Convertible Case. (open access)

Convertible Case.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in convertible cases, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 8, 1899
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Convertible Package - Carrying Bicycle. (open access)

Convertible Package - Carrying Bicycle.

Patent for a convertible package carrying bicycle.
Date: November 2, 1897
Creator: Sanders, Ira B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Collector's Bill-Book. (open access)

Collector's Bill-Book.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in collectors' bill - books, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 18, 1899
Creator: Ward, George Cooper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adjustable Shade or Curtain Support. (open access)

Adjustable Shade or Curtain Support.

Patent for adjustable and curtain supports, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 29, 1898
Creator: Dallin,Bruce
System: The Portal to Texas History
Back-Pedaling Brake. (open access)

Back-Pedaling Brake.

Patent for a new and improved brake and coasting pocket wheel for velocipedes, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 24, 1899
Creator: Wallerich, Nicholas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling-Press. (open access)

Baling-Press.

Patent for "baling-presses, and has for its objects to provide a simple and efficient apparatus embodying a rebounding plunger; to provide means for regulating the resistance offered to the advance movement of the forward head-block; to provide improved means for tucking the material during the advance movement of the plunger; to provide means for regulating the length of a bale; to provide means for automatically inserting a head-block when a bale of the desired length has been formed; and to provide means whereby the raising and lowering of the press-box or baling-chamber is accomplished by the draft-horses through the sweep, and without the use of jacks or other analogous devices." (Lines 8-24) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 24, 1895
Creator: Keith, George A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brush. (open access)

Brush.

Patent for a brush used with pressurized water to clean floors, walls, ceilings, horses, buggies, animal carcasses, etc. The brush can have a hose hooked up to it and has a valve. The water goes into the top of the brush and is distributed evenly throughout with holes in the top of the brush, and the water is sprayed through the bristles.
Date: March 24, 1896
Creator: Zandt, Luther H. van
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coin-Controlled Apparatus. (open access)

Coin-Controlled Apparatus.

Patent for a simple, inexpensive, and durable coin-controlled apparatus that is "designed to indicate by the varying positions occupied by the spheres, the nature of a dream, the apparatus being designed primarily as a dream-revealer" (lines 17-20). The operator pulls a lever which forces the dice inside the glass container to move into holes. The operator reads a key on the outside of the device that indicates what he will dream.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Taylor, James P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cattle-Guard. (open access)

Cattle-Guard.

Patent for a cattle guard that prevents cattle from blocking railroad tracks. It consists of sharp edged cross ties that sit on the bottom of a shallow pit, guard rails that cover the cross ties, bolts that hold the rails together, and end planks forming v-shaped serrations.
Date: October 10, 1893
Creator: Lynch, Michael L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Anti-Oscillating Attachment for Street-Cars. (open access)

Anti-Oscillating Attachment for Street-Cars.

Patent for an improved anti-oscillating attachment for street-cars. It has a car truck, equalizing pivoting bars secured between the truck ends, cushions on either side of the bars, adjustable bolts that hold the bars in place, and springs between the bolts.
Date: July 10, 1894
Creator: Chollar, Benjamin F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pounder. (open access)

Clothes-Pounder.

Patent for an improved clothes washer that is made up of a cylinder, a piston that is two disks attached together with notches and flared edges, and a packing strip in the groove of the disk edges.
Date: August 14, 1894
Creator: Lewis, Nathan D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Box-Fastener. (open access)

Box-Fastener.

Patent for an improved box-fastener for cases and boxes that hold bottled liquids. The invention allows for the cover to be easily removed, and hangs on the side of the box when not being used. The cover can be used on an ordinary box without altering the box.
Date: October 9, 1894
Creator: Beck, Edwin A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Buckle Attachment. (open access)

Buckle Attachment.

Patent for a buckle attachment for buckles that do not use riveting, sewing or other fastening, "and when so placed together, and the strap inserted and buckled, the whole is as firmly held together as if riveted, sewed or fastened with any of the ordinary methods" (lines 13-16).
Date: January 23, 1894
Creator: Anderson, Samuel C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Drafting-Instrument. (open access)

Combination Drafting-Instrument.

