Combination Door Check and Alarm. (open access)

Combination Door Check and Alarm.

Patent for a new and improved door-check and alarm. With this design, "[t]he latch normally stands in the engaging position, and when it aligns with one of the notches it engages the same automatically. One of the notches is so arranged that it is engaged by the latch when the door is closed, and when the knob is turned to open the door the cord, wire, or chain draws the latch out of engagement with the notch. . . . [a] bell on the end of the latch will give warning when the latch is moved, and the door cannot be opened without moving the latch" (lines 63-92).
Date: February 12, 1889
Creator: King, Charles Rufus
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal Shears. (open access)

Animal Shears.

Patent for new and improved animal shears. This design consists in "mechanism for imparting a combined reciprocating and edgewise play to the cutting knife or knives in order to cause the teeth of said knife or knives to follow or describe a curved or oval path, and thus insure greater efficiency of operation; to provide for the proper lateral contact of the knives in order to insure their proper action and to regulate the pressure or force with which one knife bears on the other; [and] to provide a peculiar form of cutter-teeth which shall be automatic or self-cleaning" (lines 19-30).
Date: February 11, 1890
Creator: Bechtol, William S. & Bessonette, William T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wool-Press. (open access)

Wool-Press.

Patent for a wooden machine that is used to compress wool, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: February 19, 1884
Creator: Brooks, David F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Polishing Shoes. (open access)

Machine for Polishing Shoes.

Patent for "an improvement in machines for polishing shoes" (lines 8-9) including illustrations.
Date: February 19, 1889
Creator: Bright, Joseph Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Spur. (open access)

Spur.

Patent for an improvement in spurs, this one containing a forked end with a rowel on each end of the fork. This is to ensure the rowels have a broad surface adjacent to each rowel and to prevent less injury to an animal when in use.
Date: February 4, 1919
Creator: Cook, Landon H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Engine. (open access)

Engine.

Patent for general "improvements in engines, and while one feature of our invention is adapted for use on all styles of engines, the invention in the complete form ...is especially suited for use on locomotive engines designed to exert high tractive power and to attain high speeds" (lines 12-19).
Date: February 19, 1895
Creator: Davis, Philip Z. & Barton, Alexander M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fence. (open access)

Fence.

Patent for a new and improved fence. This design consists of cross-posts pivoted to a stringer, provided with a top-rail, having slats extending from the stringer to the ground, and secured to said stringer by barbed wire and staples (lines 36-40). This design is easily disassembled and moved, and the barbed wire prevents animals from disturbing it.
Date: February 12, 1884
Creator: Messenger, John William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for this plow relates to an improvement in plows commly known as "sweeps;" and provides a device of cheap and simple construction adapted to be applied to the rear or upper edge of an ordinary sweep.
Date: February 23, 1892
Creator: Hill, David Jeferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for a simple and inexpensive cotton press that gets cotton from a gin, forms it into a soft bat, and compresses it into a bale. The operator can tie a band around the bale. It consists of a frame, rollers, and gears.
Date: February 21, 1893
Creator: Bessonette, William T.
System: The Portal to Texas History