Improvement in Steam-plows. (open access)

Improvement in Steam-plows.

Patent for improvement in the apparatus for turning up soil with a steam plow.
Date: August 15, 1871
Creator: Miller, Herman
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Combined Planter and Cultivator. (open access)

Improvement in Combined Planter and Cultivator.

Patent for improvement in combined planter and cultivator by “combining instruments such as hoppers, plow-beans, brace-bars, foot-levers and many others that required for preparing the ground, planting the seed, and cultivating the plants and which may be easily adjusted for the various uses.” (Lines 22-25) Illustration is included.
Date: March 16, 1869
Creator: Switzer, W. C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Methods of Adjusting Signaling-Mirrors. (open access)

Improvement in Methods of Adjusting Signaling-Mirrors.

Patent for an improvement in the "method of throwing reflected light of a mirror with accuracy upon a distant object in flash-signaling" (lines 5-7), including illustrations.
Date: April 22, 1873
Creator: Kenney, Martin M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Handsaws (open access)

Improvement in Handsaws

Patent for an improved handsaw with changes made to the teeth, frame, and bolts.
Date: May 15, 1877
Creator: Shave, Levi & Reams, Sherwood Young
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Horse-Powers. (open access)

Improvement in Horse-Powers.

Patent for new improvement in the construction of horse-powers for cotton-gins and other machinery, including illustration.
Date: February 17, 1874
Creator: Landes, Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Insect-Destroying Compounds. (open access)

Improvement in Insect-Destroying Compounds.

Patent for an insecticide that kills ants via fumigation. Ingredients include sulfur, charcoal, potassium cyanide, arsenic, and coal tar.
Date: September 22, 1874
Creator: Tottenham, John William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Portable Derricks. (open access)

Improvement in Portable Derricks.

Patent for improvement in portable derricks by using an “adjustable crane mounted on a truck-platform, having an overhead frame for the support of the upper end of the crane-post, and braces for staying the frame, so that the crane can be turned around to overhang the sides.” (Lines 6-11) Illustration is included.
Date: May 16, 1876
Creator: Reams, Shirwood Y.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow-Stock. (open access)

Plow-Stock.

Patent for a new and improved plow-stock. This design is of "an improved plow-stock, which shall be so constructed that various kinds of standards, according to the various kind and size of the plows to be used, may be attached to it, which may be adjusted to take and leave land, as may be desired, and which shall be simple in construction and easily adapted" (para. 4).
Date: January 16, 1877
Creator: Weber, Robert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling Press. (open access)

Baling Press.

Patent for a new and improved baling press. This design "consists in the construction and novel arrangement of the rounded meeting ends of the main levers and the equalizing-link connecting the same; the rounded meeting ends of the toggle-levers concentrically arranged with reference to the sill-bearings; the perforated connecting-pin for the upper ends of each pair of toggle-levers, and the securing-bolts thereof passed through the heads of the toggle-levers; the end openings in the lower portion of the baling-box and the vertically-reciprocating doors in connection therewith" (lines 19-30).
Date: August 8, 1882
Creator: Stopple, John J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved car-coupling. This design calls for two u-shaped metal pieces, one narrower than the other, each with eyes at their ends. A metal rod, which doubles as a handle, threads the eyes, connecting the pieces and allowing for the two loops to butterfly; one car can be bound to each of the loops with a metal pin.
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Stopple, John J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bicycle Alarm (open access)

Bicycle Alarm

Patent for a "simple and cheap as well as ornamental bicycle-whistle...of novel and peculiar construction, adapted for attachment to the bicycle and made to sound at pleasure" (lines 14-18). Illustrations and instructions are included.
Date: July 13, 1897
Creator: Crump, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Carpenter's Hatchet. (open access)

Carpenter's Hatchet.

Patent for a new and improved carpenter's hatchet. This design, "by curving or convexing the back of the hatchet downward from the eye to the rear end of the blade [it] greatly facilitates the ease and efficiency with which the hatchet can be used in driving nails in angles and corners—an improvement which will be at once appreciated by all carpenters—while by forming the back of the blade with the opposite recesses, leaving the thin wall between them, the hatchet can be used as a screw-driver, and the carpenter can thus dispense with the use of a separate screw-driver" (lines 67-79).
Date: March 27, 1888
Creator: Stopple, John Julius
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pin. (open access)

Clothes-Pin.

