Map of the Black and Grand Prairies of Texas including the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers.

Topographic map of the Black Prairie and Grand Prairie regions of Texas and southern Indian Territory, including the Eastern and Western cross timbers. Also displays streams, cities, and railroads.
Date: 1899
Creator: Hill, Robert T.
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History

Geology of the Black and Grand Prairies of Texas including the Eastern and Western Cross Timbers

Geologic map shows surficial, sedimentary, crystalline, and igneous formations of the Black and Grand Prairies in Texas. Also displays topography, streams, cities, and railroads. Includes legend.
Date: 1899
Creator: Hill, Robert T.
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History

Cross Sections on the Lines A-A. B-B. Etc. PL. LXVI, Showing Geological Structure of the Black and Grand Prairies.

Profiles to illustrate section lines on Plate 66, Geologic Map of the Black and Grand Prairies of Texas.
Date: 1899~
Creator: Geological Survey (U.S.)
Object Type: Image
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in  Cotton-Hoes. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Hoes.

Patent for improvements in cotton hoes: "such as are employed in thinning cotton and other plants" ( lines 16-17).
Date: September 26, 1897
Creator: Sims, Zachariah B.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Artificial Teeth. (open access)

Artificial Teeth.

Patent for the lower set of artificial teeth, "and aims to provide retainers and combine them with the plate, so as to hold the denture in place against accidental displacement during the process of articulation, prehension, mastication, and deglutition" (lines 10-15). This invention "provides retainers which fill a vacuum in the mouth never heretofore utilized in the construction of artificial teeth and which form a rest for the muscles in their contraction incident to the movements of the jaws, and these retainers render a lower set of artificial teeth s comfortable and serviceable as if they were natural" (lines 22-29).
Date: September 17, 1895
Creator: Johnston, George A. & Carroll, Houston M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Gate. (open access)

Automatic Gate.

Patent for an improved automatic gate with levers, cam-blocks, camways, and cam-rods. It is centrally pivoting, uses a pulley, a cam groove, a forked bearing, chains, and chords.
Date: September 17, 1895
Creator: Everton, David Marion
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Autographic Register. (open access)

Autographic Register.

Patent for an autographic register that provides "improved means for guiding, stamping, cutting, and filling a record-bill and discharging original and duplicate bills; [provides] improved means for guiding the strips of paper and holding the carbon or duplicating paper in operative position; furthermore, [provides] improved means for operating the several parts of the mechanism to insure accuracy and facilitate the subsequent permanent filing of the record-bills" (lines 9-19).
Date: September 17, 1895
Creator: Norcross, George A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Replacer. (open access)

Car-Replacer.

Patent for a car-replacer that is meant to "provide a strong and compact skid of comparatively light weight to form the body portion of the car-replacer and which shall be especially adapted to raise the car-wheels above the track, deflect toward them toward the rails until the tread of the wheels is suspended over the ball of the rails from an inclined surface terminating in a rounded end, over which the wheels move until they meet the track" (lines 12-21). The car-replacer does not have any liability of the skid tilting endwise or sidewise.
Date: October 15, 1895
Creator: Ragan, John
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Door Cleat and Fastener. (open access)

Car-Door Cleat and Fastener.

Patent for "a simple and comparatively-inexpensive car-door cleat and fastener designed for use on cars for transporting cotton and other highly-inflammable merchandise and capable of effectually excluding sparks from the interior of the car and of preventing the same from entering between the edge of the door and the doorway." (Lines 11-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: October 22, 1895
Creator: Woodruff, Hawkins
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Attachment for Penholders. (open access)

Attachment for Penholders.

Patent for a simple and effective attachment for penholders. It is "readily and easily attached to a penholder, and which is adapted to protect the fingers of the hand and prevent them from coming in contact with the pen or with the inked portion of the holder" (lines 15-19).
Date: November 12, 1895
Creator: McDonald, Michael Shaw
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pounder. (open access)

Clothes-Pounder.

Patent for a clothes-pounder that is simple and effective with the operator using the minimum amount of energy. It is conical with a smaller cone inside it. A diaphragm is between the cones and the brace, and an is air vent inside it.
Date: November 19, 1895
Creator: Bain, WIlliam W. & Bain, William M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Axle-Box. (open access)

Axle-Box.

Patent for a simple, inexpensive, and durable wheel-axle box that is "adapted to contain a supply of lubricating material and constructed to feed the same continuously to the axle-spindle to prevent overheating, and furthermore, to provide means for preventing ingress of dust" (lines 9-14).
Date: November 19, 1895
Creator: Casto, Tony Lo
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car for Pneumatic Railways. (open access)

Car for Pneumatic Railways.

Patent for a car for pneumatic railways meant to "provide a car especially adapted for the [air-]tube, the same being constructed with track-wheels in the central line of the cars" (lines 12-15). It is also "a double car divided lengthwise centrally by a partition-wall, through which communication may be had between a car-section - that is, between the double car within the same - and to provide each end portion of this double car with a door" (lines 17-22). There are two track-wheels above the below the car and one above.
Date: November 19, 1895
Creator: Rush, Cicero Alonzo
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Tabled, Copy, and Bill Holder. (open access)

Combined Tabled, Copy, and Bill Holder.

