Clasp. (open access)

Clasp.

Patent for a new and improved clasp. This design "is to make a fastener for pieces of leather by which bridles and other parts of harness may be made with less stitching and riveting, thereby lessening the labor and cost of manufacture" (lines 15-20). To this end, it consists in "two plates, [one] having key-hole slots with beveled side walls, and the [other] carrying studs undercut . . . and provided with top pin, in combination with the spring-plate perforated . . . to receive [the] pin to form the leather clasp or fastening described" (lines 77-83).
Date: December 3, 1889
Creator: Waters, Richard H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bee Hive Stand. (open access)

Bee Hive Stand.

Patent for a new and improved bee-hive stand. This design consists in "the combination, with a floor, of a frame provided with opposite side standards and a row of central standards, the longitudinal side bars, and a central longitudinal bar connected with said standards, tie-bars constructed to hook on said longitudinal bars, and a roof provided with hinged lids and supported by said side and central standards" (lines 85-93).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Lipp, Simpson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Fan (open access)

Automatic Fan

Patent for mechanical improvements in "automatic fans intended especially for use on beds, whether in houses or in sleeping-cars" (lines 7-9).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Comminge, Frank
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Seed-Planter, Harrow, and Plow (open access)

Combined Seed-Planter, Harrow, and Plow

Patent for "a combined seeder or planter, harrow, and plow, and to simplify the parts, so that they can easily be put together and taken apart and manufactured at little expense" (lines 16-20).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Russell, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cartridge Crimper. (open access)

Cartridge Crimper.

Patent for a new and improved cartridge crimper. This design consists of "tweezers having biting-heads, an interposed core and printing-stamp arranged within said core, a shell-holder surrounding the core, and a trimming-knife" (lines 78-82).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Franklin, Edward A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Beam or Girder. (open access)

Beam or Girder.

Patent for a new and improved girder. This design is "composed of a vertical web and a flange or flanges, a mass of the metal in a flange or flanges projecting from the web at and near one-half the distance between the axis and the neutral line" (lines 48-53).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: Cousins, Robert Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Distilling Wood. (open access)

Apparatus for Distilling Wood.

Patent for improvements in wood distillers "wherein the liquids of the woods are extracted by subjection in a closed heated chamber or retort and carried by vaporization through the process of distillation to condensation" (lines 18-22).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: Spangler, Samuel H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling (open access)

Car-Coupling

Patent for "a single structure in which the airbrake pipes and steam-heating pipes will be coupled together when the cars are coupled, and in which the several parts will be very compactly arranged. A further object is to provide means whereby the cars may be uncoupled by the use of compressed air" (lines 12-19).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: Thomas, James Bryant
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Folding and Compressing Cotton Batting. (open access)

Machine for Folding and Compressing Cotton Batting.

Patent for a new and improved cotton folder and compressor. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a table provided with a series of transverse rolls of the same size, a reciprocating carriage mounted on the rolls, and a pair of super-imposed feeding-rolls arranged in line with the carriage, of a base arranged at the end of the table and provided with two opposite pairs of standards, the pair nearest the end of the table having vertically-opposite rolls, and the other pair of standards having a single roll, and a series of transverse feeding-rolls mounted on the base" (lines 46-57).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Rembert, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Weighing Attachment for Wagons (open access)

Weighing Attachment for Wagons

Patent for improvements in the weighing attachments for wagons so that "the wagon body with its contents may be weighed without removing it from the holsters; and it has for its object to provide a device which shall be simple in construction, accurate, and easily operated" (lines 10-14).
Date: December 31, 1889
Creator: Gragg, Zachry Taylor
System: The Portal to Texas History
Water Cooler. (open access)

Water Cooler.

Patent for a new and improved water cooler. This design "consist[s] of the outer vessel having the removable cover provided centrally with an aperture, the inner vessel supported on legs centrally within the outer vessel and provided with perforated shelves, the keepers for locking the two vessels at a regulated distance apart concentric with each other, and the removable cap to the inner vessel provided with a vertical tube communicating with the interior of the inner vessel and passed through the space between the tops of the two vessels and through the central aperture in the cover" (lines 81-93).
Date: December 3, 1889
Creator: Clark, James P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Milk-Cooler (open access)

Milk-Cooler

Patent for a milk cooler in which the design of traditional milk coolers is improved upon.
Date: December 3, 1889
Creator: Porter, Louis H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design consists in "the combination of the beam, the parallel horizontal arms pivoted to the top and bottom of the beam and projecting beyond the sides of the same, the vertically-slotted brackets secured between the beams at the ends of the same, the cultivator-beams arranged between the upper and lower horizontal arms, and the securing bolts inserted transversely through the beams and the slots of the brackets" (lines 59-68).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Walton, Sam Houston
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plunger-Operating Means of Hay-Presses (open access)

Plunger-Operating Means of Hay-Presses

Patent for "new and improved horse-power, which will operate four or less hay-presses by the movement of one operating-lever, and which can be used for a great variety of other purposes" (lines 8-12).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: Mayo, William A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stirrup. (open access)

Stirrup.

