Sewing Machines. (open access)

Motor for Sewing Machines.

Patent for a new and improved sewing-machine motor. This design has for its object "the production of a motor capable of rapid and convenient adjustment to permit operation by hand or foot . . . Heretofore motors have been provided for [this purpose] but the difficulty experienced in these machines is that during the operation of the machine by hand the treadle forms no substantial support for the feet, the pitman simply being disconnected from the driving-wheel and thrown back. . . . [T]he present invention . . . will obviate the above objection" (lines 10-22).
Date: August 28, 1888
Creator: Briggs, Emma Flora
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gin Saw. (open access)

Gin Saw.

Patent for a new and improved cotton-gin saw. This design's "object is to provide means for enabling the ready and convenient detachment of the teeth for substitution or other purposes, whereby superior advantages in point of simplicity, inexpensiveness, durability, and general efficiency are secured" (lines 10-15).
Date: October 30, 1883
Creator: Mann, Charles Wesley
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Tongs. (open access)

Fire Tongs.

Patent for new and improved fire tongs. This design "is designed to produce an article . . . which will be practical in every respect, and which will prevent the slipping or sliding of the legs or arms thereof while handling the logs, enabling the latter to be grasped with a firm hold, thereby avoiding the numerous accidents that often occur from the use of the present form of tongs" (lines 9-17).
Date: March 9, 1886
Creator: Bishop, John Andrews
System: The Portal to Texas History
Self Cleaning Plow. (open access)

Self Cleaning Plow.

Patent for a new and improved self-cleaning plow. This design consists in "[t]he combination of a mold-board having a plane face on the larger portion of its area, a blade having an axle journaled near the center of the said plane, a wheel journaled in the plow, with its rim parallel to and extending below the landside of the plow, a beveled gear-wheel upon the said wheel-axle, and another beveled wheel upon the blade-axle, engaging each other" (lines 79-87).
Date: August 18, 1885
Creator: Jones, Allen
System: The Portal to Texas History
Planter (open access)

Planter

Patent for a new improved planter. "It consists in the peculiar construction and combination of devices, that will be more fully set forth hereinafter, and particularly pointed out in the claims" (p. 1; lines 10-13) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 6, 1885
Creator: Morris, John Edwin
System: The Portal to Texas History