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
Machinery for Irrigating Purposes (open access)

Machinery for Irrigating Purposes

Patent for a machine that irrigates with a water wheel. The water wheel is connected to a float and a rod connected that is connected to a crank on the shaft of the wheel.
Date: September 25, 1888
Creator: Owen, Benajah Dotte
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fruit Gatherer. (open access)

Fruit Gatherer.

Patent for a new and improved fruit gatherer. This design consists "[i]n a fruit-gatherer, the combination of the pole, the jaws attached to its upper end, the sliding collar, the links connecting the collar and the sleeve, the rods, the jaws, the ring, the tube attached thereto and encircling the pole below said jaws, and the sleeve which supports the ring and is adjustable on the pole longitudinally for the purpose of adjusting the mouth of said tube in the desired proximity to the said jaws" (lines 13-22).
Date: September 25, 1888
Creator: Hall, Francis Asbury
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
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
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
Pruning Implement. (open access)

Pruning Implement.

Patent for a new and improved pruning implement. This design consists in "the combination, with a staff, of the jaw-arms pivoted to the staff and provided with the upwardly-projecting and curved jaws, the collars fitted loosely on the staff, the rods connecting the said collars, and the link-arms pivoted to the collar and to the jaw-arms" (lines 11-17).
Date: September 25, 1888
Creator: Hall, Francis Asbury
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