Clothes Pounder (open access)

Clothes Pounder

Patent for a new and useful improvements in Clothes-Pounders. The invention "has its object to provide a simple and effective clothes pounder in which the air as well as the water is used as an agent in removing the dirt from the clothes" (line 12- 16).
Date: November 9, 1897
Creator: Allen, William Robert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Tightener. (open access)

Wire Tightener.

Patent for a new and improved wire-tightener. This design consists, "with a curved metallic bar having a central groove in its convex side, and aligned openings of different diameters in the sides of the groove, of the looping-pin having two tapering arms at an angle to each other and of different sizes" (lines 78-83).
Date: December 9, 1890
Creator: Austin, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

Patent for a wire-stretcher meant for making barbed wire fences that is more efficient than other wire-stretchers. It has a bent plate, a split hook swiveled to the plate, a rotatable rod that goes through the plate, stretching wire that is secured to the rod, and the split hook is attached to the wire.
Date: October 9, 1894
Creator: Austin, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Handling Device. (open access)

Cotton-Handling Device.

Patent for "an apparatus for elevating and distributing cotton from wagons or other receptacles and feeding the same to cotton-gins or storage-bins." (Lines 9-12) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 27, 1891
Creator: Moffitt, William E.; Williams, James L. & Bennett, Levi W.
System: The Portal to Texas History