Cloth Measuring Reel. (open access)

Cloth Measuring Reel.

Patent for a new and improved cloth-measuring wheel. This design "consists in the peculiar combination and arrangement of the cutting-board with two standards, whereby the said cutting-board is made to act as a sufficient brace for the frame, as well as to perform the offices of a cutting board. The invention also consists in means for producing a variable tension on the cloth as it passes from the roll to the reel, whereby the tendency of different thicknesses of cloth to wind the cloth in greater or lesser lengths than the register indicates is compensated for and corrected" (lines 27-39).
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Peters, James H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Churn Motor. (open access)

Churn Motor.

Patent for a new and improved churn motor. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a wheel or disk having a toothed periphery and provided with a broad friction-flange, or a disk at right angles to the former, bearing against its friction-flange, and having studs engaging its teeth . . . [also] [i]n a churn-motor, the combination, with the box or body of the cover, having uprights, [a] shaft having [a] crank, disk having teeth and [a] flange, and the vertical shaft having [a] disk, provided with studs" (lines 67-77).
Date: October 3, 1882
Creator: May, Benjamin Cary
System: The Portal to Texas History
Carpenter's Square. (open access)

Carpenter's Square.

Patent for a new and improved carpenter's square. This design calls for ribs or ridges running lengthwise along the blades and a thicker, more durable square between the blades. In this way, only the ribs or ridges suffer wear, and the square lasts longer.
Date: October 3, 1882
Creator: Callihan, Willie Hoyle
System: The Portal to Texas History
Book-Rest for Writing Desks and Tables. (open access)

Book-Rest for Writing Desks and Tables.

Patent for an improved book-rest for writing desks and tables used to support record-books upon desks or tables in such positions that they can be conveniently used.
Date: October 3, 1882
Creator: Terrill, Reuben W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Walking Stool for Children. (open access)

Walking Stool for Children.

Patent for a new and improved walker for children. This design "is to facilitate placing the child, and to avoid any risk of injury, and, further, to make the stool easy for the body and arms of the child" (lines 13-16). This end is achieved with a hinged section of the walking ring, which may be opened to allow in the child.
Date: October 3, 1882
Creator: Peterson, Gustav
System: The Portal to Texas History
Governor for Cotton Gins. (open access)

Governor for Cotton Gins.

Patent for a new and improved governor for cotton gins. This design utilizes a moveable suspended roll-breast and a moveable rocking frame to regulate the amount of cotton fed into the roll-box. This design simplifies and cheapens gin production, and it makes the parts of the gin more adaptable to other gins of different sizes.
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Forbes, Lycurgus D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Toy and Bottle Stopper. (open access)

Combined Toy and Bottle Stopper.

Patent for a novel bottle stopper. This design "consists in certain improvements in [bottle stoppers] whereby the outpouring fluid may be utilized to set in motion an automaton attached to said stopper" (lines 18-21).
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Zanetti, Fortonato Clemente
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sash Balance. (open access)

Sash Balance.

Patent for a new and improved sash balance. This design "furnish[es] a spring-tensioned sash-balance by which the top sash may be held in close contact with the top of the window-frame or adjusted at a lowered position without hoisting the bottom sash. [The] invention consists in certain peculiarities of construction and arrangement" (lines 9-15).
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: Quick, John Albert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Picket Fence (open access)

Picket Fence

Patent for an improvement in short timber picket fences
Date: January 3, 1882
Creator: McGinty, Robert H.
System: The Portal to Texas History