Combined Shaft Holder and Wrench. (open access)

Combined Shaft Holder and Wrench.

Patent for a new and improved shaft-holder and wrench. This design "consist[s] of the arms having their lower ends tapered to form screw-drivers of different sizes, the heads on the upper ends of the arms, the jaws on the heads, and the threaded shaft attached to one of the arms and engaging a tapped aperture in the other arm" (lines 92-98).
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Nott, Henry W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insecticide. (open access)

Insecticide.

Patent for an inflammable compound for exterminating destructive insects and animals that contains alkanet-root, arsenious acid, gum-camphor, iodine resubl., phosphorus, sulphur resubl., and bisulphide carbon.
Date: January 8, 1886
Creator: Shugart, T. Woodward. & Clifton, Charley D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Stretching and Removing Fence Wires. (open access)

Machine for Stretching and Removing Fence Wires.

Patent for a new and improved machine for stretching and removing fence wires. This design "is to provide a simple, effective, and inexpensive machine for stretching the wires of fences along the fence-posts, and straining the wires taut while they are being fastened to the posts, and also for removing the wires from the posts when required, as in removing or resetting a fence" (lines 8-14).
Date: January 8, 1884
Creator: Killough, John N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wheel or Felly Screw. (open access)

Wheel or Felly Screw.

Patent for a new and improved screw for a wheel or felly. This design "relates to screws for setting vehicle fellies or rims on the tenons of the spokes; and its object is to provide a device possessing superior advantages in point of simplicity, ease of adjustment, and general efficiency, whereby one [person] can easily and conveniently set the rim" (lines 9-15).
Date: January 8, 1884
Creator: Rotzien, Christoph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mechanical Movement (open access)

Mechanical Movement

Patent for "improvements in devices for converting reciprocal into rotary motion, and is more particularly adapted and intended for use with windmills in applying the reciprocal motion of the pump-rod to the operation of rotating machines" (lines 11-16).
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Fulton, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design "relates to improvements in plows, particularly to that portion of the plow known as the point; and it has for its object to produce a point that may be reversed, so that both ends may be utilized or may be made to project sufficiently to convert the plow into a sub-soil plow. To this end the invention consists of a blade with two or both sets of bolt-holes and a double-ended point with holes nearer one end than the other" (lines 11-21).
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Rhodes, William Taylor
System: The Portal to Texas History
Planter. (open access)

Planter.

Patent for a new and improved planter. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a plow, of the board, the clip detachably securing said board to the plow-beam, the hopper secured to the rear end of the board and provided with the openings and brush, the lever pivoted upon the clip, the spring, the seed-slide secured to the end of the rear arm of the lever, and the dropping-tube screwed through its wing to the plow standard" (lines 37-46).
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Cromer, Thomas L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway Car. (open access)

Railway Car.

Patent for improvements in railway car design to protect passengers against train robberies by a combination of "several walls of the compartment and doors connected therewith bullet-proof lining, and in providing several walls and doors, each with a series of port-holes" (lines 27-31) from which occupants can fire weapons in defense with accompanying illustrations.
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Warren, Gerald Patrick
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bale Band Tightener. (open access)

Bale Band Tightener.

Patent for a new and improved bale-band tightener. This design "is to produce a device by which one person may with ease draw a band tightly around a bale of cotton or other merchandise, in place of one that has by accident been broken" (lines 12-16).
Date: January 8, 1884
Creator: Willis, Robert L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Compress (open access)

Cotton-Compress

Patent for "a simple and efficient device and to secure economy in power and in construction" (lines 9-11).
Date: January 8, 1889
Creator: Taylor, George
System: The Portal to Texas History