Resource Type

Tool for Sinking Wells. (open access)

Tool for Sinking Wells.

Patent for improvements in tools for sinking artesian wells, that the tool “will perform its duty under all circumstance and excavate as well in hard materials as in soft earth, as quicksand and cavey formations, and will not have its functions interfered with when an insufficient flow of water is encountered.” (Lines 17-22) Illustration is included.
Date: June 16, 1891
Creator: Stephenson, James D.
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 a car-coupling formed of two coupling-hooks pivoted on a pivot projecting from the bottom of the car, which coupling hooks pass through an inverted-V-shaped guide-slot in the guide-plate, held in front of the pivot, and the said coupling-hooks are connected with a vertically-moveable bar for raising the coupling-hooks. The coupling hooks are raised and their free ends are pressed together, and if then the coupling-hooks are released they swing downward and their free ends are separated" (lines 7-18).
Date: June 24, 1884
Creator: Grothaus, Frederick E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed Planter. (open access)

Seed Planter.

Patent for a new and improved seed planter. This design consists "[i]n a seed planter, [with a] seed-dropping cylinder . . . with a row of recesses around its middle part, and rows of different-sized recesses provided with adjustable gage-screws around its end parts, whereby different-sized seeds can be dropped by the same cylinder" (lines 67-74).
Date: June 14, 1881
Creator: Holekamp, Julius
System: The Portal to Texas History