Patent for a simple, metallic, and inexpensive clothes pin that can be used with a rope or wire line. It can be attached easily but will not blow off. It does not rust or tear the clothes.
Date: March 28, 1893
Creator: Crump, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Condenser for Baling-Press (open access)

Condenser for Baling-Press

Patent for "a device capable of being applied to any horizontal baling-press for the purpose of compressing the charge of hay or other material before it enters the baling-chamber" (lines 10-14).
Date: November 12, 1889
Creator: Bailey, James W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling-Press (open access)

Baling-Press

Patent for improvements in "the class of baling-presses in which the follower is forced upward in the press-box by a lever pivoted or fulcrumed upon the ends of toggle-arms, and having a rope or chain for drawing it into an upright position," (lines 26-31) with illustrations.
Date: May 24, 1887
Creator: Stopple, John Julius
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coffee Roaster. (open access)

Coffee Roaster.

Patent for a new and improved coffee roaster. This design utilizes handles "so arranged as to enable the operator to shake it and move it upside down and about with great facility. The perforated or wire-cloth bottom and top allow the heat from the stove or fire to pass unobstructed to the coffee, so that a strong and uniform heat is applied. The wire-cloth bottom also acts as a sieve . . . and it does not scratch or burn the grains" (lines 49-58). The design eliminates the need for a stirring utensil.
Date: January 9, 1883
Creator: Stopple, John J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cork Extractor. (open access)

Cork Extractor.

Patent for a new and improved cork extractor. This design consists, "with the side-slitted cork, of the double-wire extractor having loop ends engaging the slits of the cork and extending beyond the same and the securing-wire passing through said loop ends and around the shoulder of the bottle-neck" (lines 47-52).
Date: October 5, 1886
Creator: Crump, William E., Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

Patent for a clamp that is used in fence construction. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 24, 1897
Creator: Howard, Zenas F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Washing Dishes. (open access)

Machine for Washing Dishes.

Patent for a new and improved dish-washing machine. This design "relates to machines for cleansing dishes, clothes, and other articles of that class in which the water is agitated. The object of the invention is to provide a simple, inexpensive, and generally efficient machine that will perform its functions speedily, and will require but very little expenditure of operating power" (lines 10-17).
Date: December 4, 1883
Creator: Harris, Charles Alexander.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Method of Making Mattresses. (open access)

Method of Making Mattresses.

Patent for a new and improved method of making mattresses. This invention "consists in first disintegrating the material and simultaneously forcing the same into a suitable receptacle, fanning said material as it passes into the receptacle, and finally compressing the same . . . thereby dispensing with tacking of the bat" (lines 15-22).
Date: March 5, 1889
Creator: Haynes, Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Making Bats for Mattresses. (open access)

Means for Making Bats for Mattresses.

Patent for a simple means for making bats for mattresses, and is an improvement on a previous patent (No. 399,041). "I gin into a room or place having the width or the length of the average width or length of a mattress, but extending the necessary length-say twenty or twenty-five feet, more or less to allow the cotton or material used to settle uniformly across it, the top at the extreme end preferably covered with wire-gauze to assist the draft from the gin. The floor and sides of this box or room or other receptacle into which the material for the mattress-bats is falling from the gin is provided with a means to carry the ginned material along from the gin as fast as it is worked. The bats may be formed in one long continuous web,from which the desired length may be cut" (lines 19-34)
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Haynes, Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design is "to provide a plow adapted to be used in connection with either single or double sweeps and to facilitate the application and removal of either thereof, and, furthermore, to provide means for steadying the plow during operation" (lines 8-14). It consists, "with the beam and standard, of the triangular brace having a series of adjusting holes at its upper end and at its lower front end curved upwardly, forwardly, and downwardly and at its extremity slotted, the adjusting-bolts . . . passed through the adjusting-holes and slot, [and] the steel shoe" (lines 6-13).
Date: June 14, 1892
Creator: Lee, William R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow (open access)

Plow

Patent for invention of certain new and useful improvements in plows with accompanying drawings. An improved plow in which revolving mold board is driven without the intervention of a universal joint [5-30]
Date: January 3, 1893
Creator: Kirk, John, P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gunpowder Canister. (open access)

Gunpowder Canister.

Patent for a new and improved canister. This design "consists in the combination of a suitable supporting cone-shaped frame provided with a supporting flange at its top and an opening through one side, with the can or case for holding the powder, and which is also provided with a supporting-flange near its lower end, a suitable cover, and a spring-actuated perforated slide . . . to provide a case for holding gunpowder, and from which the powder can be drawn into a suitable measuring-receptacle without the trouble of having to weigh it or having to expose it . . . where it is liable to catch fire" (lines 14-28).
Date: September 3, 1889
Creator: Stopple, John J. & Harigel, Emil
System: The Portal to Texas History