Cloth Measuring Reel. (open access)

Cloth Measuring Reel.

Patent for a new and improved cloth-measuring wheel. This design "consists in the peculiar combination and arrangement of the cutting-board with two standards, whereby the said cutting-board is made to act as a sufficient brace for the frame, as well as to perform the offices of a cutting board. The invention also consists in means for producing a variable tension on the cloth as it passes from the roll to the reel, whereby the tendency of different thicknesses of cloth to wind the cloth in greater or lesser lengths than the register indicates is compensated for and corrected" (lines 27-39).
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Peters, James H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Converting Reciprocating into Rotary Motion. (open access)

Device for Converting Reciprocating into Rotary Motion.

Patent for a new and improved device for converting reciprocating into rotary motion. This design "has for its object to provide means whereby rotary motion may be converted into reciprocating motion or reciprocating motion into rotary motion without the intervention of cranks; and to this end it consists in a mutilated gear pinion secured to a rotating shaft and provided with suitable cams, whereby the gear-teeth upon the pinion are caused to engage with gear-teeth upon a yoke embracing said pinion" (lines 23-32).
Date: July 18, 1882
Creator: Richardson, John T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wagon Brake. (open access)

Wagon Brake.

Patent for a new and improved wagon-brake. This goal of this design "is to provide an automatic brake for wagons and other wheeled vehicles running on dirt roads" (lines 11-13).
Date: May 23, 1882
Creator: Le Roy, Charles Jerome & Henson, John Wesley
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hand Car. (open access)

Hand Car.

Patent for a new and improved hand-car. This design has "such construction and arrangement of the cranks and levers of hand-cars that the maximum amount of the power exerted upon the levers by the operators will be applied to the propulsion of the car" (lines 7-12).
Date: March 28, 1882
Creator: Sessions, Henry H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sash Balance. (open access)

Sash Balance.

Patent for a new and improved sash balance. This design "furnish[es] a spring-tensioned sash-balance by which the top sash may be held in close contact with the top of the window-frame or adjusted at a lowered position without hoisting the bottom sash. [The] invention consists in certain peculiarities of construction and arrangement" (lines 9-15).
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Quick, John Albert
System: The Portal to Texas History