Abilene Sheet

Topographic map of a portion of Texas from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) project. The map includes towns, historic or notable sites, bodies of water, and other geologic features. Scale 1:125000
Date: 1892
Creator: Geological Survey (U.S.)
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adding-Machine (open access)

Adding-Machine

Patent for "a simple, cheap, and efficient device of this character which may accomplish with facility and case all the purposes for which it is intended" (lines 13-16).
Date: June 7, 1892
Creator: Wright, Joseph W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Adding-Machine. (open access)

Adding-Machine.

Patent for am adding machine by using two disks, one a units-disk with pins in multiples of ten, one a tens-disk, is an annular disk with pin surrounding the units disk, an outwardly spring-pressed holder having a beveled outer end frictionally engaging the pins of the tens-disk and a carrier having oppositely-beveled ends engaged a supplemental pin and one pin on the tens-disks, teeth in the adjacent faces of the holder and carrier, and an idle-gear between them to enable the adding operation. (Lines 50-62) Illustration is included.
Date: May 12, 1891
Creator: Wright, Joseph W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History

Anson Sheet

Topographic map of a portion of Texas from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) project. The map includes towns, historic or notable sites, bodies of water, and other geologic features. Scale 1:125000
Date: 1893
Creator: Geological Survey (U.S.)
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History

Anson Sheet

Topographic map of a portion of Texas from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) project. The map includes towns, historic or notable sites, bodies of water, and other geologic features. Scale 1:125000
Date: 1891
Creator: Geological Survey (U.S.)
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Cotton-Chopper And Cultivator. (open access)

Combined Cotton-Chopper And Cultivator.

Patent for a new and useful combined cotton chopper and cultivator, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: June 13, 1899
Creator: Parker, Robert L.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Hook and Hammer. (open access)

Combined Hook and Hammer.

Patent for a combined hook and hammer meant to "combine in its structure the ordinary hook for engaging with the article to be moved, and a handle adapted, when desired, to be used as a hammer, thus dispensing with the necessity for a separate implement of this character, and, second, to combine with the said hook and handle improved means for preventing the accidental contact of the hand of the operator with the article to be handled" (lines 17-26).
Date: July 2, 1895
Creator: Tillett, Henry Augustus; Tarpley, Thomas Dee & Moore, Robert Jones
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Chopper. (open access)

Cotton-Chopper.

Patent for improvements in cotton choppers and thinners by using a combination of “a rectangular frame having the transverse arch, the axle having the ground-wheels and the drive-gears mounted on the axle, a stirrups shafts, cogs, rotary cutters, and a bifureated cam” (p. 2, lines 85-92) to construct the chopper. This new construction will “provide means for easily adjusting the knives or cutters, and for regulating the distance between the stands of cotton.” (Page 1, lines 12-15) Illustration is included.
Date: December 1, 1891
Creator: McCaul, James L.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Planter. (open access)

Cotton-Planter.

Patent for a simple and efficient cotton planter that plants four or more rows at once. It works over rough, stony, and uneven ground; its operation is that it opens a furrow, drops the seed, and puts dirt over the seeds.
Date: August 20, 1895
Creator: Mannewitz, Maximilian
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cutting-Table. (open access)

Cutting-Table.

Patent for an improved trimming-table that easily measures, holds, and cuts or trims fabrics. It consists of a table with measures, keepers that are attached to the top of the table with a stem, and an arched front portion that ends in a foot-piece.
Date: April 11, 1893
Creator: Jones, Vina
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Elevated Electric-Car Line. (open access)

Elevated Electric-Car Line.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in elevated electric car lines, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: December 26, 1899
Creator: Cooley, Joe H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire-Escape. (open access)

Fire-Escape.

Patent for a new and useful fire escape, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: August 2, 1898
Creator: Buck, Sterling P. & Meaker, Charles L.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Holder for Ink-Bottles. (open access)

Holder for Ink-Bottles.

