Cotton Gin. (open access)

Cotton Gin.

Patent for a new and improved cotton gin. This design calls for the circular saw blades of the gin to pass through two metal ribs, one of which aligns with the tip of the saw teeth, while the other aligns with the root of the saw teeth.
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Basom, Ransford W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus for Killing Rodents (open access)

Apparatus for Killing Rodents

Patent for an apparatus for killing rodents "that may be used effectively for the destruction of all animals that burrow in the ground; and it consists in a furnace for the generation of sulphurous odors or other suffocating gases and a pump for forcing the gases into the burrows of the animals . . . ."
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Palmer, Austin D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved car-coupling. This design calls for two u-shaped metal pieces, one narrower than the other, each with eyes at their ends. A metal rod, which doubles as a handle, threads the eyes, connecting the pieces and allowing for the two loops to butterfly; one car can be bound to each of the loops with a metal pin.
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Stopple, John J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Spark Arrester. (open access)

Spark Arrester.

Patent for a new and improved spark arrester for smokestacks. This design "consists of an inverted hollow cone suspended within a hollow and flaring receiver for the sparks . . . so as to deflect the sparks against a conical annular cover to the receiver, whereby the sparks are broken and thrown against an arrester located over the hollow cone, and by which the sparks are again broken . . . and continued in that course until extinguished" (lines 7-18).
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Green, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow Mold Board. (open access)

Plow Mold Board.

Patent for a new and improved plow mold board. This design "consists of a circular roll arranged in the mold-board near the point and covered with belting, which, in the forward movement of the plow, is revolved and carries the earth backward on an endless belt passing around rollers journaled in the end of transverse slots made in the mold-board, whereby, in the forward movement of the plow, the belt is revolved and the friction of the earth on the mold-board decreased and the plow scoured" (lines 17-28).
Date: August 22, 1882
Creator: Dahlman, Carl Oscar
System: The Portal to Texas History