Book Guard (open access)

Book Guard

Patent for a book guard with an illustration.
Date: December 21, 1909
Creator: Boatright, John B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Turn Table (open access)

Turn Table

Patent for a new and improved turn table. This invention "relates to an improvement in turn-tables, and its an improvement on that particular kind of turn-table shown and described in Patent NO.517,304" (line 7-9).
Date: December 28, 1897
Creator: Rohrbach, Gabriel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Track Walker's Tool. (open access)

Track Walker's Tool.

Patent for a new and improved track-walker's tool. This design "consist[s] of a sectional handle or body having a claw-bar and spiking-maul at one end and a wrench at the opposite end, the said wrench being provided with a stud upon one face, the distance between the outer face of said stud and the outer surface of the maul when the sections are joined together and the maul faces the stud being such as to correspond to the standard distance between rails" (lines 14-23).
Date: December 2, 1890
Creator: Rohrbach, Gabriel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Folding Bunk Stairs (open access)

Folding Bunk Stairs

Patent for stair-step that can be folded up, to be used in bunk bed situations such as in sleeping cars of trains.
Date: December 26, 1916
Creator: Mey, Ella E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate-Latch. (open access)

Gate-Latch.

Patent for improvements in gate latches, which "may be adjusted toward or from a gate on a post to be engaged by the latch proper and enable compensation to be made for spreading of the posts upon which the gate is supported and to which it is secured by the latching device." (Lines 14-19) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: July 29, 1891
Creator: Rohrbach, Gabriel
System: The Portal to Texas History