Combined Hay Press and Horse Power. (open access)

Combined Hay Press and Horse Power.

Patent for a combined hay-press and horse-power with illustrations.
Date: January 1, 1884
Creator: Randle, William, Sr
System: The Portal to Texas History
Steam-Engine (open access)

Steam-Engine

Patent for a steam engine, improving on the original design so as to "provide a steam-engine having few parts so as to avoid the use of eccentrics, slide-valve, valve-rod, piston and connecting rods, stuffing-boxes, and glands, thus increasing the actual power by decreasing the friction" (lines 26-31).
Date: January 1, 1889
Creator: Harpst, Edgar S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Refrigerating Apparatus. (open access)

Refrigerating Apparatus.

Patent for a new and improved refrigerator. This design "consists, essentially, in a series of vessels surrounded or enveloped by fibrous material, dipping into a water-vessel above, and serving to maintain a constant supply of water to the exterior of the vessels through capillary action, the water being caused to pass down in such quantity as to drip from the bottoms of the vessels and collect in a second tank supplying a second series of vessels in the same manner, and finally to collect in a suitable vessel below, intermediate filtering apparatus being provided or not, as required" (lines 9-20).
Date: January 1, 1884
Creator: Dodge, Frances A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Recording Door-Lock (open access)

Recording Door-Lock

Patent for "a continuous-recording lock suitable for bonded warehouses, factories, stores, public buildings, offices &c., and by a slight modification applicable, also, for private residences" (lines 7-11).
Date: January 1, 1889
Creator: Ferguson, George J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sleigh-Runner. (open access)

Sleigh-Runner.

Patent for a new adjustable sleigh runner designed to be easily applied and removed from wheeled vehicles, including illustrations.
Date: January 1, 1889
Creator: Lewis, Thomas E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Drag Saw. (open access)

Drag Saw.

Patent for a new and improved drag saw. This design "is to provide a simple, inexpensive, durable, and easily-operated machine for cross-cutting timber for railway-ties and material, or for cord-wood, stove-wood, or other uses" (lines 7-11).
Date: January 1, 1884
Creator: Bennett, William A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design "relates to that class of walking-cultivators or shovel-plows which are drawn by a single horse between two rows of plants, and which are frequently called 'double-shovel plows.' The leading object of the invention is to provide such a cultivator with two beams, each carrying a shovel, which beams are independently capable of vertical and lateral movements, whereby the operator can guide or lift the beams and shovels to avoid plants or obstacles" (lines 11-22).
Date: January 1, 1889
Creator: Jones, Fred B.
System: The Portal to Texas History