Fumigating Apparatus for Exterminating Insects. (open access)

Fumigating Apparatus for Exterminating Insects.

Patent for ant extermination device. Injects gas into the entrance of (primarily) ant or insect nests.
Date: March 11, 1879
Creator: Mueller, Onno
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton-Sprinklers (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Sprinklers

Patent for Improvements to cotton-sprinklers that provides "effective distribution of poisonous liquids upon cotton-plants, for the purpose of destroying the cotton-worm or other destructive insects." (lines 15-18) Includes instructions and illustration.
Date: November 11, 1879
Creator: Schier, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton-Picking Machines. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Picking Machines.

Patent for an improvement in cotton-picking machines including instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 18, 1879
Creator: Trenks, Frederick F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton-Worm Destroyers. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Worm Destroyers.

Patent for an improvement in cotton worm destroyer, includes instructions and illustration.
Date: May 28, 1878
Creator: Yeager, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Pumps. (open access)

Improvement in Pumps.

Patent for improvement in the means by which cotton plants are watered, protected from pesticides and fires. It provides for a mechanism by which poison and water may be more easily distributed to the plants.
Date: July 30, 1878
Creator: Helmecke, Friederich Andreas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Picking Shade. (open access)

Cotton-Picking Shade.

Patent for a cotton-picking shade that will furnish a portable shade or shield for the use of cotton-pickers to protect them from the direct rays of the sun while at work.
Date: July 22, 1879
Creator: Benthall, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton-Sprinklers. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Sprinklers.

Patent for "the combination, in a cotton-sprinkler, having a fluid-vessel, of flexible ejecting hose, having flaring nozzle sprinklers, with hooks or fastening devices for holding the nozzles in elevated positions upon the vessels, whereby the driver has perfect control both over the flow and direction of the fluid, and is thereby enabled to inject the fluid upon the two rows of plants, without regard to their height or the uncertain movement of the horse between the rows, and to stop the flow by elevating and hooking the ejecting-hose to the upper corners of the vessel, thus rendering the device much more effective in directing the fluid than could possibly be effected by fixed distributing perforated cocks, and preventing unnecessary waste of the fluid." (Lines 13-30) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 18, 1875
Creator: Ramsey, Croghan A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement inTables. (open access)

Improvement inTables.

Patent for improvement in tables which "consists in the arrangement and combination of parts that will be more fully described hereinafter, whereby the table can be taken apart, packed in a small compass for transportation, and then put together again by an inexperienced hand” (lines 11-17).
Date: November 19, 1878
Creator: Melcher, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Vehicle-Wheels. (open access)

Improvement in Vehicle-Wheels.

Patent for an "invention to provide a vehicle-wheel that is capable of being expanded so as to fit the tire". Patent for an invention to facilitate removing and replacing wagon or buggy tires.
Date: July 10, 1877
Creator: Racer, Martin J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement In Suspender-Buttons (open access)

Improvement In Suspender-Buttons

Patent for an improved suspender button with a description and illustrations attached.
Date: August 19, 1879
Creator: Racer, Martin J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvment in Spray-Nozzles (open access)

Improvment in Spray-Nozzles

Patent for an improvement on spray nozzles for use with force pumps. These force pumps are used for spraying insecticide on cotton to protect the crop from cotton-worms and other insects.
Date: September 2, 1879
Creator: Yeager, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Sprinklers. (open access)

Improvement in Sprinklers.

Patent for an improved sprinkler.
Date: January 18, 1876
Creator: Melcher, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Painter's Scaffold-chairs. (open access)

Improvement in Painter's Scaffold-chairs.

Patent for use of house-painters and others an improved scaffold-chair that may be elevated and lowered at pleasure by the person sitting on the scaffold.
Date: May 16, 1876
Creator: Crockett, John R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Machines for Gumming Saws (open access)

Improvement in Machines for Gumming Saws

Patent for improvement in dressing and gumming saws, specifically saws used in a mill either circular or vertical. Patent includes labeled figure drawings and text descriptions.
Date: November 8, 1873
Creator: Jackson, Thomas S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Scaffold-Clamps. (open access)

Improvement in Scaffold-Clamps.

Patent for a reusable scaffold clamp for assembling builders' scaffolds, eliminating the need for nails or bolts.
Date: April 24, 1874
Creator: Crockett, John R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Frames for Cultivators, Scrapers, & c. (open access)

Improvement in Frames for Cultivators, Scrapers, & c.

Patent for “a new and useful improvement in Combined, Cultivator, Scraper, and Dumping-Cart” (lines 4-7) including illustration.
Date: March 31, 1874
Creator: Rabb, John Wesley
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Seeding-Machines (open access)

Improvement in Seeding-Machines

Patent for a seed-planting machine with adjustable mechanisms that allows the user to customize the seeding machine for a specific project.
Date: June 2, 1874
Creator: Lee, Abram & Sinks, Edward Randolph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Insect-Exterminators. (open access)

Improvement in Insect-Exterminators.

Patent for an improved insect exterminator design with modifications especially suitable for cotton fields, includes illustrations.
Date: June 10, 1879
Creator: Walker, John Z.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improved Washing-Machine. (open access)

Improved Washing-Machine.

Patent for a machine for washing and wringing clothes, which can be used with a furnace for heating the water but has legs for support when being used separately from a furnace. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 13, 1870
Creator: Moore, Alfred L. D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Insect-Destroyers (open access)

Improvement in Insect-Destroyers

Patent for an insect destroyer that forces fire smoke into the ground, targeting ants and other insects.
Date: May 29, 1877
Creator: Melcher, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Garden-Pumps. (open access)

Improvement in Garden-Pumps.

Patent for improvements in garden-pumps: "a garden-pump with attachments for sprinkling liquid poison" (lines 13-15).
Date: August 21, 1877
Creator: Vogelsang, Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Insect-Destroyers. (open access)

Improvement in Insect-Destroyers.

Patent for improvements on insect destroyers to be used in cotton fields, including illustrations.
Date: October 16, 1877
Creator: Fordtran, Eugene H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Insect-Destroyers (open access)

Improvement in Insect-Destroyers

Patent for an improvement of insect-destroyers in the form of spraying poisonous liquid forced over plants, with illustration.
Date: August 13, 1878
Creator: Ruhmann, Julius Paul
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Guards for Sheep-Shears. (open access)

Improvement in Guards for Sheep-Shears.

Patent for "an improved attachment that serves both as a guide and guard for preventing the cutting of the sheep in shearing, and by which even unskilled workmen can use the shears and cut the wool close to the skin without hurting the sheep, with by the point or edge of the blades." (Lines 15-21) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 24, 1878
Creator: Helmecke, Friederich A.
System: The Portal to Texas History