Wire Tightener. (open access)

Wire Tightener.

Patent for a new and improved wire tightener. This design is especially "for use in the tightening of wires in the construction of fences and in taking up slack after such fences have been constructed, but which instrument is also capable of use in tying packages with wire, binding planks to posts, and in other instances where it is desirable to tighten wire and secure it when so tightened. The invention consists, broadly, in a wire-tightener having a frame provided with guides for the wire and with a threaded bearing, a screw turning in said bearing, and a hook on said screw to engage the wire" (lines 8-20).
Date: February 12, 1889
Creator: Flatau, Louis S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed Planter. (open access)

Seed Planter.

Patent for a new and improved planter. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the frame, the rotary funnel-shaped hopper, the gear thereon, the axle and the gear of the inner fixed funnel-shaped pan, around which the hopper revolves, the apertured bottom plate in the hopper-shaped pan, the shaft connected to the hopper and revolving therewith, and a seed-operating device carried by the lower end of the said shaft over the seed-plate" (lines 98-107).
Date: January 12, 1886
Creator: Flatau, Louis S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Tripod. (open access)

Tripod.

Patent for a tripod, which when folded up can be used as a walking stick.
Date: July 12, 1910
Creator: Boyd, John D.
System: The Portal to Texas History