Patent for a combination drafting-instrument that is "carried about the person and serve as a combined pencil-holder and drafting tool and when used in the latter capacity to serve the functions of a divider, a square, a compass, and a caliper for either inside or outside gaging" (lines 10-15).
Date: February 20, 1894
Creator: Deats, George W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling (open access)

Car-Coupling

Patent for an improvement of car coupling design so as to be automatic so that it can couple and uncouple without needing a person to move from car to car that can be used alongside pin and link couplings (lines 11-16).
Date: December 27, 1892
Creator: Millican, Joel W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling-Press (open access)

Baling-Press

Patent for improvements in baling presses "in which the necessary motion may be imparted to the plunger in a rapid and effective manner, and which shall be productive of considerable saving of labor and power" (lines 15-19)
Date: April 29, 1890
Creator: Anderson, Zachariah J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Cut-off for Rotary Engines (open access)

Automatic Cut-off for Rotary Engines

Patent for improvements "to the means for actuating the valves controlling the steam supply" (lines 10-12).
Date: March 6, 1890
Creator: Wallerich, Nicholas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Roller and Protector. (open access)

Combination Roller and Protector.

Patent for a new and improved roller and protector for maps and charts. This design consists, "with the case having longitudinal slot at its under side, the caps upon the ends of the case and formed with ears, the springs upon the case having their ends engaging the ends of the caps, metal bearings in the ends of the caps, the roller within the case with its pintles journaled in said bearings, and the cord wound upon the roller at one end in a reverse direction to the article carried by the roller with its free end passed through the opening in the under side of the cap at that end of the roller" (lines 21-32).
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes Pin. (open access)

Clothes Pin.

Patent for a new and improved clothespin. This design "has for its object to provide an improved pin that can be readily adjusted to any desired position upon the line, and which can be turned at any desired angle to clamp the clothes. The pin is constructed, preferably, of resilient wire—preferably galvanized or otherwise treated to prevent rusting of the same—and may be made in various sizes. [The design] form[s] the pin with an eye or ring portion, through which the line is passed, and with two sets of arms—one set having its two portions parallel with each other" (lines 11-22).
Date: August 26, 1890
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bracket. (open access)

Bracket.

Patent for improvements in brackets that used to support shelf or for other purposes by using a combination of hinged brackets, a longitudinal wire formed with bends to receive the inclined portions of the brackets, and with hooks at its outer ends; this improved brackets “can be folded in close contact with the shelf, so as to occupy little space for shipment or storage.” (Lines 17-19) Illustration is included.
Date: March 31, 1891
Creator: Porter, Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Aerial Ship (open access)

Aerial Ship

Patent for "a ship for navigating the air, which shall be almost or quite as easily governed and controlled as regards its course of travel, irrespective of the direction of the wind and in other respects, as a ship provided with propelling means, used to sail in or through the water" (lines 9-15).
Date: April 19, 1892
Creator: Riddle, William Nelson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brake and Coasting Sprocket-Wheel for Velocipedes. (open access)

Brake and Coasting Sprocket-Wheel for Velocipedes.

Patent for "a combined coasting and driving wheel with brake attachments for stopping velocipedes, whether coasting or whether the velocipede is being propelled by some kind of motive power, by which a person can coast by simply stopping the motion of the pedals and holding the pedals still with the feet." (Lines 9-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 31, 1897
Creator: Wallerich, Nicholas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Angle-Cock. (open access)

Angle-Cock.

Patent for "a locking device for the train pipe valve or plug, and a connection separate from the train pipe and under the control of the engineer, to manipulate the said locking device and secure the valve or plug in position." (Lines 13-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 19, 1895
Creator: Waldron, William J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cord-Fastener for Envelopes. (open access)

Cord-Fastener for Envelopes.

Patent for a device for attaching a chord on a merchandise envelope or a similar package that provides "a means for permanently holding one end of the chord in an improved and secure manner, and adapted for temporarily securing the free end when desired" (lines 11-14).
Date: June 25, 1895
Creator: Scougale, Malcom
System: The Portal to Texas History