Apparatus for Recutting Files. (open access)

Apparatus for Recutting Files.

Patent for a new and improved file re-cutter. This design consists "[i]n an apparatus for recutting files by electro-chemical action, the dialectric plates and the carbon plates having their upper ends attached to said non-conducting plates, whereby the files to be recut are disposed between the carbon plates when in the solution" (lines 76-82).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Emley, James E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupler. (open access)

Car-Coupler.

Patent for a car-coupler, with illustrations. The purpose of this patent for a car-coupler was to improve existing car-couplings by providing, "safe, convenient, and expeditious means for readily coupling and uncoupling sections of cars with the danger incurred of getting between them" (lines 12-16).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Williamson, John A., JR.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Brake. (open access)

Car Brake.

Patent for a new and improved car-brake. This design consists in "brake-shoes [which] are jointed by pivots to brake-blocks of the usual form, which are suspended from the truck-timbers by suitable suspending links or clevises, so that they may have a free longitudinal movement when acted upon by the actuating mechanism, and said blocks and brake-shoes are separated by transverse brake-bars, in order that they may be kept truly in-line with the car-wheels at all times" (lines 16-25).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Greer, John William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Jar Fastener. (open access)

Jar Fastener.

Patent for a new and improved jar fastener. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a fruit can or jar, having a continuous groove across its bottom and up its sides, of a U-shaped bolt resting in said groove, a cap-plate resting on the top of the jar and through which the legs of the bolt extend, and securing nuts turning on the ends of the bolt above the cap-plate" (lines 78-84).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Dickey, Marion Flutcher
System: The Portal to Texas History
Milk Cooler. (open access)

Milk Cooler.

Patent for a new and improved milk cooler. This design "has relation to that class of devices for keeping vessels containing milk or other fluids cool, in which water is drawn by capillary action from a receptacle onto a cloth wrapped around the vessel, cooling the vessel and its contents by evaporation; and it consists in the improved construction and combination of parts of such a device, and more particularly to the top of the can and the cover for the same" (lines 21-30).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Jowell, George Ratcliff
System: The Portal to Texas History
Spoke Socket for Vehicle Wheels. (open access)

Spoke Socket for Vehicle Wheels.

Patent for a new and improved spoke-socket for wheels. This design consists in "a felly-joint and spoke-socket, consisting of the U-shaped plate . . . of the contrivance having at its ends flanges or plates provided at their side edges with lips or supplementary flanges clamping or hugging the tire . . . [and] the wedge having a slot inserted between said fellies" (lines 54-68).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Miller, Thomas S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Slicing Machine. (open access)

Slicing Machine.

Patent for a new and improved slicer. This design "consists, essentially, in the combination, with a suitable frame and slotted clamping or holding plates, which are adjustable with relation to each other in order to accommodate articles of varying thickness, of a revolving eccentric or cam shaped cutter having a spiral or volute edge and secured spirally upon a shaft which has its bearings of the frame of the machine, and which, when revolved through the medium of the said spirally-arranged cutter and the slotted clamping-plates, has an automatic lateral motion imparted to it" (lines 17-29).
Date: April 5, 1887
Creator: Miller, Walker C.
System: The Portal to Texas History