Cotton-Chopper. (open access)

Cotton-Chopper.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in cotton choppers, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 29, 1898
Creator: Hillermann, August & Heinen, Christopher
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coffee-Pot. (open access)

Coffee-Pot.

Patent for a coffee pot "wherein the water is forced to percolated through a body of coffee or tea held in a holder or receptacle near the top of the vessel." (Lines 12-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: February 23, 1897
Creator: Royer, Lemon S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Reversible Spring-Motor. (open access)

Reversible Spring-Motor.

Patent for a spring-motor for bicycles, street and railway cars, and other vehicles which is meant "to accumulate and store surplus power which is usually lost in stopping vehicles and in holding back the same when descending steep grades, the purpose being to utilize such stored power for the purpose of propelling the vehicle up an incline or at whatever point additional power may be found desirable." (Lines 17-24) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 20, 1897
Creator: Click, John Jones
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Burning Garbage. (open access)

Apparatus for Burning Garbage.

Patent for an apparatus for burning garbage that is made up of a roasting chamber, a grate to hold the garbage, two furnaces, a passage for the ashes, a third furnace connected to the passage, flues, a smokestack, non-combustible absorbent material around the flues and beneath the grate, and flues beneath the grate.
Date: March 27, 1894
Creator: Risley, Ward
System: The Portal to Texas History
File or Bill-Book. (open access)

File or Bill-Book.

Patent for a paper file that has "an index board or cover that it can be moved along the transfer wires from one side of the bottom boards to the other, the same as papers and with or without papers attached to it, and so that when brought around on top of the bottom board and interposed papers it will form therewith a book in which the papers or blanks will be retained for the ready reference or for such use as may be required" (lines 24-33). Papers can be punched with a mechanism on the invention so that papers can be placed onto the retaining wires.
Date: July 10, 1894
Creator: Slaton, William David
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fastener for Fish-Plates for Rails. (open access)

Fastener for Fish-Plates for Rails.

Patent for improvements in fasteners for fish-plates for rails by using a combination of fish-plates, washers placed in between the plates and rail, a slotted bolt, a wedge-shaped key with thin bendable portion and a washer on the bolt between the key and fish-plate to “firmly hold the plates in position but will serve to deaden the noise caused by the fractional contact of the parts,” (lines 18-20) includes illustration.
Date: March 31, 1891
Creator: Gary, John S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Reversible Spring-Motor. [Copy #2] (open access)

Reversible Spring-Motor. [Copy #2]

Patent for a spring motor "particularly designed for use in connection with bicycles, polycycles, and all foot-propelled vehicles, but applicable also to all kinds of vehicles, as well as street and railway cars" (lines 11-15). It is intended to accumulate surplus power for use in propelling a vehicle up an incline, or for other propulsion either forward or backward.
Date: April 20, 1897
Creator: Click, John Jones
System: The Portal to Texas History
Reversible Spring-Motor. [Copy #1] (open access)

Reversible Spring-Motor. [Copy #1]

Patent for a spring motor "particularly designed for use in connection with bicycles, polycycles, and all foot-propelled vehicles, but applicable also to all kinds of vehicles, as well as street and railway cars" (lines 11-15). It is intended to accumulate surplus power for use in propelling a vehicle up an incline, or for other propulsion either forward or backward.
Date: April 20, 1897
Creator: Click, John Jones
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type. (open access)

Type.

Patent for a new and improved type. This design "relates to printing, and more especially to the type used therein; and the object of the same is to provide a substitute for the large wood type now extensively used on poster and other large work. To this end the invention consists in a type-face and a type-base each of metal" (lines 7-13).
Date: September 20, 1892
Creator: Coleman, Allison
System: The Portal to Texas History
Windmill. (open access)

Windmill.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in windmills, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 6, 1898
Creator: Douglass, William S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Valve-Gear. (open access)

Valve-Gear.

Patent for a valve-gear that uses a single eccentric, "together with devices by which such eccentric may be shifted upon the shaft and locked in its various positions to effect either a reversal of the engine or a stoppage thereof with a full head of steam on, and to run the engine in one or the other direction, as may be desired" (lines 10-15).
Date: September 24, 1895
Creator: Hill, Millard F. & Easley, Clifton W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Index for Books. (open access)

Index for Books.

Patent for "... improvements in indexes for books which receive the freight tariffs or schedules of railroads and the agreements between one road and others a to division of freight charges where the traffic is handled by more than one" (lines 11-16 ) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 4, 1897
Creator: Kerr, Warren Dunlop
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for an addition "to provide a plow of this character that shall perform both operations at one and the same time, one that is exceedingly cheap and simple, one that will always move in a straight line and protect the plants being barred, and one that requires very little more power than an ordinary plow" (lines 15-18).
Date: November 1, 1892
Creator: Couch, John P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Soldering-Tool. (open access)

Soldering-Tool.

Patent for an improved soldering-tool by having a reservoir for gasoline or other light hydrocarbon, a burner-tube, and a valve for regulating the combustion of the gasoline and heating the tool continuously and uniformly, without a furnace. Illustration is included.
Date: February 17, 1891
Creator: Barber, Edwin L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed-Planter. (open access)

Seed-Planter.

Patent for a durable, simply constructed, and inexpensive seed-planter. It has a main frame, adjustable supporting-wheels, diagonal parallel bars, disk-beams with "angular front ends pivoted in brackets on the main frame" (lines 48-49), and "disks supported by stub-shafts projecting from the spindle-supporting bar" (lines 49-51).
Date: June 16, 1896
Creator: Leissler, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fruit-Press. (open access)

Fruit-Press.

Patent for a device that extracts and strains "the juice of fruits, and it has for its general object to provide such a device of a cheap, simple, and durable construction, and one adapted when not in use to be disconnected and folded back against the wall so as to occupy but a minimum amount of space" (lines 13-18).
Date: March 28, 1893
Creator: Thompson, Sarah Rosaline
System: The Portal to Texas History
Repair-Tool For Wire Fences. (open access)

Repair-Tool For Wire Fences.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in repair tools for wire fences, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 22, 1898
Creator: Major, John H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Shears for Cutting Hot Metal. (open access)

Shears for Cutting Hot Metal.

Patent for "a device which is more especially intended for shearing hot metal, although it may be used for cutting cold material," (lines 8-10) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 30, 1891
Creator: Cleveland, William T.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Fence Tool. (open access)

Wire-Fence Tool.

Patent for a device "that will combine in one all the tools actually necessary in building or repairing an ordinary wire fence." (Lines 14-16) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 1, 1896
Creator: Orton, Lewis W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rotary Letter and Paper File Case. (open access)

Rotary Letter and Paper File Case.

Patent for a new and improved file case. This design consists in "the combination, with a pedestal, of a staff rising therefrom, a series of revolving racks having a marginal flange and radial compartments, and a cap having a socket in its under side and bearing on the upper end of the staff, whereby the pans and racks may be freely rotated" (lines 90-96).
Date: January 7, 1890
Creator: Mundy, Eusebius Bainbridge
System: The Portal to Texas History
Quilting-Frame. (open access)

Quilting-Frame.

Patent for a quilting frame designed to be used with a sewing machine and "which may be easily set up and be supported from the floor, and not in any manner mar or injure the walls or ceilings." (Lines 15-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 10, 1895
Creator: Click, John J.
System: The Portal to Texas History