Patent for a new and improved stirrup. This design "has for its object to provide an improved stirrup wherein shall be combined lightness with strength, and wherein is provided a removable slipper and protector designed for use in winter" (lines 12-18).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hoeing-Machine (open access)

Hoeing-Machine

Patent for improvements "to afford facilities for the more ready and perfect protection of the plant while the pulverizing-blades are cultivating the soil around it; second, to provide a better and more ready means of guiding the pulverizing-blades along the row I attain these objects by giving my guiding-fender a motion independent of the motion of the pulverizing-blades along the row and around the plants" (lines 13-19).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Hurd, Judson B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hay Press. (open access)

Hay Press.

Patent for a new and improved hay-press. This design consists in "the combination of the frame, the king-bolt at the center of the same, the plunger, the pitman pivoted thereto, the double-armed lever centrally-mounted on the king-bolt and provided with loops or bridles at its ends and acting on the pitman, and the supplemental lever having its end engaging one of said loops or bridles" (lines 24-31).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Brown, Lemuel J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Soldier's Cart (open access)

Soldier's Cart

Patent for an "inexpensive, light, strong, and conveniently-arranged carts adapted for carrying the rations, baggage, and accouterments of one man, and adapted also when coupled together for the safe carriage of disabled men from the field by the least possible number of attendants, and adapted also to be coupled together in pairs side by side, and to be coupled infront of each other and also to a mule-cart to allow one animal to draw the baggage of from six to ten or more men, and to carry from the field two, four, or six men at a time, the carts .being thus as well adapted for hospital service as they are for relieving or lessening the fatigues of the march" (lines 9-24).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Gentzen, Herman
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing Machine. (open access)

Washing Machine.

Patent for a new and improved washing machine. This design consists in "the combination, with a receptacle having a flange on one end, of a pump, a collar surrounding the said pump and carrying claws which engage and a cam which bears upon the said flange, a perforated tray resting upon the bottom of the receptacle, and perforated pipes connected with the said pump, the said pump and pipes being contained in the said receptacle" (lines 4-12).
Date: December 24, 1889
Creator: McCausland, William I.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coffee Pot. (open access)

Coffee Pot.

Patent for improvements to coffee pot design including a bagged apparatus to hold grounds that are then steamed through a jet venting apparatus to brew the drink with accompanying illustrations.
Date: December 31, 1889
Creator: Stidham, James Simeon
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fence. (open access)

Fence.

Patent for a new and improved fence. This design "relates to that class of farm-fences embodying upright posts and suspended panels comprising rails and suspending-wires; and its object is to provide a simple and improved fence of this character wherein rails of any length may be used, in which but one suspending-wire to each panel is employed, in lieu of at both ends of the same, as commonly constructed, and in which one or more damaged posts may be replaced without interfering with the fence proper" (lines 8-18).
Date: December 10, 1889
Creator: Manry, William T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Flexible Hoe and Cotton-Chopper (open access)

Flexible Hoe and Cotton-Chopper

Patent for "provide a means by which the swinging blades are made to cut a uniform depth, and do as shallow hoeing as may be required even in rough ground, and also work very close to small plants; second, to provide such gearing and such connection between the driving-wheel and the oscillating blades that the blades maybe readily shifted from right to left to keep them over the row without having to move or change the course of the driving-wheel at the same time" (lines 14-24).
Date: December 31, 1889
Creator: Hurd, Judson B. & McLane, Hiram H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed-Planter and Fertilizer-Distributor (open access)

Seed-Planter and Fertilizer-Distributor

Patent for "a machine of this class which may be used interchangeably for planting different kinds of seeds-such as corn, peas, cotton, or other seeds-or fertilizing material, and which shall be simple in construction, durable, and easily manipulated" (lines 10-15).
Date: December 31, 1889
Creator: Gallaway, John Tyler
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway Rail Tie. (open access)

Railway Rail Tie.

Patent for a new and improved railway-rail tie. This design consists "of a railway-rail tie provided with a transverse recess, projection, the transverse slots, and the apertures leading from the recesses to the slots, the retaining-blocks fitting in the apertures, and keys working in the slots and adapted to press the retaining-blocks against the flange and web of the rail" (lines 71-78).
Date: December 17, 1889
Creator: Jones, Richard
System: The Portal to Texas History