Photograph of an unidentified child sitting on a chair. Text on the back of the photo reads: Bertie Shell, A. C. Shell, Comstock, Val Verde County, Texas. 8-27-90 & 5-17-90.

Patent for a simple billiard-ball holder that is meant to "provide a means for holding the balls when not in use, so that they will not fall out of the holder to the floor, and means to provide for the tilting of the holder out of line, so that the balls will roll to the opposite end, and out of the opening into the triangle, thereby saving a good part of the time in taking the balls out of the holder" (lines 20-27).

Patent for a simple, practical, and easy to use car coupling and in air brake coupling that automatically couples cars together. It can be easily uncoupled from the top or sides of cars. When it couples, it also connects the cars' air pipes together.

Photograph of the Railroad Depot at Langtry, Texas. It's a small building by the train tracks. A handwritten note on the back of the photograph says, "During the time of Judge Roy Bean's Law West of the Pecos."

Weekly newspaper from Del Rio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Del Rio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Del Rio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Del Rio, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Patent for "locomotive ash-pans which are cleared of ashes and cinders without necessitating the stopping of the engine or requiring the fireman or other person going beneath the engine to relieve the ash-pan of its contents, thereby saving expense in labor and obviating loss of time in long runs." (Lines 8-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.

Patent for a vehicle wheel meant for children's carriages that has double fellies, spokes, and a hub that has "an interposed band connecting said fellies at suitable intervals and adapted for the attachment to the spokes" (lines 69-71).

Patent for a wheel attachment of "combined purposes of tire, felly and safety guard" (lines 15-16), with slight wing-like widening between spokes to prevent sinking into ruts, with optional cutouts to reduce weight, including illustrations.

Patent for a strong, durable, and inexpensive vehicle-wheel with an improved design that is meant for light vehicles. The wheel will "provide novel means whereby the wheel will be prevented from slipping into ruts in the road, thus overcoming the jar that would otherwise be caused" (lines 14-18).

Patent for a new and improved turn table. This invention "relates to an improvement in turn-tables, and its an improvement on that particular kind of turn-table shown and described in Patent NO.517,304" (line 7-9).

Patent for a simple, efficient, and inexpensive portable water cooler that refrigerates the water "by the action of the air and the evaporation of the liquid or vapor percolating the material" (lines 12-14). It does not use ice and can be used in rural areas.

Patent for an improvement on vehicle wheels to "provide a novel and inexpensive safety-guard for wheels of the above-referred-to class, whereby the wheel will be prevented from entering crevices and cracks" (lines 14-18) and to improve durability.

Patent for a strong, durable, and inexpensive vehicle-wheel in children's carriages with a double-felly wheel meant to broaden "the tread thereof sufficiently to prevent the wheels falling into cracks between boards of board walks, such as are common in the suburbs or rural districts" (lines 15-19). The spokes are like that of a single-felly wheel.

Patent for a steam coffee or tea pot that has "double walls forming an inner and outer chamber, an interiorly arranged spout connecting said chambers and a vent tube arranged in the spout communicating with the inner chamber" (lines 77-81).

Patent for a new and improved track-walker's tool. This design "consist[s] of a sectional handle or body having a claw-bar and spiking-maul at one end and a wrench at the opposite end, the said wrench being provided with a stud upon one face, the distance between the outer face of said stud and the outer surface of the maul when the sections are joined together and the maul faces the stud being such as to correspond to the standard distance between rails" (lines 14-23).

Patent for an improved triangle for billiard balls that consists of sides, movable doors on the bottom edge, a fixed guide on the side of the triangle, and springs to hold the doors.

Patent for a strong, durable, and inexpensive nut lock that securely locks a nut onto a threaded bolt and can be easily unlocked. It also is simply constructed. It consists of a plank-like spring tongue that fits over the bolt and under the nut.

Patent for a nut lock with a locking washer at the base of the nut that does not unscrew. The nut forms a bar of spring metal.

Patent for a new and improved gate latch. This design consists in "[a] gate-latch comprising a slotted-sleeve, a pivoted and spring-actuated latch-plate, and a bolt mounted to turn in the latch-plate and extend through the sleeve, and provided with a transverse pin" (lines 98-102).

Patent for improvements in gate latches, which "may be adjusted toward or from a gate on a post to be engaged by the latch proper and enable compensation to be made for spreading of the posts upon which the gate is supported and to which it is secured by the latching device." (Lines 14-19) Includes instructions and illustrations.

Patent for a simple, durable, and easy to use gate-latch for swinging gates in which the lock latches move vertically. The latch is on the gate, and a catch is mounted on the post.