Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "the combination, with a draw-bar, a sliding box, a movable eccentric secured therein, a coupling-rod, and a pivoted locking-jaw, of a locking-plate secured to said box and adapted to lock the jaw against movement" (lines 84-89).
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: Zedler, Fridrick
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists "in combination with the jaws . . . which are arranged to move laterally and simultaneously . . . each having two side hooks combined with the bar and springs . . . the levers, shaft, pulleys, and the chains which pass over the pulleys and connect the rollers with the jaws" (lines 86-96).
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: Neal, Adam Sylvester
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Saw Buck and Drag Saw. (open access)

Combined Saw Buck and Drag Saw.

Patent for a new and improved saw-buck and drag-saw. This design consists in "[t]he combination of the saw-buck having cross-piece, the swinging arm pivoted to and laterally movable on said cross-piece, the upper-end of said arm being provided with a slot, the saw, the saw-carriers . . . having spindles, the forward-carrier being provided with a tenon, and the saw-frame pivotally mounted on the spindles of the saw-carriers" (lines 74-82).
Date: March 22, 1887
Creator: Nitsche, John Emil & Kowalewsky, August
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Cotton Chopper and Cultivator. (open access)

Combined Cotton Chopper and Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cotton chopper and cultivator. This design consists in "the frame, the axle having drive-wheels, and a bevel-gear in combination with the longitudinally-sliding gear-shaft having [a] short crank on its rear end, the bar, the longitudinal rock-shaft in rear of and above the shaft and having the long crank, the handle depending from the rear-end of the rock-shaft, and the opposite chopping-hoes" (lines 27-35).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Ferriott, Charlie L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Continuous Recording-Seal and Door-Fastener. (open access)

Continuous Recording-Seal and Door-Fastener.

Patent for a continuous recording-seal and door-fastener. The purpose behind this patent is the continuous recording-seal and door-fastener itself which is intended to "provide a simple means of fastening, sealing, and cleating or closing the crack of a car or other sliding hinge door" (lines 9-12).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Ferguson, George J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ant Trap. (open access)

Ant Trap.

Patent for a new and improved ant trap. This design consists "[i]n a device for catching ants, the combination, with an open frame, of the end piece or trough, having a concave bottom and overturned edges" (lines 84-87).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Haines, Samuel Alfred
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wash Board. (open access)

Wash Board.

Patent for a new and improved washboard. This design consists in "a suitable base-frame, a series of alternately right and left handed spirally-grooved rollers journaled therein, an inclined forked frame straddling and pivoted to the base-frame, a lever for securing the adjustment of said forked frame on its axis, a rubber, and rocking spring-arms journaled in said forked frame and connecting the same and the rubber" (lines 92-100).
Date: March 22, 1887
Creator: Stone, Charles M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing-Fluid (open access)

Washing-Fluid

Patent for invention has relation to improved detergent and it consists in combining certain ingredients and the manner and proportions as will be here in after fully set forth, and particular pointed out in the claim appended.[10]
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: Mnnick, Maggie, E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Motor. (open access)

Motor.

Patent for a motor for vertically-reciprocating dasher-churn.
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Waston, Josiah P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electric Arc Lamp. (open access)

Electric Arc Lamp.

Patent for a new and improved electric-arc lamp. This design consists in "the combination of a single horseshoe electro-magnet in the circuit of a main line, connected on the positive side to a binding-post having shunt material as a bushing around it, an armature hinged at its center and free to vibrate throughout its length with a carbon-rod holder, which it is adapted to clutch at the hinged part, said magnet acting upon the ends of the armature only, and an adjustable trip and limiting-stops, and means permitting both to be readily adjusted upon the outside of the casing to regulate the lamp" (lines 46-58).
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: McDill, Henry C. & Gaston, James E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Thill Coupling. (open access)

Thill Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for thills. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the clip having the ears provided with the openings of the draft-iron having the eye at its inner end adapted to be inserted between the ears of the clip and having the transverse central opening" (lines 94-98). Further, it has "the coupling-bolt having the inclined shoulder and the nut provided with the [other] inclined shoulder and the sleeves having the inclined inner ends adapted to enter the inclines of the draft-iron and provided at their outer ends with the inclined recesses" (lines 1-7).
Date: March 1, 1887
Creator: Findley, James W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Spring Saddle. (open access)

Spring Saddle.

Patent for a new and improved spring-saddle. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the saddle-tree, the spiral springs secured in pairs under the lateral halves of the saddle-tree, and the stirrup-straps, of the metallic plates each provided with a series of holes about its edge for securing padding thereto, and with a notch and a slit at the middle of one side for the passage of the stirrup-straps" (lines 57-64).
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: Quintero, Antonio Hidalgo
System: The Portal to Texas History
Expansion Double-Shovel Corn And Cotton Planter. (open access)

Expansion Double-Shovel Corn And Cotton Planter.

