Commode. (open access)

Commode.

Patent for an integrated air-venting commode.
Date: November 9, 1886
Creator: Bardon, Prosper
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Effecting Upward Draft in Privies, Commodes, &c. (open access)

Means for Effecting Upward Draft in Privies, Commodes, &c.

Patent for a new and improved ventilation system. This design consists in "an aperture having a size about ten inches by seven inches in area, a ventilating draft-flue having a diameter of about six inches by six and one-half inches and a height of about ten feet, and a receptacle having a diameter of about twenty-two inches, the said relative proportions being followed accordingly as the size of the privy, commode, or closet is increased or decreased" (lines 56-64).
Date: November 2, 1886
Creator: Bardon, Prosper
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Thill Coupling (open access)

Thill Coupling

Patent for a thill coupling. Illustration included.
Date: November 13, 1906
Creator: Barry, Jefferson D.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Fire-Kindler (open access)

Automatic Fire-Kindler

Patent for an automatic fire kindler which can be put on a timer and start a fire in a stove with a bundle of matches inserted into the device ahead of time.
Date: November 17, 1908
Creator: Bates, Samuel F.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Compress. (open access)

Cotton-Compress.

Patent for a cotton-compress in which the "cotton is fed to the compress direct from the gin, and is wound into a dense cylindrical bale, and the said invention consists in certain novel means for adding additional pressure to the bale as it is being rolled up, in readily detaching the finished bale from the machine, in providing a reservoir for the surplus cotton, when the gin is running and the machine has stopped" (lines 14-22).
Date: November 27, 1894
Creator: Bessonette, Charles L. & Bessonette, William T.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Baling Machine. (open access)

Cotton-Baling Machine.

Patent for a cotton-baling machine that compresses cotton between two pressure-rolls and rolls it around a core. This invention improves "the mode of applying pressure to the pressure rolls, and [improves] the manner of mounting the core-roll in position within the compress, and for facilitating the removal of said core-roll; and the elevation therefrom of the compress-roll" (lines 15-21).
Date: November 27, 1894
Creator: Bessonette, Charles Lewis
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Press. (open access)

Cotton-Press.

Patent for an improved, inexpensive, and simple cotton press that is "adapted to compress cotton at the initial point of ginning and in a continuous operation with that of ginning, whereby [the inventor] avoid[s] the expense and labor occasioned by the handling of the cotton during its storage and transportation to the neighboring compress and the expense of said compression, and at the same time produce such compression or condensation of the cotton that I am enabled to secure the cheap rates of transportation accorded cotton which has been compressed to the standard degree of density" (lines 11-22).
Date: November 21, 1893
Creator: Bessonette, William T.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Street-Sprinkling Appratus. (open access)

Street-Sprinkling Appratus.

Patent for an inexpensive street-sprinkling apparatus. It can be steam, electric, cable, or horse powered, and can sprinkle a wide or narrow street. "The invention consists in a vehicle preferably running upon a railway-track and provided with a water-tank and with independent sprinklers or final-distributors or sets of distributors, the one located at an end or the ends of the vehicle and discharging by gravity, and the other at the sides thereof, toward an end or the ends, and discharging under pressure or by force" (lines 24-33). Water is pressurized in the tank, and uses the force of gravity to distribute it.
Date: November 5, 1895
Creator: Campbell, Louis W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bee-Gum (open access)

Bee-Gum

Patent for a bee hive which has multiple compartments which the bees can travel through and, when keeper wants to remove honey all the bees can be sent into one compartment to avoid the danger of being stung. It also has ventilation and rain protection.
Date: November 5, 1907
Creator: Caperton, William Elson
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Receipt Book Holder. (open access)

Receipt Book Holder.

Patent for a new and improved holder for receipt books. This "is especially designed for the use of weighers" (line 8). The design calls for being "attached to the scales . . . that is, in the most convenient and agreeable position for the weigher. The book is always at hand, can be fully controlled by the weigher, and saves him [or her] very much trouble" (lines 42-48).
Date: November 2, 1880
Creator: Dickey, Robert Barbour
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton Cleaner and Condenser. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton Cleaner and Condenser.

