Display Rack (open access)

Display Rack

Patent for store window display racks which can be easily removed and altered in appearance, allowing for more unique showings of commercial goods.
Date: July 14, 1914
Creator: Adamson, John Seldon
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Stripping Wheels from Shafts (open access)

Device for Stripping Wheels from Shafts

Patent for a device for stripping wheels from shafts. Illustrations included.
Date: May 14, 1912
Creator: Allien, Leon F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Policemen's Batons. (open access)

Improvement in Policemen's Batons.

Patent for an improved policemen's baton made of flexible material, such as india-rubber or gutta-percha, and sometimes an interior metal stem. Using a flexible material makes the baton elastic enough so that no serious injury can be caused, yet it is still effective. Illustration included.
Date: October 14, 1873
Creator: Beery, Simon & McDonald, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Motor-Tricycle. (open access)

Motor-Tricycle.

Patent for a specification to improve a motor-tricycle's ability to ride over obstructions and uneven surfaces to reduce shock to the front of the frame and the rider (lines 14-20). The patent includes the detailed specifications and illustrations.
Date: July 14, 1914
Creator: Benton, Walter L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type-Writing Machine (open access)

Type-Writing Machine

Patent for improvements to typewriting machines with the aim of providing "a machine of simple and durable construction, capable of use for the ordinary purposes to which type-writers are applied, but especially adapted and designed for typewriting upon blank books, thereby facilitating the making of official records and producing records that are more legible and compact than it is possible to obtain by handwriting" (lines 11-18).
Date: June 14, 1892
Creator: Borden, William J. & Johnson, Jahu W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Drill Bit (open access)

Drill Bit

Patent for improvements in drill bits, particularly in the application used in drilling in soft formations, such as clay, gumbo, or similar material. The purpose of the invention is to provide a way to prevent the sticking of material to the drill and drill collar while the drilling operation is being performed.
Date: February 14, 1922
Creator: Childs, William L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type Delivery Machine (open access)

Type Delivery Machine

Patent for a type delivery machine that separates different characters of type from one another.
Date: December 14, 1915
Creator: Choate, King E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Locking Device (open access)

Automatic Locking Device

Patent for improvements to automatic locking devices when turned one direction with illustrations.
Date: May 14, 1918
Creator: Dixon, Thomas K.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oil Well Screen. (open access)

Oil Well Screen.

Patent for a new oil-well screen that prevents sand from entering an oil or water well but will allow oil and water through.
Date: February 14, 1922
Creator: Dobson, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cross-Head (open access)

Cross-Head

Patent for a cross-head for piston pumps which helps prevent breakage of the other pump parts.
Date: September 14, 1909
Creator: Dubuque, Arthur
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bale Tie (open access)

Bale Tie

Patent for a new and improved bale tie. This invention is to "provide a new and improved bale-tie which is simple and durable in construction, not liable to become accidentally unlocked, and arranged to permit its use on ordinary compresses" (line 7 - 11).
Date: December 14, 1897
Creator: Edmonston, Thomax Cole
System: The Portal to Texas History
Support for Compasses (open access)

Support for Compasses

Patent for a support for compasses used for railway coaches. Illustrations included.
Date: November 14, 1911
Creator: Ely, William S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gasket (open access)

Gasket

Patent for improvements in "gaskets or packing rings for steam-cylinders, and is designed to prevent the gasket from becoming broken or spread apart at the port-openings therein" (lines 7-10).
Date: May 14, 1901
Creator: Engers, Jacob
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed Cleaner (open access)

Seed Cleaner

Patent for cleaning seeds. This invention will improve seed cleaning and catch unwanted seeds.
Date: February 14, 1922
Creator: Garner, James C
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pneumatic Disk Gin. (open access)

Pneumatic Disk Gin.

Patent for an improved version of a pneumatic disk gin. It has been designed for "ginning fibrous material, such as seed cotton" (lines 13-14) and improves the separation of the cotton and the seeds with the use of its perforated disks.
Date: February 14, 1922
Creator: Garner, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Well Drilling Mechanism (open access)

Well Drilling Mechanism

Patent for a well drilling mechanism. This invention addresses the time consuming labor of screwing together sections of drilling pipe. This invention "contemplates an apparatus adapted to be attached to the frame of the rotary and operated by the driving mechanism of the rotary...screwing and unscrewing accomplished by mechanical means without manual means" (lines 38-44). Illustration included.
Date: January 14, 1913
Creator: Hall, Samuel N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automobile Headlight. (open access)

Automobile Headlight.

Patent for an improved automobile headlight equipped with a movable lens and reflector to cast light down towards the roadway.
Date: November 14, 1922
Creator: Head, James M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Street or Station Indicator. (open access)

Street or Station Indicator.

Patent for "indicators for displaying to passengers in a car the names of approaching streets or stations" (lines 9-11) including mechanical specifications and illustrations.
Date: January 14, 1908
Creator: Higgins, Polk Maderson & Lee Dolphia Harmes
System: The Portal to Texas History
Core-Barrel. (open access)

Core-Barrel.

Patent for a core barrel for use in rotary drilling of oil or water wells, that will allow for easy extraction of the upwardly extending column of material.
Date: October 14, 1919
Creator: Humason, Granville A. & Childs, William L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Engine-Starter. (open access)

Engine-Starter.

Patent for an internal combustion engine starter that is operated using compressed air. Compressed fluid can be used for other purposes such as inflating tires.
Date: October 14, 1913
Creator: Hume, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pump. (open access)

Pump.

Patent for a pump designed to draw liquid, such as oil, from a well.
Date: June 14, 1921
Creator: Jones, Oceola
System: The Portal to Texas History
Support for Coffee Mills. (open access)

Support for Coffee Mills.

Patent for a new and improved support for coffee grinders. This design consists in "the combination of the base having the socket and the projecting bracket-lug provided with the binding-screw, and the standard adapted to carry the mill and removably fitted in the bracket-lug and held therein by the screw" (lines 8-13).
Date: September 14, 1886
Creator: McCarty, Benjamin Wells & Gagne, Fabius Peter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gasolene-Measuring Device. (open access)

Gasolene-Measuring Device.

Patent for a device which allows for gasoline to be measured while under constant flow.
Date: September 14, 1920
Creator: McKallip, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wheel Hub. (open access)

Wheel Hub.

Patent for a new and improved wheel hub. This design consists "[i]n a sectional hub, each spoke-socket having a separate side opening closed by a plate [that] fit[s] into an annular groove . . . of the cylinder . . . and [is] held by bolts passing between the tenons of spokes, to allow each spoke to be separately reached and tightened by a wedge under the end of its tenon" (lines 59-65). This "obviate[s] the necessity of removing the wheel-tire for replacing a broken spoke with a new one" (lines 7-9).
Date: December 14, 1880
Creator: Oualline, Edward Napoleon
System: The Portal to Texas History