Resource Type

Fire Escape. (open access)

Fire Escape.

Patent for a new and improved fire escape. This design "is to provide a fire-escape consisting, essentially, of a cushion adapted to receive and break the fall of persons jumping from a burning building, the said cushion being so constructed as to enable it to be folded to a convenient and portable size" (lines 8-14).
Date: January 15, 1889
Creator: Simon, Jacob Peter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pipe Wrench. (open access)

Pipe Wrench.

Patent for a new and improved pipe-wrench. This design consists in "the handle having the integral L-shaped foot at its end forming the rigid jaw of the wrench, said foot or jaw having its inner face curved, so as to receive and provide a bearing for the pipe, and its outer face at right angles to the handle, and said face being serrated, combined with the C-shaped swinging jaw pivoted at one end to the handle by a single bolt, and having its entire inner face serrated from the pivot-point to the outer end, and the teeth along the outer edge of the handle in close proximity to the rigid foot" (lines 12-24).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Smith, James R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Dredging-Machine (open access)

Dredging-Machine

Patent for "a dredger which shall in an improved manner co-operate with and utilize the current in removing accumulations from the bed of channels" (lines 13-17).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: Fletcher, William A.
System: The Portal to Texas History