Combined Cotton Chopper and Cultivator. (open access)

Combined Cotton Chopper and Cultivator.

Patent for a combined cotton chopper and cultivator that "consists in providing the main axle with spur-wheels and with depending supports to which are attached the beams of the cultivator shovels and a cutting blade which extends in front of the machine and is adapted to be vibrated by the spur-wheels as the machine moves over the ground, thereby providing means for chopping cotton or other stalks" (lines 17-25).
Date: January 23, 1894
Creator: Bosley, Henry C. & Organ, Joseph H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Washing and Draining Dishes. (open access)

Apparatus for Washing and Draining Dishes.

Patent for a new and improved dishwasher. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a pan provided near its top on the inner side with rigidly-attached brackets, with a tray in the form of a pan whose side and bottom portions are perforated . . . the tray being of less diameter and height than the pan and provided on its outer side near the bottom with brackets and on its upper edge with handles" (lines 94-101).
Date: January 14, 1890
Creator: Caradine, Virginia C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a simple, practical, and reliable car-coupling with a side latch. It is "adapted for automatic connection in pairs, when two cars having the improvements are brought together on the same track, which will be capable of a ready release from the side of either coupled car, and also that will be adapted by its peculiar formation to receive support from one part of the improvements, when a coupled drawhead is partly detached from its connections to the car, and which if not so sustained might fall on the track, derail the car having the disabled coupling, and occasion the wreckage of said car and others of a train" (lines 14-27).
Date: January 15, 1895
Creator: Curry, Charles D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Locomotive. (open access)

Locomotive.

Patent for an improved locomotive or traction-engine, with a series of water-shells, each containing "a series of fire-flues, a feeding-water heater, a pipe discharging steam" (lines 118-121), and a double-action plunger-pump.
Date: January 26, 1897
Creator: McCallum, Daniel W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stationary Boiler. (open access)

Stationary Boiler.

Patent for a new and useful improvements in stationary boilers for " marine, locomotive, and stationary purposes" (line 14- 15).
Date: January 4, 1898
Creator: McCallum, Daniel W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Ventilating Cars. (open access)

Means for Ventilating Cars.

Patent for a new and improved ventilator. This design is "first, to ventilate cars or other vehicles in such a manner that the air-currents may be formed within and directed to any part of the car and the admission of the air regulated in quantity; second, to change the direction of the air-currents formed within the car and regulate their escape" (lines 11-17). It consists in "the body of a vehicle having its walls provided with a suitable pipe-opening, of an air-receiving pipe provided with a screen upon its outer end, a hollow fan-shaped air-distributor having an opening within said walls" (lines 58-63).
Date: January 6, 1891
Creator: Lazarus, Samuel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Portable Folding Poultry-Coop (open access)

Portable Folding Poultry-Coop

Patent for "an improvement in portable folding poultry-coops, and more particularly to a'coop or crate used in the transportation of fowls to market by rail or boat" (lines 8-11)
Date: January 28, 1890
Creator: Yoakum, Robert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stock-Car (open access)

Stock-Car

Patent for an improvement on patent no. 326,591 so as "to enable a series of troughs in a stock-car to be extended toward and withdrawn 'from a position in line with the heads of the stock simultaneously; second, to provide for a vibrating water-trough a self-folding end support; third, to provide a car-door for the entrance of the stock which is capable of being folded and will unfold to close the door-opening in line with the inner surface of the car; fourth, to provide a sliding rear support for a folding car-door when closed; fifth, to enable the vibrating stall-partitions to be released from a horizontally-retained position from either side of the car; sixth, to enable one exterior end portion of a stock-car to be folded in line with the end hay-racks; seventh, to combine a folding exterior end portion of a car with the interior hay-rack" (lines 18-36).
Date: January 6, 1891
Creator: Stoner, Jacob B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Surgical Instrument. (open access)

Surgical Instrument.

Patent for a surgical instrument meant to help examine and treat the urethra and similar internal canals and passages. It can easily be cleaned and taken apart.
Date: January 15, 1895
Creator: Johnson, Emmet E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hay Press. (open access)

Hay Press.

Patent for a new and improved hay-press. This design "is to produce a hay-press of simple construction that will work easily and rapidly, that will operate in such a manner that the hay cannot clog in the press, and in which the plunger or follower will be automatically reciprocated by a continuous motion of the main pulley" (lines 9-15). It consists, "with the plunger having a sideways-extending arm, a screw-shaft connected with the plunger and having a sideways-extending arm, the pinion on the screw-shaft, the shaft and pinions . . . of a tilting frame" (lines 113-118).
Date: January 13, 1891
Creator: Donald, Frank
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate (open access)

Gate

Patent for invention of certain new and useful Improvements in Gates. Relates to the improvements in automatic gates, Including annexed drawing which fully illustrate the invetion (5-10).
Date: January 31, 1893
Creator: Boyd, Alexander
System: The Portal to Texas History
Suspension-Bridge. (open access)

Suspension-Bridge.

Patent for a suspension bridge that improves on a previous patent granted to the inventor (No. 411,499). This patent is meant to "decrease the vertical motion in floor of min span of bridge, thereby adding stability thereto; to provide for a new and improved anchorage for the suspension cables of the bridge; and, furthermore, to improve certain details of construction" (lines 15-20).
Date: January 23, 1894
Creator: Greer, William Henry Clay
System: The Portal to Texas History
Conflagration Arrester. (open access)

Conflagration Arrester.

Patent for a new and improved conflagration arrester. This design "is to provide a device by which the sides of a building adjacent to other buildings on fire may be protected by a uniform continuous sheet of water covering the sides of such building" (lines 9-13). It consists in "the combination of a series of inclined arms provided with eyes at their outer ends and having hooks to engage the side of a building, a shelf or deflector, and a rod so connecting the latter pivotally with the eyes of the inclined arms that the upper part of said shelf shall overbalance the lower part, which shall . . . rest against the wall" (lines 89-97).
Date: January 20, 1891
Creator: Puckett, Florence N.
System: The Portal to Texas History