Swing. (open access)

Swing.

Patent for improvement in swings, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: February 7, 1888
Creator: Goebel, Herman A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Station-Indicator (open access)

Station-Indicator

Patent for "an apparatus which will indicate to the passengers of railway or street cars when the car is approaching, standing at, or leaving a station, the station or street name, distance from the last station passed or to the next station, or any point upon the line that may be desired, and wherein all of the above data may be displayed simultaneously or any one or more items" (lines 10-18).
Date: October 23, 1888
Creator: Helland, Hans & Matzow, Frantz
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling Press. (open access)

Baling Press.

Patent for a new and improved baling-press. This design has for its object "to provide a press in which the material to be baled can be compressed into bales of the desired sizes, and then emptied from the baling-box by tilting up the tail-board, which is provided with angle irons to catch under the bale" (lines 15-20).
Date: August 7, 1888
Creator: Hoop, Friedrich W. J. & Isaac, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Escape. (open access)

Fire Escape.

Patent for a new and improved fire-escape. This design "has relation to that class of fire-escapes consisting of a chute placed in an inclined position against a window . . . and it consists in the improved construction and combination of parts of such a chute fire-escape having transverse rollers in the bottom of the chute for reducing the friction between the bottom of the chute and the body sliding down the chute, and provided with means for regulating the revolutions of the anti-friction rollers" (lines 21-32).
Date: August 21, 1888
Creator: Howard, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hammock. (open access)

Hammock.

Patent for a new and improved hammock. This design "is to provide a . . . hammock which is simple and durable in construction, very comfortable, and yielding to the motion of the body, at the same time avoiding the catching of buttons on the dress, as is frequently the case with hammocks having meshes. The invention consists of a number of slats, each provided at its ends with a transverse aperture, through which passes a cord or wire for holding the slats together to form the hammock" (lines 7-18).
Date: October 2, 1888
Creator: Norris, Barry A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Water Trap for Cisterns and Other Receptacles. (open access)

Automatic Water Trap for Cisterns and Other Receptacles.

Patent for a new and improved water-trap. This design consists in "the combination, with a bent main pipe, of a vessel secured on the said main pipe and connected at its top with the interior of the said main pipe, a pin held on the bottom of the said vessel, a fixed sleeve provided with a spiral groove and engaged by said pin, a grooved pin held in the said fixed sleeve and resting at its top end on the bottom of the said pin, a roped connected with the said grooved pin, and a weight held on the said rope to counterbalance the said main pipe and vessel" (lines 103-114).
Date: August 7, 1888
Creator: Pickering, Charles H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insect-Destroyer. (open access)

Insect-Destroyer.

Patent for "improvement in machines for destroying bugs and worms that infest cotton and other plants" (lines 8-10), including instructions and illustrations.
Date: January 31, 1888
Creator: Webb, Thomas H.
System: The Portal to Texas History