Patent for a combined tablet, copy, and bill holder meant to hold "file-pins in their operative and inoperative positions, to provide simple and improved means whereby a tablet or bills may be covered when not in use or when carrying the device, to protect the same from dirt, &c. and, furthermore, to provide improved means for supporting the holder in position for transcribing" (lines 12-18).
Date: November 26, 1895
Creator: Stuart, Benjamin Franklin & Willson, Frederick WIlliam
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling-Press. (open access)

Baling-Press.

Patent for "baling-presses, and has for its objects to provide a simple and efficient apparatus embodying a rebounding plunger; to provide means for regulating the resistance offered to the advance movement of the forward head-block; to provide improved means for tucking the material during the advance movement of the plunger; to provide means for regulating the length of a bale; to provide means for automatically inserting a head-block when a bale of the desired length has been formed; and to provide means whereby the raising and lowering of the press-box or baling-chamber is accomplished by the draft-horses through the sweep, and without the use of jacks or other analogous devices." (Lines 8-24) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 24, 1895
Creator: Keith, George A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Loading Cotton-Bales, &c. (open access)

Apparatus for Loading Cotton-Bales, &c.

Patent for an apparatus for loading cotton-bales onto trucks from the compress. It is comprised of a cylinder, a piston, a piston rod, an inlet and exhaust pipes and a valve, a chain with grapnels at one end end and the other end is connected to the piston rod, a sheave, an adjustable slidable trip rod, a pivoted trip lever connected to the cylinder, a four armed lever connected to the valve, and connecting rods.
Date: December 24, 1895
Creator: Thompson, George
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Chemical Fire-Extingusiher. (open access)

Chemical Fire-Extingusiher.

Patent for a chemical fire-extinguisher meant to "provide an improved acid-receptacle which will obviate the objects to the ordinary acid-bottles now in use" (lines 15-18).
Date: December 31, 1896
Creator: Flatau, Louis, S.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Chemical Fire-Extinguisher. (open access)

Chemical Fire-Extinguisher.

Patent for chemical fire extinguishers "in which the acid-bottle consists of two concentric cylinders, the inner one of which is open at top and bottom, and which, when the bottle is placed in the cylinder containing the water and soda, potash, or other material, a compressed-air seal will be formed, preventing the acid and water from commingling; but when the bottle is inverted the seal will be broken, and the water and acid coming together will generate the gas." (Lines 18-28) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 31, 1895
Creator: Flatau, Louis Spencer
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Removing Cores from Cylindrical Cotton-Bales. (open access)

Apparatus for Removing Cores from Cylindrical Cotton-Bales.

Patent for a "means for removing screw-threaded cores from cylindrical cotton-bales" (lines 12-14). It is made up of a wheeled-truck that is holding the bale, an apparatus that grips the end of the core, a way to revolve the grip, a driven shaft, and a universal joint that connects the shaft with the end of the core.
Date: December 31, 1895
Creator: White, Charles W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Protecting Electrical Circuits. (open access)

Apparatus for Protecting Electrical Circuits.

Patent for an apparatus for protecting electrical circuits, and is an improvement on a previous patent (No. 537,932) issued to the inventor. This patent consists of "an electrical circuit, an alarm or indicator, a continuously-operating signal-transmitter at the protected structure operating to affect or influence the alarm or indicator, and a second or duplicate continuously-operating signal-transmitter located at the watchman's station, operating in unison with the first-named signal-transmitter to affect the alarm or indicator equally and oppositely as regards the first-named transmitter, whereby a signal is sounded or an alarm given only when the two transmitters are out of unison or when one is changed, varied, or interfered with in an unauthorized manner" (lines 72-86).
Date: January 7, 1896
Creator: Oram, John M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Electric Alarm. (open access)

Automatic Electric Alarm.

Patent for an inexpensive, simple, and durable automatic electric alarm that allows people in house or hotel rooms, mines, ships, shops, etc. to signal for another person. The alarm is wired to a clock so it can be programmed to go off at a certain time.
Date: January 7, 1896
Creator: Stansel, Thomas J.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Electric Alarm. (open access)

Automatic Electric Alarm.

Patent for an automatic electric alarm meant to be hooked up to an automatic dry-pipe sprinkler system, and protects against fire. The alarm goes off when the air in the sprinkler pipes falls below a predetermined level. This invention also signals an alert when there is a leak in the pipes, and is an improvement on the circuit-wires for similar alarms.
Date: January 7, 1896
Creator: Williams, George Bayley
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brace for Heel-Sweeps. (open access)

Brace for Heel-Sweeps.

Patent for a simple and durable brace for heel-sweeps. The wings of the sweep will not close, and "that portion of the sweep through which the heel-bolt passes will be materially strengthened" (lines 14-16). It also braces sweeps whatever their size, and all the brace's parts are adjustable.
Date: January 7, 1896
Creator: Ferrell, Augustus C. & Hamrick, Thomas J.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cloth Bucket or Vessel. (open access)

Cloth Bucket or Vessel.

Patent for a cloth bucket or vessel to place milk or water in to keep it cool when ice is not available. One places the bucket in the shade and the air circulates freely through the bucket. The bucket is thick enough that it will not drip, but is breathable to allow aeration and evaporation.
Date: January 14, 1896
Creator: Slack, Robert A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History