Improvement in the Manufacture of Fertilizers. (open access)

Improvement in the Manufacture of Fertilizers.

Patent for a process of treating waste animal matter from tallow-rendering factories with plaster-of-paris for use as fertilizer.
Date: November 25, 1873
Creator: Stevens, Hennell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Screw-Propulsion. (open access)

Improvement in Screw-Propulsion.

Patent for "a new and useful Improvement in Screw-Propellers and their adaptation to the hulls of vessels" (lines 4-6) including illustrations.
Date: November 9, 1875
Creator: Wilson, Joseph Erwin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Soldering-Irons (open access)

Improvement in Soldering-Irons

Patent for a new and improved soldering iron, which only gives off so much heat from one end and not the other. This patent of the soldering iron a safer tool to work with.
Date: March 21, 1877
Creator: Stevens, Hennell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Medical Compounds or Bitters. (open access)

Improvement in Medical Compounds or Bitters.

Patent for a medical compound prepared with whisky, gentian-root, cinchonabark, quassia and cloves which is intended as "a remedy for miasmatic fevers" (line 23) including instructions for the preparation and administration of the medicine.
Date: January 23, 1872
Creator: Turner, Richard G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Bee-Hives. (open access)

Improvement in Bee-Hives.

Patent for a bee-hive that prevents insects (such as moths) from entering therein and maximizes the amount of honey collected from the hive, including a detailed explanation and description of the illustration.
Date: March 5, 1878
Creator: Park, Jesse W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement for Apparatus for Cutting Glue. (open access)

Improvement for Apparatus for Cutting Glue.

Patent for a design for a battery-powered wire glue cutter/slicer including instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 11, 1875
Creator: Stevens, Hennell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Processes for Preparing and Drying Glue. (open access)

Improvement in Processes for Preparing and Drying Glue.

Patent for a process of drying glue that uses superheated steam and a drying chamber.
Date: October 11, 1875
Creator: Stevens, Hennell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Processes of Preserving Meats. (open access)

Improvement in Processes of Preserving Meats.

Patent for a method of preserving and canning meat. This describes the inventor's process, as well as his method of reducing air inside the container using hypophosphite of lime.
Date: January 11, 1876
Creator: Stevens, Hennell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Car-Axle Bearings. (open access)

Improvement in Car-Axle Bearings.

Patent for improvement in car-axle bearings in which "it consists in a box having a chambered back for containing oil, and having grooves along the straight edges of its bearing-surface for receiving a wick, the ends of which extend through holes in the box into the oil reservoir.”
Date: December 3, 1878
Creator: Stratton, Asa E., Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Vehicle Axle-Lubricators (open access)

Improvement in Vehicle Axle-Lubricators

Patent for improvements to the design of axle lubricators, in which the oil reservoir is in the rear as opposed to the front.
Date: October 14, 1879
Creator: Hinkle, James V.
System: The Portal to Texas History