Composition for Preserving Food (open access)

Composition for Preserving Food

Patent for "combustible compositions which, when ignited, produce a gas or gasses which have preservative and purifying effects upon various substances and surfaces or places exposed to the fumes. It is more especially designed, however, for preserving fruits, vegetables, meats, and other perishable articles." (lines 12-19).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Radam, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Tightener. (open access)

Wire Tightener.

Patent for a new and improved wire tightener. This design "has for its object to provide a novel, simple, economical, and efficient implement or tool for tightening wire fences by forming twists or loops in the fence-strands to take up the slack, and to provide a novel implement of this type wherein a rod or bar can be conveniently applied to increase the leverage in turning the implement to form the twists or loops" (lines 8-16).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Bellah, William N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Trace Carrier. (open access)

Trace Carrier.

Patent for a new and improved trace-carrier. This design consists in "[a]n improved back-band buckle with hooks, consisting of a body portion formed of a single piece of wrought-wire, the meeting ends of each bent downward, upward, outward, and again downward to form chain-holding hooks or loops, and the tongues pivoted upon the said body portion" (lines 89-95).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Brown, John Stoddart
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design is "to combine a single and double plow so that they may be used either conjointly or independently of each other, and to provide means for the ready adjustment of the plow-beams with relation to each other and for the adjustment of the shovels so as to present the same at different inclinations for penetrating the ground at various depths" (lines 8-16).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Walton, Sam Houston
System: The Portal to Texas History
Movable Shelving for Stores. (open access)

Movable Shelving for Stores.

Patent for new and improved shelving. This design "consists of three sections, a central main portion and two half-sections hinged at each end of the main section, said side sections being one half the length of the main section and adapted to fold face inward against the middle section, and the whole supported upon brackets that terminate in caster-rollers, and is removably secured to the store-wall by hooks on the shelving engaging eyes in the wall . . . The object of this invention is to so construct the shelving of stores that in case of fire the sections of shelving may be quickly closed together" (lines 13-28).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Thomas, Oscar P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nail Driving Tool. (open access)

Nail Driving Tool.

Patent for a new and improved nail-driving tool. This design consists, "with the shell of the tool formed with recesses and a guide-groove . . . the driving-bar provided with notch, die, and roller, spline guided in the groove of the shell, and the returning-spring, of the levers having toes, the former of said levers bearing normally upon the roller, the spring secured to said shell, bearing by its ends upon the ends of the said levers, and the magazine obliquely attached to the shell, provided with an opening and a spring-closing device" (lines 32-43).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Brady, William B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Paint Compound (open access)

Paint Compound

Patent for "a fire and water proof compound for roofs and the like, possessing great elasticity and capable of contracting and expanding under cold and heat without cracking and peeling off [while also forming] a body equal to cement for covering the nail-heads of roofs and the like" (lines 12-20).
Date: July 15, 1890
Creator: Jackson, Abner A. & Neal, Columbus M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Flower Pot Trellis (open access)

Flower Pot Trellis

Patent for a flower pot trellis which is used "to be applied to flower-pots of various sizes to support plants or vines without interfering with their roots" (p.2).
Date: April 15, 1890
Creator: Brown, John Stoddart, of Galveston, Texas
System: The Portal to Texas History