Patent for a new machine for planting corn or cotton that can be "adapted for use as a plow or cultivator" (lines 60-61), including instructions and illustrations.
Date: March 1, 1887
Creator: Draper, Richard Edward.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire-Arm. (open access)

Fire-Arm.

Patent for an improvement to adjusting rifle barrels and holding those adjustments in place. Includes illustrations.
Date: March 8, 1887
Creator: Alston, William F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gang Plow. (open access)

Gang Plow.

Patent for a new and improved gang plow. This design consists in "the landside-beam, the front cross-beam, the oblique plow-carrying beam connected at its rear end to the landside-beam and at its front to the front cross-beam, the tubular bearings or boxings on the side of the landside-beam and at the front of the plow-beam, the wheeled cylindrical rods extending through and freely rotatable in the said bearings or boxings, and means . . . for raising and lowering the frame on the cylindrical rods" (lines 17-28).
Date: March 15, 1887
Creator: Hinchman, Frank M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Metallic Shingle. (open access)

Metallic Shingle.

Patent for a new and improved metallic shingle. This design calls for "[t]he ends of the shingles adjacent to the groove [to be] turned up to provide a guard which, when the joints are made between the shingles, prevents the water from obtaining access to the roof-boards, and directs it down the shingle to the bead, where the water is drained off" (lines 80-86).
Date: March 22, 1887
Creator: Harry, Hugh W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Portable Flour and Meal Bin. (open access)

Portable Flour and Meal Bin.

Patent for a new and improved bin for flour and meal. This design "consist[s], essentially, of the casing having compartments provided with contracted curved bottoms, the spouts in said bottoms, the spirally-grooved shafts in said spouts, the chambers the bottoms of which are hinged to the casing and provided with the sieves, and the stirrers on the ends of the shafts and within the hinged chambers" (lines 81-89).
Date: March 15, 1887
Creator: Cox, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pipe Connection. (open access)

Pipe Connection.

Patent for a new and improved pipe connection. This design has for its object "to provide a new and improved pipe connection which permits of swinging the several connected pipe-sections at angles to each other. The invention consists of two pipe-heads fastened together and turning on a spring-bolt, and of a packing placed between the said pipe-heads to prevent leakage" (lines 8-15).
Date: March 15, 1887
Creator: Jones, William E. & Winniatt, Harry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Egg-Preserving Compound. (open access)

Egg-Preserving Compound.

Patent for a new compound to be used for the preservation of eggs which lists the ingredients and proportions.
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Jurgens, Nils Colling.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Deep Well Pump. (open access)

Deep Well Pump.

Patent for a new and improved well pump. This design consists in "the timber bed arranged on the bottom of the well, in combination with two superposed metallic cylinders connected by a stock, said stock being provided at the bottom with inwardly-turned flanges made fast to said bed" (lines 55-60).
Date: March 22, 1887
Creator: Clark, Alexander Evans
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electric Arc Lamp. (open access)

Electric Arc Lamp.

Patent for a new and improved electric-arc lamp. This design is "for utilizing a part of the magnetic field of the electro-magnet to act as a retarding medium or a brake to the carbon-holder, which consists of a system of gear-wheels provided with a ratchet and pawl . . . actuated from rack-teeth cut in the side of the upper-carbon rod, on the last spindle of which is adjustably secured a disk of soft iron or other magnetic material, so located as to be within the influence of the magnetic field of one end of the electro-magnet" (lines 36-47).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Crowdus, Walter A. & Sutton, Henry M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design consists in "the combination, with the frame bearing the standards, of caster-wheels provided with shanks, which are vertically journaled in the bars at each side of said frame and in the ends of the cross-bar, the hand-lever which is secured at the forward end of the beam and pivotally connected to the center of said cross-bar and provided with a slot near its free end, the segmental upright, and the spring" (lines 16-25).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Brown, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design has for its object "to render the points or shovels laterally adjustable with relation to each other and the plow-beam and to render the side rows of points or shovels reversible in position on the plow-beam" (lines 19-23).
Date: March 29, 1887
Creator: Kirven, Peter E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Packer. (open access)

Cotton Packer.

Patent for a new and improved cotton packer. This design consists in "the combination of a reciprocating plunger having an upright frame formed with a cross-piece at its top, a drum having means for revolving it in opposite directions, a chain attached to the plunger and to the drum winding upon the same, a spring secured at its middle to the cross-piece of the plunger-frame, and chains secured to the ends of the spring and to the drum winding upon the same in opposite direction to the chain from the plunger" (lines 93-103).
Date: March 1, 1887
Creator: Dulaney, John Thornton
System: The Portal to Texas History