Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "a draw-head provided with a recess having an enlargement at its central portion, a series of vertical jaws on each side of said enlarged portion of the recess pivotally mounted at their lower end in the draw-head, springs connecting each jaw with its corresponding jaw in the opposite series, and means for opening the jaws" (lines 13-20).
Date: September 23, 1890
Creator: Hooks, Bentley Robert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "is to provide a device for automatically coupling the cars to which it is attached and which can be uncoupled without requiring the brake[person] to go in between the cars, and when uncoupled the coupling will stand uncoupled till thrown back in gear" (lines 13-19). It consists in "the combination of two similar draw-heads, each provided with buffers and a longitudinal slot therein, and a buffer-bridge and two rounded beveled and projecting loops, and a connecting-pin with rounded or ball head . . . and a gravity key" (lines 79-87).
Date: November 18, 1890
Creator: Seley, William W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing Machine. (open access)

Washing Machine.

Patent for a new and improved washing-machine. This design is "to provide a machine having an oscillating and revolving rubber, means for securing the rubber to the operating-shaft, and to provide bearings for said shaft which may be adjusted to compensate for any wear of parts. A further object is to provide adjustable legs, whereby one side of the machine may be raised or lowered, thus decreasing or increasing the pressure of the rubber upon the articles being washed" (lines 17-27).
Date: September 23, 1890
Creator: Leubner, Charles W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Shuttle Operating Mechanism for Looms. (open access)

Shuttle Operating Mechanism for Looms.

Patent for a new and improved shuttle-operator for looms. This design "has for its objects to provide novel, simple, and efficient mechanism for actuating the picking-sticks which effect the flight of the shuttles; to avoid the use of the ordinary lower picker-shaft; to avoid lateral angles in the picking-levers, which actuate the picking-sticks to throw the shuttles, and to otherwise improve the picking motion of looms for obtaining simplicity, strength, durability, power, and efficiency" (lines 8-18).
Date: October 21, 1890
Creator: Fisher, Finis E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railroad Tie. (open access)

Railroad Tie.

Patent for a new and improved railroad-tie. This design "has for its object the provision of means for broadening the gage of a road at curves thereof and the production of a metallic tie that is extremely simple in construction and by means of which a rail can be readily removed or secured in place and a firm elastic bearing obtained thereof" (lines 19-25).
Date: January 7, 1890
Creator: Bagby, William Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mattress-Sewing Machine (open access)

Mattress-Sewing Machine

Patent for providing "means whereby the ticking may be held and properly presented to the stitching-machine, and whereby the latter may be fed along the edge of the filled tick and caused to operate thereon. . . [providing] simple means whereby a binding may be laid upon the united edges of the tick by the advance of the sewing-machine as the latter is fed along the edge, said binding being attached by the same stitching which closes the opening in the ticking. . .[and providing] means whereby the raw edges of the ticking may beheld and stretched, and whereby when properly aligned they may also be clamped along their entire extent and held in proper position for stitching (lines 10-29).
Date: October 28, 1890
Creator: Stephenson, Edwin N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Seed Planter. (open access)

Cotton Seed Planter.

Patent for a new and improved planter. This design "consists in, first, a hopper having its rear side or board extended downward so as to form the standard or furrow-opener; second, the combination of two endwise adjustable castings provided with shoulders or offsets, and which are made adjustable in relation to each other, and by means of which the quantity dropped is regulated . . . [An object] of [the] invention [is] to extend the rear side of the seed-box downward, so as to form a furrow-opener or standard, to attach the combined seed-box and standard to the two iron beams" (lines 13-28).
Date: July 29, 1890
Creator: Kennedy, David
System: The Portal to Texas History