Hasp-Fastener (open access)

Hasp-Fastener

Patent for a hasp fastener designed to hold a hasp in a locked position by use of gravity. Illustrations included.
Date: June 16, 1908
Creator: Robinson, Albert W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rail-Joint. (open access)

Rail-Joint.

Patent for improvements in rail-joint by providing “a fastening means for rail-joints adapted to embrace the bottom and top sides of the foot and the sides of the web of the rail and to extend along the underside of the head, so as to brace the joint vertically.” (Lines 16-31) Illustration is included.
Date: October 23, 1900
Creator: Boyd, Henry M. & Redmon, Hope
System: The Portal to Texas History
Spike (open access)

Spike

Patent for spikes for securing rails to railroad ties. Illustrations included.
Date: November 12, 1912
Creator: Riggins, William R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Artesian Well Borer. (open access)

Artesian Well Borer.

Patent for a new and improved artesian-well borer. This design "will be actuated by the weight of the connecting-rods and sink-wells in rock, gravel, earth, or sand without the use of water" (lines 13-16). It consists "[i]n an earth or rock auger, the combination, with a tube and a shank reciprocating in said tube and adapted to operate the auger, of dogs adapted to be projected through the tube by the reciprocation of the shank to engage the well-casing and hold the said tube from rotary movement" (lines 62-68).
Date: January 20, 1891
Creator: Logan, Thomas H.
System: The Portal to Texas History