Resource Type

Wire-Tightener. (open access)

Wire-Tightener.

Patent for a wire-tightener that stretches "the wire after it has been secured to the post, and to take up any slack which may exist therein, owing to causes arising subsequent to the first stretching of the wires" (lines 10-13). It has similar features of other wire-tightener but is simple and efficient.
Date: January 1, 1895
Creator: Glenn, John William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Valve-Motion. (open access)

Valve-Motion.

Patent for "a variable cut-off valve-motion, and has for its object to provide simple and efficient and at the same time readily adjustable means for varying the points at which the ports communicating with the cylinder of a locomotive or other engine are opened and closed, in accordance with the load, the desired speed, &c." (Lines 8-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: January 1, 1895
Creator: Shelb, Peter J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Guitar. (open access)

Guitar.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in stringed musical instruments, such as harp guitars, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 1, 1898
Creator: Ward, George Cooper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Elevated Railway, &c (open access)

Elevated Railway, &c

Patent for improvements "to provide an improved track having provisions for readily tightening the track, each span or section being tightened by means of a single tightening device arranged, preferably. . . second, to provide an improved truck with guiding rollers or pulleys, the weight of the truck being carried upon yielding supports; third, a simple and improved swivel or turning device or connection between the car and track, whereby the turning of curves is more easily accomplished with a minimum of friction; fourth, to so mount the truck upon the track that displacement or removal thereof sidewise is impossible fifth, to provide an improved switch; sixth, to provide for a road-bed upon a span in crossing a stream or other analogous obstruction" (lines 14-31).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M. & Taylor, James P.
System: The Portal to Texas History