Combined Door-Bell and Mail-Receiver. (open access)

Combined Door-Bell and Mail-Receiver.

Patent for a door-bell joined with a tray or card-receiver, which is installed in a door. "When pulled out it will bring said tray outside the door to receive a card, letter, or package or any mail-matter, and when released will carry it inside the door again" (lines 11-15). The bell goes off when the tray, which has a toothed edge that engages the bell-hammer, is released.
Date: September 22, 1896
Creator: Key, Joseph H.; Brevard, Horace & Purifoy, William R.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-690 (open access)

Texas Attorney General Opinion: V-690

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Price Daniel, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Proper authority to call an election for uniform tax throughout Rockdale School District, composed of City of Rockdale and other areas taken in by city for school purposes only.
Date: September 22, 1948
Creator: Texas. Attorney-General's Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hydrocarbon-Burner. (open access)

Hydrocarbon-Burner.

Patent for "a new and useful Hydrocarbon-burner...equipped with a safety device adapted to admit only a limited supply of gasolene or other fuel to the burner to enable the latter to be operated with absolute safety by either a woman or a child" (lines 5-19), including instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 22, 1913
Creator: Nemec, Joseph
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Operating Swinging Gates. (open access)

Means for Operating Swinging Gates.

Patent "to simplify and improve the construction of means for opening and closing swinging gates," (lines 10 - 12) including instructions and illustrations.
Date: January 12, 1892
Creator: Rhodes, James W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Paddle-Wheel (open access)

Paddle-Wheel

Patent for a paddle wheel. Illustrations included.
Date: February 22, 1910
Creator: Dusek, Henry
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stock Car. (open access)

Stock Car.

Patent for improvement to stock cars, "so constructed that the hay-racks swing up automatically and the troughs can be lowered to be out of the way when not in use and can easily be swung up when the animals are to be watered" (lines 8-13).
Date: September 22, 1885
Creator: Lines, Daniel
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Shovel-Plow. (open access)

Shovel-Plow.

Patent for improvements in shovel-plows “by enabling the stock and shoe securely mounted and yet adjusted from one position to another, according to the work to be performed.” (Lines 9-12) Illustration is included.
Date: April 22, 1902
Creator: Michalka, Joseph
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Deep Well Pump. (open access)

Deep Well Pump.

Patent for a new and improved well pump. This design consists in "the timber bed arranged on the bottom of the well, in combination with two superposed metallic cylinders connected by a stock, said stock being provided at the bottom with inwardly-turned flanges made fast to said bed" (lines 55-60).
Date: March 22, 1887
Creator: Clark, Alexander Evans
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History