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
Automatic Railway-Gate. (open access)

Automatic Railway-Gate.

Patent for an automatic railway-gate or cattle-guard for use "at crossings, the entrances to tunnels, bridges or trestles, or at other places where it is desirable to guard the tracks" (lines 11-13). The invention is a simple and effective way for closing gates, can be operated from a distance, and is controlled by the wheels of passing trains.
Date: August 14, 1894
Creator: Baade, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretching Spool-Carrier. (open access)

Wire-Stretching Spool-Carrier.

Patent for a wire-stretching spool-carrier that can be easily mounted to the back of a wagon and can stretch wires to the desired amount of tension. Coils are on the mount on the wagon.
Date: August 14, 1894
Creator: Williams, Thomas P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Punching-Machine. (open access)

Punching-Machine.

Patent for a simple and durable punching-machine for metalworking that punching metal and feeds it forward. The invention is made up of " a carriage adapted to support the sheet to be punched, and provided with a toothed bar, a rock shaft carrying a pawl adapted to engage the said toothed bar to move the carriage forward, and a punch lever adapted to receive a swinging motion from the said shaft, the said lever being connected with the punch to move the latter downward to punch the sheet" (lines 14-22).
Date: August 14, 1894
Creator: Walsh, Richard
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sheet-Feeder. (open access)

Sheet-Feeder.

Patent for a simple sheet-feeder that separates the sheets from a pile so they can be fed one at a time. The patent improves on the suction-roller mechanism that takes a sheet and rolls it into a printer. It does not use grippers or mechanical means for grabbing a single sheet.
Date: August 14, 1894
Creator: Clarke, George R.
System: The Portal to Texas History