Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "relates to car-couplings, and more especially to that part or portion of the mechanism usually termed 'link-lifters;' and the object of the invention is to provide means whereby the link can be lifted and caused to enter the draw-head of an approaching car by the operator when standing alongside the stationary car" (lines 7-14).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Small, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Chopper. (open access)

Cotton Chopper.

Patent for a new and improved cotton chopper. This design consists in "the combination, with the axle, of the U-frame having bearings at its ends for the axle and a rearwardly-disposed sleeve, a shaft mounted in the sleeve and projecting beyond the same at each of its ends and provided with choppers at its rear end and a gear at its front end, a master-gear splined upon the axle and having a grooved hub, and a pivoted yoke terminating in the hub and a lever for operating the same to throw the gear into contact with that upon the shaft" (lines 1-12).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Stanford, Jeff Hillon
System: The Portal to Texas History
Crab and Fish Trap. (open access)

Crab and Fish Trap.

Patent for a new and improved seafood trap. This design consists in "a net or trap for crabs or fish, which comprises flat frame-sections hinged together, netting attached to said sections, and a rod or bar extending across said sections and engaging with suitable devices thereon for holding said sections partly extended until the hinged sides strike bottom and thereby release the rod or bar" (lines 83-90).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Franklin, Robert M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electro Medical Belt. (open access)

Electro Medical Belt.

Patent for a new and improved electro-medical belt. This design "consists in a belt or support constructed of multiple-ply electro-conductive belting, which [the design] make[s] by inserting a conductor or conductors between the folds of a multiple-ply band with suitable contact-points at the surface, a sling supported by and movable on the belt for carrying the electric generator, also constructed of the electro-conductive belting, and having detachable connectors between its contact points and those of the belt-contact plates, consisting of disks or plates provided with tongues" (lines 18-29).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Shelton, William J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Elevated Railway, &c (open access)

Elevated Railway, &c

Patent for improvements "to provide an improved track having provisions for readily tightening the track, each span or section being tightened by means of a single tightening device arranged, preferably. . . second, to provide an improved truck with guiding rollers or pulleys, the weight of the truck being carried upon yielding supports; third, a simple and improved swivel or turning device or connection between the car and track, whereby the turning of curves is more easily accomplished with a minimum of friction; fourth, to so mount the truck upon the track that displacement or removal thereof sidewise is impossible fifth, to provide an improved switch; sixth, to provide for a road-bed upon a span in crossing a stream or other analogous obstruction" (lines 14-31).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M. & Taylor, James P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Horse Collar Fastener. (open access)

Horse Collar Fastener.

Patent for a new and improved horse-collar fastener. This design "relates to certain new and useful improvements in horse-collar fastenings of that class designed to lock the two sides of the horse-collar and to permit of the ready separation thereof to facilitate the placing and removal of the collar when desired; and it has for its object to provide a simple and cheap device of this character wherein provision shall be made for the retention of the lever against the catch, and also means for preventing the drawing of the screws" (lines 15-26).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Bomar, Thomas B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Riveting Machine. (open access)

Riveting Machine.

Patent for a new and improved riveting-machine. This design consists "of the upright frame having the cross-head in the upper front part thereof, the vertical driving rods . . . adapted to move in said cross-head, the upright with perforated top and spring-actuated sleeve attached to the frame below the rod, the separable rivet-holder attached to said rod by the arms, the frame, and the sleeve . . . the upright with solid top attached to the frame below the rod, and means, as pivoted levers . . . at the top of the machine, connecting-rods . . . and treadle-levers . . . for actuating the driving-rods" (lines 60-74).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Carl, Reinhold A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Saddle Jack. (open access)

Saddle Jack.

Patent for a new and improved saddle-jack. This design consists in "the combination, with a support, of a post having a hollow trunnion and carrying a saddle-tree support on its upper end, and a bolt passing through the hollow trunnion and carrying hooks on its upper end for engaging a saddle-tree to hold it on its support" (lines 84-90).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Garrett, Richard
System: The Portal to Texas History
Tire Adjuster. (open access)

Tire Adjuster.

Patent for a new and improved wheel adjuster. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the terminal tire-lugs having right and left screw-threaded sockets, of a right and left screw-stem, a turning block of substantially the same cross-section as the rim of the wheel, connected to the screw-stem so as to slide thereon but revolve rigidly together, and means . . . for locking the turning block to the terminal lugs" (lines 8-16).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Surratt, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Water-Elevator (open access)

Water-Elevator

Patent for "an apparatus for use in connection with a well, whereby the well-bucket will be automatically elevated and emptied into a trough by the weight of the cattle that may come to the well to drink, the apparatus be ing particularly designed for use in the Western countries, where large numbers of cattle come to each well in herds" (lines 16-23).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Campbell, George W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Windlass. (open access)

Windlass.