Patent for improvements to machinery for cleaning cotton by passing the raw material over various sizes of mesh and using air to draw out dirt.
Date: November 27, 1877
Creator: Donovan, John T.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nutcracker. (open access)

Nutcracker.

Patent for a nutcracker that can crack all kinds of nuts, with relatively little force, on appropriate surfaces like tables. The Patent includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: November 17, 1914
Creator: Fort, Foster W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Linotype Machine (open access)

Linotype Machine

Patent for used producing lines of type, and it is the object of the invention to provide a comparatively simple, small, inexpensive and compact machine of that character generally resembling a type write in its construction and operation, and operable to produce lines of type.
Date: November 20, 1917
Creator: French, Morris
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway-Joint (open access)

Railway-Joint

Patent for improvements onto railway joints to "omit the declining surfaces of the fish-plate and to employ in conjunction with my other devices or wedges an ordinary fish-plate, whereby the invention may be applied to the joints of rails now in use any change whatever either to the fish-plates or the bolts" (lines 22-28).
Date: November 22, 1892
Creator: Greenwell, Robert E.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow Attachment (open access)

Plow Attachment

Patent for plow attachment to a clevis and can be used in connection with the draft devices.
Date: November 14, 1916
Creator: Hamilton, Lemon W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Band-Cutter and Feeder for Thrashing-Machines (open access)

Band-Cutter and Feeder for Thrashing-Machines

Patent for an attachment for thrashing-machines "for cutting the bands on the sheaves of wheat, rice, or other grain, to spread the loosened bundles out uniformly, and to then feed them thus spread out into the thrashing-machine, whereby the strain on the machine can be made more uniform" (lines 15-20) and the capacity and efficiency can be increased.
Date: November 1, 1892
Creator: Hill, Frank R.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cigar-Box Clip. (open access)

Cigar-Box Clip.

Patent for an inexpensive improvement to cigar box clips or clamps, that will make it easier for the box to be left open at a tilted angle, for the purpose of displaying the cigars or other objects inside.
Date: November 21, 1911
Creator: Holder, Andrew Thomas.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Feed-Regulator for Cotton-Gins. (open access)

Feed-Regulator for Cotton-Gins.

Patent for a simple feed-regulator attachment for cotton gins with circular saws separating the cotton from the seeds. It regulates the rate that cotton is fed into the roll box and automatically stops and starts depending on the size of the roll.
Date: November 28, 1893
Creator: Hollingsworth, Joseph & Banister, Charles
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pipe-Cutter (open access)

Pipe-Cutter

Patent for pipe cutter. This is an improvement to the pipe cutter which already exists. A portion of the pipe "is removed. . . instead of the material being displaced and wedged apart without removing as is the case with the commonly used cutter." (Johnson)
Date: November 24, 1914
Creator: Johnson, Willie H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Elevated Suspension-Railway (open access)

Elevated Suspension-Railway

Patent for improvements in construction and engineering of elevated railways
Date: November 19, 1889
Creator: Johnston, Lysander
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design consists in "the combination, with the coupling-head provided with a central tongue and a socket on each side of the tongue, and the forwardly-projecting spring-actuated hooks pivoted to the said head, with their rear ends abutting against the bottoms of the sockets and provided with beveled front edges of the coupling-socket provided with catches for the said hooks to engage with automatically, and the vertical spindle journaled in the central tongue and provided with flexible connections wound upon it" (lines 86-97).
Date: November 19, 1889
Creator: Jones, Ithamer M.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Planter (open access)

Planter

Patent for a planter. Illustrations included.
Date: November 26, 1907
Creator: Lancaster, John D.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Bale-Tie Clamps. (open access)

Improvement in Bale-Tie Clamps.

Patent for an instrument that tightens the ties used for bales of cotton.
Date: November 18, 1873
Creator: Leoneard, Thomas Dunlap
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Cotton Presses (open access)

Improvement in Cotton Presses

Patent for an improvement in cotton and hay presses.
Date: November 18, 1873
Creator: Leoneard, Thomas Dunlap
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History