Combined Whip Socket and Rein Holder. (open access)

Combined Whip Socket and Rein Holder.

Patent for a new and improved combined whip socket and rein holder. This design "consists in the construction and novel arrangement of the pivoted whip-socket, its serrated eccentric face and bearing-plate, and a spring connected to the socket and bearing-plate, whereby the eccentric face is brought to bear automatically" (lines 20-25).
Date: August 1, 1882
Creator: Bellah, William Newton
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 "[t]he combination of the crossed levers, the bail extending over the same, the spring secured to and extending between said levers, and the latches carried by said levers" (lines 3-6).
Date: July 23, 1889
Creator: Bonner, Whitmill J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cloth Rack. (open access)

Cloth Rack.

Patent for a new and improved clothes rack. This design "essentially consists in constructing a vertical rectangular revolving frame, each side of which carries a tier of racks. Each of the racks is provided with a support on which the bolt of cloth or similar material may be readily turned, and has pivoted parallel to and in front of said bolt a roller, which retains the same in place, and over which the free edge of the cloth passes from the lower surface of the bolt, and which, in addition, facilitates the unrolling of the cloth" (lines 21-32).
Date: August 4, 1885
Creator: Palmer, William Washington
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bridge. (open access)

Bridge.

Patent for "improvements in bridges of that class which are used for crossing streams or country roads, and for such other purposes as a bridge may be desired" (lines 15-18), with instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 16, 1887
Creator: Mitchell, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Picker's Sack. (open access)

Cotton Picker's Sack.

Patent for a new and improved sack for cotton pickers. This design "is to improve that class of sacks which are used by cotton-pickers and form a receptacle for cotton after it has been culled from the bolls, and in which it is carried to the gin. These sacks as now made are packed with cotton so as to be unwieldy, difficult to manipulate, and unhandy to empty, thus necessitating a great deal of labor and much waste of time" (lines 7-15).
Date: April 21, 1885
Creator: Dye, Charles Headen
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Hoisting Bales on Wagons. (open access)

Apparatus for Hoisting Bales on Wagons.

Patent for a new and improved bale hoister. This design "relates to apparatus for loading and unloading wagons, and it has for its object to provide an apparatus of this character which shall be cheap and simple in its construction, effective in its operation, strong and durable, an apparatus by the use of which a wagon may be quickly loaded and unloaded" (lines 9-15).
Date: May 12, 1885
Creator: Lamb, George Washington
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design "has relation to that class of car-couplings in which the open ends of a coupling bar or link are engaged by hooks in the draw-heads; and it consists in the improved construction and combination of parts of such a coupling, in which the hooks are projecting from the under sides of arms pivoted upon the draw-heads and dropping down by their gravity, and in which the said hooks project into registering recesses in the upper side of the draw-head" (lines 23-33).
Date: June 29, 1886
Creator: Boyers, Robert L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Landside Cutter for Plows. (open access)

Landside Cutter for Plows.

Patent for a new and improved landside cutter for plows. This design consists in "[t]he combination of a colter . . . and the landside attachment secured to the landside of the plow, the said landside attachment having the laterally-extending cutting-wing . . . the plate in front of the landside attachment, and the colter on the front edge of the said plate" (lines 66-75).
Date: September 21, 1886
Creator: Reed, Benjamin B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Well Bucket Windlass. (open access)

Well Bucket Windlass.

Patent for a new and improved windlass mounting. This design "consists of an improved construction of and contrivance for mounting the windlass for a well-bucket; also, an improved contrivance for mounting the pulley of the windlass, whereby it is designed to provide simpler, cheaper, and easier working well-bucket windlasses than as heretofore constructed" (lines 10-15).
Date: May 20, 1884
Creator: Palmer, William Washington
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stalk-Cutter (open access)

Stalk-Cutter

Patent for an improved stalk-cutter granted to Reuben L. Price. Improvements made to more effectively trim stalks over uneven ground.
Date: September 1, 1885
Creator: Price, Reuben L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hopple for Horses. (open access)

Hopple for Horses.

Patent for a new and improved hopple for horses. This design "consists in the combination of two curved or bent pieces which are to go around the horses ankles . . . [each with] three links and a ring . . . allow[ing] the horse to walk slowly about, permitting [it] to graze at leisure, and enabling [it] to be easily caught when desired" (lines 14-34).
Date: February 12, 1884
Creator: Cottle, Julius O. & Ivie, Rufus
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway-Switch (open access)

Railway-Switch

Patent for "automatic switches wherein the operative devices are under the control of the engineer, brake-man, or other authorized person on the train or a portion thereof" (lines 12-16).
Date: August 2, 1887
Creator: Robberson, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rein Holder. (open access)

Rein Holder.

Patent for a new and improved rein-holder. This design "consists of two cuneiform sleeves mounted loosely and eccentrically on two upright shafts inclined toward each other and provided with spiraled grooves, into which pins in the sleeves pass, these sleeves being provided at the bottom with plates engaging with each other, so that both sleeves will move simultaneously, the reins being grasped between these sleeves" (lines 10-18).
Date: July 25, 1882
Creator: Hyde, Leslie Russell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Needle Threader for Sewing Machines. (open access)

Needle Threader for Sewing Machines.

Patent for a new and improved sewing-machine needle-threader. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the slide-bearing of the needle-bar, of the slide, its stop and spring, and the pivoted funnel-guide having a squared bearing to engage the spring, and a face-groove in its small end to engage the needle" (lines 73-78).
Date: September 2, 1884
Creator: Bellah, William N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Cultivator and Chopper. (open access)

Cotton Cultivator and Chopper.

Patent for a cotton cultivator and chopper, with illustrations. The "invention pertains to that class of machines which are designed and employed for thinning out and cultivating rows of cotton plants" (lines 15-18).
Date: April 3, 1883
Creator: McCarty, Eugene
System: The Portal to Texas History