Patent for a new and improved windlass. This design consists in "[t]he combination of a frame having the cross-bars near its lower and upper ends, the windlass-shaft journaled in the side pieces of the frame and having the balance-wheels and the pinion, the operating-gears mounted in one side of the frame and one of said gears meshing with said pinion, an upright mounted upon the lower front cross-piece of the frame and having a guide-pulley at its upper end, arms extending laterally from said upright, and a guide-roller journaled in said arms" (lines 11-21).
Date: April 1, 1890
Creator: Bridges, Thomas H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electric Time-Alarm and Annunciator (open access)

Electric Time-Alarm and Annunciator

Patent for "a combined call and annunciator system by which any number of signals can be sent automatically or manually and various signals received through the annunciator, the apparatus serving to send signals to or from any number of distant points on the circuit at any time" (lines 17-23).
Date: April 4, 1890
Creator: Suren, Nathan H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ointment for Skin Diseases (open access)

Ointment for Skin Diseases

Patent for "a liniment or ointment for the treatment of ring worm or cutaneous troubles, and the compound is described in the following specification and claim" (lines 10-13).
Date: April 4, 1890
Creator: Bergmann, Anton
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Forming Cotton-Seed Meal into Cakes (open access)

Machine for Forming Cotton-Seed Meal into Cakes

Patent for "an organized machine adapted to rapidly compress charges of cotton-seed meal into cakes of sufficient solidity to bear handling and removal to a press, whereby the oil is expressed therefrom, and to deliver said cakes at a point or points in convenient proximity to said press or presses, so that the time and labor involved in preparing the meal for the, press and of inserting it therein will be reduced to the minimum" (lines 9-18).
Date: April 8, 1890
Creator: Price, James S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stirrup Leather Stay. (open access)

Stirrup Leather Stay.

Patent for a new and improved stay. This design "is to provide a stay which will cause the stirrup to hang in proper position for insertion of the rider's foot in mounting" (lines 7-10). To this end, it consists, "with the stirrup, of the U-shaped stay embracing the stirrup cross-piece and extending adjacent to the ends thereof and the central loops along the upper edges of the stay, and of less length than the stay, to receive the relatively narrow stirrup-strap, whereby a narrow stirrup-strap may be successfully used on a stirrup having a wide upper end" (lines 74-82).
Date: April 8, 1890
Creator: Padgitt, Jesse D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wagon Attachment. (open access)

Wagon Attachment.

Patent for a new and improved wagon attachment. This design "relates to hay frames or racks for use with the ordinary box wagon-bodies; and it has for its object to provide a light frame or rack of simple construction adapted for adjustment to wagon boxes or bodies of different width and so constructed as to be folded in a compact form. To these ends the invention consists in a foldable hay frame or rack adapted to fit into a wagon-body and adapted for adjustment to such body; also, in structural features and combination of parts" (lines 19-30).
Date: April 8, 1890
Creator: Haupt, William W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Composition for Preserving Food (open access)

Composition for Preserving Food

Patent for "combustible compositions which, when ignited, produce a gas or gasses which have preservative and purifying effects upon various substances and surfaces or places exposed to the fumes. It is more especially designed, however, for preserving fruits, vegetables, meats, and other perishable articles." (lines 12-19).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Radam, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Flower Pot Trellis (open access)

Flower Pot Trellis

Patent for a flower pot trellis which is used "to be applied to flower-pots of various sizes to support plants or vines without interfering with their roots" (p.2).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Brown, John Stoddart, of Galveston, Texas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Trace Carrier. (open access)

Trace Carrier.

Patent for a new and improved trace-carrier. This design consists in "[a]n improved back-band buckle with hooks, consisting of a body portion formed of a single piece of wrought-wire, the meeting ends of each bent downward, upward, outward, and again downward to form chain-holding hooks or loops, and the tongues pivoted upon the said body portion" (lines 89-95).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Brown, John Stoddart
System: The Portal to Texas History
Channel Cleaner. (open access)

Channel Cleaner.

Patent for a new and improved channel cleaner. This design "is to construct an apparatus which may be anchored in a channel where there are sand-bars, for the purpose of agitating the water and stirring up the sand, so that the current may remove it. [The] invention consists in a trunk or large tube perforated along the bottom and provided at one end with a flaring mouth for concentrating the current within the trunk; also, in the combination, with the trunk, of a stirrer and a motor-screw for driving the same" (lines 17-28).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Evans, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Loading Derrick. (open access)

Cotton Loading Derrick.

Patent for a new and improved cotton-loading derrick. This design consists in "[t]he portable derrick, comprising the barrow-base having the longitudinal handle-bars, the extended longitudinal and transverse base-sills, and the bearings, the rotary shaft or mast having the slot and sheave, the upper shoulder and upward-projecting stud, the cross-head, the oblique braces connecting its rear arm to the mast, and the derrick-pulleys suspended from the free arm of said cross-head, the rope passing through said slot and over said sheave and to said pulleys and windlass" (lines 79-90).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Field, Eldon M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fuse for Shells. (open access)

Fuse for Shells.

Patent for a new and improved shell fuse. This design "relates to that type of percussion-fuses wherein a fuse-tube is secured in the point or end of a shell and contains a plunged connected with a friction-wire embedded in the fulminate in such manner that when the flight of the shell is suddenly arrested the friction-wire is drawn forward by the plunger, thereby igniting the fulminate and setting fire to the powder-charge for bursting the shell. The objects of [the] invention are to . . . provide novel means which not only insure bursting of the shell, but avoid premature bursting at the muzzle of the gun" (lines 8-48).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Phillips, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pad for the Backs of Horses. (open access)

Pad for the Backs of Horses.

Patent for a new and improved pad for horses. This design consists in "the air-tight cushion composed of opposite blanks of elastic air-tight material secured along their adjacent edges, and a central longitudinally-disposed dividing strip dividing the cushion into opposite compartments, and provided with openings affording communication between the compartments" (lines 62-68).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Mudford, Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Veterinary Medicine (open access)

Veterinary Medicine

Patent for "a compound for the eradication of screw-worms in animals, and it has for its object toprovide a simple and inexpensive compound of this character which will quickly and efficiently destroy the worms, and at the same time serve as both an astringent and antiseptic to the wound" (lines 10-16).
Date: April 22, 1890
Creator: Youngkin, John A. & Youngkin, Josiah S.
System: The Portal to Texas History