Blind Stop. (open access)

Blind Stop.

Patent for a new and improved blind-stop. This design consists "[i]n blind-stops, the rod, consisting of two parts connected by a thin piece of metal, in combination with a blind provided with a median open-slotted tapering screw and thumb-nut" (lines 49-53).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Warren, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Corn or Cotton Dropper (open access)

Corn or Cotton Dropper

Patent for corn or cotton dropper in which improvements are made on general efficiency, "simplicity, expensiveness, [and] durability" (lines 12-13).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Brown, William Franklin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insect-Poison Distributor (open access)

Insect-Poison Distributor

Patent for "new and useful improvements in devices for sprinkling potato-vines and the like with powder - such as paris-green" (lines 15-18).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Heaton, Lorenzo D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insect Destroyer. (open access)

Insect Destroyer.

Patent for a new and improved pest control device. This design "consist[s] of the flexible air-supply funnel, having end-supporting and mouth-distending rim, terminating in vertical bottom legs or branches, the gas generator, the air-inlet tube having the valve, and the rigid gas-discharge tube" (lines 22-28).
Date: December 25, 1883
Creator: Grafton, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Manufacture of artificial stone. (open access)

Manufacture of artificial stone.

Patent for the manufacture of artificial stone using gravel, sand, water, cement, lamp-black, isinglass and sesquioxide of iron.
Date: December 25, 1883
Creator: Gallup, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sweat Leather for Riding Saddles. (open access)

Sweat Leather for Riding Saddles.

Patent for a new and improved sweat-leather for saddles. This design "has for its object to construct sweat-leathers which shall be absolutely impervious to the sweat and moisture exuding from the animal, and thus serve to protect the rider's clothes. Sweat-pads, as ordinarily constructed of leather, are liable to be permeated with moisture, by which their efficiency as protectors is not only impaired, but they are liable to curl up . . . To avoid this . . . [the] improved sweat-pads [have] linings of India-rubber" (lines 20-31).
Date: December 25, 1883
Creator: Harriss, James Wilson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Kindler. (open access)

Fire Kindler.

Patent for a new and improved fire-kindler. This design is for "[a] fire-kindling torch consisting of two perforated sections, each having an exterior longitudinal ridge, and angular side flanges, and provided at one end with lugs which bear flatly against each other, a pivot-pin passing transversely through the lugs to permanently connect the sections and form a pintle on which they can turn, and a handle connecting the other ends of the sections together, said sections having an interposed filling of mineral wool" (lines 1-11).
Date: December 25, 1883
Creator: Osborn, Adelbert E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate for Railway Tracks. (open access)

Gate for Railway Tracks.

Patent for a new and improved gate. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a shaft crossing a railway-track and provided with weighted depending ends, with rollers connected eccentrically to said ends, a gate connected to said shaft, and lever and bar apparatus for operating said weighted ends from the vicinity of the rails" (lines 41-47).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Jacobs, William Ramsey & Houston, Samuel Callahan
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed-Planter (open access)

Seed-Planter

Patent for a seed planter so that the distances between seeds can be changed from equidistant to a continuous row and vice versa and so that it can be adapted to sew both seeds and grains.
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Leamon, John B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Removable Can Top. (open access)

Removable Can Top.

Patent for a new and improved removable lid for cans. This design "consists of a can top or protector to be fitted over the top of the can which has had one of its heads cut out in such a manner that the contents of the can can be easily and conveniently removed and, should it be desired, the life and usefulness of the can prolonged at a trifling expense" (lines 24-30).
Date: December 25, 1883
Creator: Grainger, Charles J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gas Compressing Pump for Ice Machines. (open access)

Gas Compressing Pump for Ice Machines.

Patent for a new and improved pump for refrigerators. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the cylinder, having inlet at or near its lower end, a downward-closing valve at its upper end, an open-ended piston having internal ribs or projections, annular valve-seat around its upper open end, and a centrally-apertured bottom plate, of the valve having vertical movement within the piston and closing upwardly against the valve-seat, said valve being formed of the two sections . . . having hemispherical recesses and the lower section having an aperture, communicating therewith" (lines 30-42).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Farnsworth, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Abdominal Supporter. (open access)

Abdominal Supporter.

Patent for a new and improved abdominal supporter. This design "consist[s] of the waist-belt, the abdominal sector-shaped pads hung from the waist-belt by elastic straps, the straps buttoned to the belt behind and to the bottom of the abdominal pads in front, the side straps connecting the abdominal pads with the pieces at the back, and the front strap connecting the two abdominal pads together with the shoulder-straps" (lines 70-79).
Date: December 25, 1888
Creator: Gray, Harriet N.
System: The Portal to Texas History