Automatic Railroad or Farm Gate. (open access)

Automatic Railroad or Farm Gate.

Patent for an improved automatic railroad or farm gate that uses the "weight of the car or wagon upon an operating-board and automatically close[s] after the train has passed, and which can also be opened by hand when it is desired to let a single person pass through, either upon foot or horseback" (lines 20-25).
Date: October 4, 1892
Creator: Benson, Joseph Robinson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing-Machine (open access)

Washing-Machine

Patent for improvements on washing machines in order "to simplify and improve the construction of washing-machines and to provide one which will remove the dirt from fabrics without inj uring the latter and which may be conveniently operated with a minimum amount of exertion on the part of the operator" (lines 10-16).
Date: October 4, 1892
Creator: Elkins, William Franklin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Vine Cutter. (open access)

Vine Cutter.

Patent for a new and improved vine-cutter. This design "is to provide a suitable device . . . whereby a sweet-potato vine may be severed from the main stalk on each side of a ridge, the parts of the same being of simple and effective construction and operation" (lines 12-17). It consists in "a post or support, divergent elongated horizontally-arranged cutters secured to the opposite sides thereof and having their lower rear sides formed into cutting-edges of concave form, said cutters being deflected downward at a slight angle of inclination" (lines 66-72).
Date: October 4, 1892
Creator: Francis, Samuel H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hot Box Alarm. (open access)

Hot Box Alarm.

Patent for a new and improved hot-box alarm. This design "relates to alarms to indicate overheated journal-boxes; and it has for its object to provide a device of this character . . . which will be useful upon boxes of stationary engines, car-wheels, or any style or form of machinery in which shafting or boxes are employed which are liable to get overheated" (lines 8-16). It consists, "with a journal-box, of a cylinder supported upon said box and designed to accommodate a liquefying solid, a perforated plunger supported upon the solid within the cylinder and adapted to work through the solid when melted" (lines 12-17).
Date: October 4, 1892
Creator: Basel, John Conrad & Fruehauf, Eduard
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pump. (open access)

Pump.

Patent for a pump "of the double-cylinder type, in which a continuous and steady stream of water is sucked from the well and forced to the point of use, and in such a pump to provide means for operating the same, whereby the same power will be required to raise the plunger that it does to force the same downward, and to this end providing such improved mechanisms and connections which will evenly distribute the power exerted by the operator to actuate the pump" (lines 9-19).
Date: October 4, 1892
Creator: Smith, Millage Math.
System: The Portal to Texas History