Device for cooling milk, meat, vegetables, &c. (open access)

Device for cooling milk, meat, vegetables, &c.

Patent for an early fridge, a device that will cool meat, milk and vegetables. It comprises a container of ice cold water, and a place to store the foodstuffs in.
Date: July 12, 1892
Creator: Smart, J. W. & Cheatham, T. C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for an improved, durable, and efficient car couple that can be operated from one side of the car for the safety of the operator. The draw-head is newly designed.
Date: April 18, 1893
Creator: Bishop, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Churn. (open access)

Churn.

Patent for a churn that has a frame supporting the churn and swinging motion mixes the cream. This invention successfully separates oily globules from the cream, thus making churning more effective and easy.
Date: October 10, 1893
Creator: Bailey, James Westey & McNorton, John Tomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Buckle. (open access)

Buckle.

Patent for a buckle meant for use with harnesses and "wherein the ordinary movable and hinged tongue is dispensed with, and a rigid stud or pointed projection is used in reversed positions at opposite ends of connecting loops" (lines 9-13).
Date: December 5, 1893
Creator: Odom, Plesant W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car coupling that is simple and can be inexpensively manufactured. The invention's object is "to provide a link controlling device to be used in coupling cars together where the cars have draw-heads of the same or different heights which will render it unnecessary for a person to go between the cars during the operation" (lines 11-16).
Date: January 30, 1894
Creator: Smart, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car coupling that automatically couples cars so people do not need to go between cars. This invention is meant to "provide an improved car coupler of the above character, which shall be simple and economical in construction and efficient in operation" (lines 21-24).
Date: March 6, 1894
Creator: Lawhon, David West
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design consists, "with the beam consisting, essentially, of the forwardly-converging branches at their forward ends and having the downwardly and forwardly curved branches at their rear ends and rack-teeth" (lines 100-104). It further consists "of the feet comprising parallel branches pivotally connected to the ends of the downwardly and forwardly curved branches of the beam branches, the gravitating pawls pivoted between the upper ends of the feet branches and adapted to engage the rack-teeth of the beam branches" (lines 1-8).
Date: April 12, 1892
Creator: Ponton, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for an improved car-coupling that automatically couples cars by "striking together adjacent couplers of the same class, and which may be conveniently uncoupled by a person standing at a distance from the coupler without going between the cars, as with the ordinary couplers" (lines 10-15).
Date: December 4, 1894
Creator: Bishop, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Tuning-Hammer. (open access)

Tuning-Hammer.

Patent for improvements in tuning-hammers by using a handle having a central square hole closed at its upper end, a ferrule around its lower end adapted to receive a tool. The tool is a T shaped head having holes in the ends of its cross-bar and the end of its shank adapted to fit into the handle that can be used to tune pianos. Illustration is included.
Date: September 1, 1891
Creator: Fuchs, Benjamin F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Milk Cooler. (open access)

Milk Cooler.

Patent for a new and improved cooler. This design "consist[s] of the main vessel adapted to contain the substance to be cooled, having its upper end open and the walls of said open end drawn or inclined inward, as described, the water vessel supported on said main vessel, with a space between its bottom and the top of the main vessel, and made larger at its bottom than the upper open end of the main vessel, and the enveloping-sheet arranged to be wet by the contents of the water-vessel and extended past the space between the said vessels, whereby to protect the contents of the main vessel" (lines 79-92).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Stiles, Frederick
System: The Portal to Texas History
Engine. (open access)

Engine.

Patent for general "improvements in engines, and while one feature of our invention is adapted for use on all styles of engines, the invention in the complete form ...is especially suited for use on locomotive engines designed to exert high tractive power and to attain high speeds" (lines 12-19).
Date: February 19, 1895
Creator: Davis, Philip Z. & Barton, Alexander M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Feed-Screw for Rock-Drills. (open access)

Feed-Screw for Rock-Drills.

Patent for "drills for the cutting or drilling of stone, and has for its primary object the taking up of wear in the worm-screws upon which such drills are usually mounted." (Lines 10-14) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 3, 1896
Creator: Keyser, William Almond
System: The Portal to Texas History
Refrigerating-Cover for Vessels. (open access)

Refrigerating-Cover for Vessels.

Patent for a "device capable of application to any receptacle which, in conjunction with an absorbent envelope and through the medium of capillary action, will cool the entire vessel or receptacle to which it is applied, and thereby preserve its contents in warm weather," (lines 10-15) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 9, 1890
Creator: Mitcheltree, James B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Safety-Truck for Cars (open access)

Safety-Truck for Cars

Patent for safety trucks for railway cars to help prevent the derailment of cars.
Date: November 22, 1892
Creator: Moore, George Wash.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Horse-Detacher. (open access)

Horse-Detacher.

Patent for a horse-detacher "which can be readily applied to any buggy, and one which will be adapted for quick and easy manipulation to effect detachment of the shafts from the buggy." (Lines 13-17) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 2, 1897
Creator: Turner, John F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Refrigerator. (open access)

Refrigerator.

Patent for a new and improved refrigerator. This design is "for use without ice, the cooling effect being secured by the evaporation of water. Consequently the apparatus will be most effective when exposed to a current of air. The apparatus is formed with a suitable framing, having its sides closed in with wire-gauze to permit the free circulation of air, and at the same time exclude insects and the like. At one side a door affords access to the interior of the refrigerator, and legs serve to hold its bottom above the floor or other support on which the refrigerator stands" (lines 16-28).
Date: August 26, 1890
Creator: Laman, Nancy A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Piano-Tuning Hammer. (open access)

Piano-Tuning Hammer.

Patent for "a combination tool adapted for turning, driving, extracting, and otherwise manipulating tuning-pegs and other parts of a piano-action, whereby one tool is capable of performing the functions of a series of ordinarily independent instruments." (Lines 10-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 30, 1894
Creator: Fuchs, Benjamin F.
System: The Portal to Texas History