Water-Gage. (open access)

Water-Gage.

Patent for a water-gage measuring the height or volume of water in a steam boiler, particularly those "held closed by the weight of the operating handle" (lines 11-12). The device is designed for simple manufacture and easy assembly & disassembly without tools, and features a valve seat that stays in place, illustrations included.
Date: December 30, 1919
Creator: Leidecker, Helmoth M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Incubator. (open access)

Incubator.

Patent for an incubator that automatically maintains at least a minimum temperature, with the option to set and maintain a higher temperature, with adjustment of temperature from outside the incubator. The incubator uses electric heat.
Date: June 30, 1914
Creator: Hays, Ernest C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Process of Mounting Pictures. (open access)

Process of Mounting Pictures.

Patent for the process of producing and mounting pictures at the highest quality and the lowest cost to provide "the appearance of the highest art" (lines 16-17).
Date: October 30, 1900
Creator: Cowan, Mark L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate Operating Device (open access)

Gate Operating Device

Patent for gate operating device. Illustration included.
Date: August 30, 1904
Creator: Lyle, John Newton
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rail Bond. (open access)

Rail Bond.

Patent for improved track circuit rail joints designed to withstand heavy usage and convey electrical currents between rails, including illustrations.
Date: August 30, 1898
Creator: Talley, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cooling and Preserving Apparatus. (open access)

Cooling and Preserving Apparatus.

Patent for a "cooling apparatus in which a cloth envelops a vertically-disposed series of supports, and has its upper end dipping into a receptacle supplied with water; and the object of the improvement is to secure a uniformity of temperature throughout the structure, and particularly in the several compartments formed between the various supports, as well as to prevent the spoiling of food by foreign matters entering the same by accidental dislodgment from a support immediately thereover." (Lines 8-19) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Brown, Elijah Clark
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Couch and Storage-Chest. (open access)

Combined Couch and Storage-Chest.

Patent for a couch that stores clothes in its body and head. The clothes can be readily accessed.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Caruthers, Robert A. & Savage, Charles P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fruit-Gatherer and Pruning Implement. (open access)

Fruit-Gatherer and Pruning Implement.

Patent for a combination orchard tool that gathers fruit, holds it in a bag, and can sever fruit stems in order to pick them. After severing, the fruit falls into the bag. The operator pulls a string that falls along the long handle, and the knife springs up from the bag so that it can sever the stems.
Date: May 30, 1893
Creator: Chambers, Silas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ice-Cream Freezer. (open access)

Ice-Cream Freezer.

Patent for a simple and inexpensive combined ice cream freezer and milk shaker that makes different flavors of ice cream at the same time and can also make a milk shake or lemonade. The machine consists of five receptacles lined up on a frame, with a crank going through the middle of each. The crank mixes the contents of the receptacles.
Date: January 30, 1894
Creator: Harton, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fiber Unwinder and Mixer. (open access)

Fiber Unwinder and Mixer.

Patent for a fiber unwinder and mixer meant to pick apart, unroll, and mix lint-cotton or other similar material. It then presses the lint-cotton into cylindrical bales "in order to restore the cotton or similar material in such bales to the loose condition requisite for the usual process of manufacture in mills, and to mix different grades of cotton or like fibrous material, when desired" (lines 17-22).
Date: July 30, 1895
Creator: Patterson, Warren A.
System: The Portal to Texas History