Patent for a holder for mucilage bottles, ink bottles, or similar containers. "The invention consists of a wire rest or holder bent to form a horizontal base and upwardly projecting clamping-arms" (lines 16-18).
Date: February 21, 1893
Creator: Corley, Daniel B.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Kitchen Utensil. (open access)

Kitchen Utensil.

Patent for a kitchen utensil that can be used for washing dishes, scraping cooking vessels, and cleaning ornamental glass and silver.
Date: June 11, 1895
Creator: Adair, Annie E.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Listing-Machine. (open access)

Listing-Machine.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in listing machines, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 19, 1899
Creator: Blanchard, William R.; Matthews, Lafyette & Watkins, Cisero
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Listing-Machine. (open access)

Listing-Machine.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in listing machines, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: September 19, 1899
Creator: Blanchard, William R.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine-Brake. (open access)

Machine-Brake.

Patent for a break that "the device may be brought to a stop either gradually or instantaneously as may be desired. The break is a reciprocative one and comprises a rubber or other elastic or yielding wheel designed to engage the periphery of the fly wheel of the motor and a lug, tooth or analogous provision for engagement with a tooth of a ratchet wheel on the said fly wheel; in operating the break the rubber wheel is first brought into contact with the fly wheel and then by continued movement of the brake lever the said lug or projection enters a tooth of the ratchet wheel and stops the revolution of the same" (lines 14-27).
Date: March 28, 1893
Creator: Boulte, Adolph
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Milk-Cooler (open access)

Milk-Cooler

Patent for a device used for cooling milk consisting of "a vessel adapted to contain any desired quantity of milk, of a cloth or fabric covering enclosing said milk receiving vessel and provided at an intermediate portion of it's length with a series of openings or perforations, and means of saturating said inclosing cloth with water" (lines 13-19).
Date: January 24, 1893
Creator: Nerger, Charles G.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Nut-lock. (open access)

Nut-lock.

Patent for improvements in the means for securing nuts on their bolts. The invention is "especially adapted for use on railway-rails in which the locking devices are subjected to severe and continual jarring" (lines 13-16) including illustrations.
Date: March 29, 1892
Creator: Terry, David Crockett
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History

Roby Sheet

Topographic map of a portion of Texas from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) project. The map includes towns, historic or notable sites, bodies of water, and other geologic features. Scale 1:125000
Date: 1893
Creator: Geological Survey (U.S.)
Object Type: Map
System: The Portal to Texas History
Roof Screw. (open access)

Roof Screw.

Patent for a new and improved roof screw. This design consists, "[a]s a new article of manufacture, [in] a screw consisting of a threaded shank having an integral head, an enlarged collar or flange on said shank below the head thereon, and an elastic cushion on the shank immediately below the enlarged collar or flange, for the purpose described" (lines 60-66).
Date: September 23, 1890
Creator: Corley, Daniel B.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed-Planter. (open access)

Seed-Planter.

Patent for "a construction of seed-planter providing a positive and efficient means for planting any desired number of rows at one time, while at the same time having means for opening the furrow, dropping the seed, and covering up the furrow in one operation." (Lines 14-19) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: January 5, 1897
Creator: Mannewitz, Maximilian
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Steam-Condenser. (open access)

Steam-Condenser.

Patent for an improved, simple, and compact steam-condenser that is meant to be used in tea factories and similar places where distilled water is needed, and has the minimum amount of back pressure.
Date: April 4, 1893
Creator: Steinbarth, Carl
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Steam Cooking Stove. (open access)

Steam Cooking Stove.

Patent for a new and improved steam stove. This design "is to provide a stove . . . that can be used on a gas-stove base, a lamp-stove, an ordinary cooking-stove, or even over a camp-fire, and which when so used will provide an apartment for baking or warming and another apartment for steaming, the steam being generated within a surrounding boiler and by the heat that has been used to heat the oven" (lines 11-20). It consists in "a casing divided vertically by a transverse boiler-body, chambers in the sides of the lower-half of the casing . . . and a transverse pipe" (lines 34-38).
Date: April 12, 1892
Creator: James, Will S.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History