Resource Type

Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "the combination of two sliding draw-heads, each provided with a shank having coiled around it a spring and a nut secured thereto, an upper sliding supporting-plate for the pin, having a tripping device, a lower sliding supporting-plate for the link, having a catch, a latch with a trip-arm for holding and releasing said plate, and a spring for drawing it back to its normal position" (lines 11-20).
Date: February 9, 1886
Creator: Ballentine, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Advertising Device. (open access)

Advertising Device.

Patent for a new and improved advertising sign. This design "consist[s] in the fixed staff or upright having pulley, bent rotary vane having the opening, and adapted for the display of advertisements, inside [the] bent rotary vane, and the governor adapted to regulate automatically the speed at which the vanes are to revolve" (lines 68-80).
Date: February 19, 1884
Creator: Carly, John Wesly
System: The Portal to Texas History
Soil Pulverizer. (open access)

Soil Pulverizer.

Patent for a new and improved soil pulverizer. This design consists in "the combination of rotating blades on a shaft adjustable forward and backward, the driving wheel shaft, the intermediate operating mechanism, and the two transverse shafts . . . the driving-wheels, the multiplying gear-wheels, the two shafts, blades, [the] shaft adjustable forward and backward by means of a lever, frame having recesses for journal-boxes, the lugs on the latter, and the connecting rod" (lines 84-95).
Date: February 5, 1884
Creator: Rankin, John Dake & Knox, William Custis
System: The Portal to Texas History