Combined Mop and Window-Cleaner. (open access)

Combined Mop and Window-Cleaner.

Patent for an improved mop and rubber holder meant to clean windows, walls, and similar surfaces. It is adjustable, and the operator can put the mop or the rubber on the end of the handle.
Date: August 22, 1893
Creator: Wiebush, Charles
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
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for a cotton-press that makes "tightly wound bales from the cotton bats formed upon the condenser, and fed into the press" (lines 13-15).
Date: January 22, 1895
Creator: Banister, Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for a cotton-press that does not allow the cotton to rebound after the plunger compresses it because of teeth in the box. When the operator wishes to remove the cotton, the teeth automatically disengage in order for the cotton to be removed easily.
Date: January 22, 1895
Creator: Banister, Charles & Hollingsworth, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Tractor (open access)

Tractor

Patent for an improved tractor where the "propelling force is delivered through traction blocks...(lines 11-12)."
Date: March 22, 1921
Creator: Aerl, Van Vivian
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hame and Trace Connector (open access)

Hame and Trace Connector

Patent for a Hame and trace connector. Illustration included.
Date: December 22, 1903
Creator: Goodman, Forest Edward
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ice Breaking Machine. (open access)

Ice Breaking Machine.

Patent for an improved Ice Breaking Machine. This new design has movable plates that allow for the ice to be broken up into various sizes as desired by the user. It is also of a simpler construction than earlier machines.
Date: June 22, 1914
Creator: Krocker, Adolf C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway-Joint (open access)

Railway-Joint

Patent for improvements onto railway joints to "omit the declining surfaces of the fish-plate and to employ in conjunction with my other devices or wedges an ordinary fish-plate, whereby the invention may be applied to the joints of rails now in use any change whatever either to the fish-plates or the bolts" (lines 22-28).
Date: November 22, 1892
Creator: Greenwell, Robert E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rail-Joint. (open access)

Rail-Joint.

Patent for a modification of a conventional rail joint, adding a solid abutment that allows for the use of conventional splice bars that "does not involve any appreciable increase in cost over the conventional rail joint" (lines 29-30). Includes Illustration.
Date: May 22, 1917
Creator: Baker, William E.
System: The Portal to Texas History