Cloth Measuring and Cutting Device. (open access)

Cloth Measuring and Cutting Device.

Patent for a new and improved cloth measuring device.
Date: April 5, 1898
Creator: Hood, William B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Convertible Mop and Brush. (open access)

Convertible Mop and Brush.

Patent for improvements in convertible mops and brushes by using a “combination of the fountain-handle, the bail/frame secured thereto and provided with a rubber strip at its lower edge, and the mop secured to the bail/frame.” (Lines 3-7, p.2) Illustration is included.
Date: April 7, 1891
Creator: Bagby, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pin. (open access)

Clothes-Pin.

Patent for Clothes Pin made of galvanized wire that will remain normally on the line. It will also prevent the adjacent pins from becoming tangled together. It's twisted portions adapted for riding content with the line to hold the pin in operative position.
Date: April 8, 1913
Creator: Perry, Cornelius Doctor & Wosnig, Walter, E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ledger with Visible Index. (open access)

Ledger with Visible Index.

Patent for a ledger with a visible index of numbers and names with tabs to allow accounts to be looked up easily.
Date: April 19, 1910
Creator: Kellner, Eugene
System: The Portal to Texas History
Projectile (open access)

Projectile

Patent for "an improved projectile for guns and ordnance of various classes and bores" (lines 7-9).
Date: April 9, 1901
Creator: Cole, William Franklin
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stalk-Cutter Attachment (open access)

Stalk-Cutter Attachment

Patent for improvements to stalk-cutter attachments to plows. The invention allows stalks to be cut by the plow and then turned under it into the soil to decrease labor an improve plow performance.
Date: April 7, 1919
Creator: Wylie, Arthur E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oil Press Mat. (open access)

Oil Press Mat.

Patent for a new and improved oil press mat. This design "consists in a mat for oil-presses having its leaves composed of paper-pulp molded by dies or molds into the requisite shape to present a hard and inelastic body to the meal to be pressed, said leaves of molded paper-pulp being provided with a leather backing" (lines 18-24).
Date: April 8, 1884
Creator: Osborn, Adelbert E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stump-Puller. (open access)

Stump-Puller.

Patent for a stump-puller that "can be quickly assembled and taken apart, to devise a device which will admit of the rope being quickly paid off from the capstan after the stump has been uprooted, and, finally, to provide a machine which can be easily handled and which will perform the required work in a rapid and satisfactory manner and which can be transported from one stump to the other by being dragged upon the ground" (lines 10-19).
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Widmer, Louis J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pneumatic Pillow. (open access)

Pneumatic Pillow.

Patent for improvements to pneumatic pillows, specifically the ventilator within the pillow.
Date: April 9, 1918
Creator: Kelly, Ida
System: The Portal to Texas History
Water-Boiler, Skimmer, and Oil-Separator (open access)

Water-Boiler, Skimmer, and Oil-Separator

Patent for a water-boiler, skimmer, and oil-separator.
Date: April 21, 1903
Creator: Johnson, Willie Harry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Detachable Draft Appliance (open access)

Detachable Draft Appliance

Patent for a detachable draft appliance.
Date: April 28, 1903
Creator: Segal, Mordecai
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stove Pipe Damper. (open access)

Stove Pipe Damper.

Patent for a new and improved stove-pipe damper. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with a damper-blade with a spindle rigidly attached thereto and having at one end a cylindrical pivot projecting beyond the periphery of the blade, and at the opposite end a screw projecting beyond said periphery, of a supporting-ring in which the projecting ends of said spindle are journaled, the bearing of the cylindrical end of said spindle being in an inwardly-bent portion of said supporting-ring" (lines 50-59).
Date: April 19, 1887
Creator: Lederle, Edward Emil
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fence-Post. (open access)

Fence-Post.

Patent for improvements to Fence-Posts, preferably made from metal, providing for simple construction and a means for holding wire, which is also of simple construction.
Date: April 7, 1914
Creator: Copeland, Walter G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Kindler. (open access)

Fire Kindler.

Patent for a new and improved fire starter. This design "has for its object to provide novel means for making comparatively inexpensive fire-kindlers; and to such end the invention consists, essentially, in a vessel having two chambers, one capable of being opened at the top and adapted to contain ashes, and the other closed, except as to a bottom passage in communication with the ash-chamber, and adapted to contain a combustible fluid—such as petroleum oil or other liquid hydro-carbon—which flows through the said bottom passage to saturate the ashes and prepare them for use" (lines 8-20).
Date: April 3, 1888
Creator: Streeter, George D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fire Kindler. (open access)

Fire Kindler.

Patent for a new and improved fire starter. This design "is to provide novel means for determining when the oil is exhausted from the oil vessel and to provide novel means for keeping the ashes from direct contact with the oil-supply openings . . . [for] ashes possess great capillary attraction and take up more hydro-carbon fluid than is requisite when the ashes are dry and not tightly packed, so that the ashes become soft and mushy" (lines 12-21).
Date: April 3, 1888
Creator: Streeter, George D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ice Cream Freezer (open access)

Ice Cream Freezer

Patent for an ice cream freezer. Illustration included.
Date: April 5, 1904
Creator: Prade, Julien
System: The Portal to Texas History
Saw-Table Gage. (open access)

Saw-Table Gage.

Patent for a saw-table cutting stop that can be very quickly set and which automatically indicates the distance from the stop to the saw.
Date: April 19, 1921
Creator: Krocker, Adolf G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rotary Cutting Device for Razors. (open access)

Rotary Cutting Device for Razors.

Patent for a shaving razor designed with a "cylindrical outer surface adapted to rotate in contact with the skin" (line 111-112) which allows for safer and more efficient shaving, includes illustrations.
Date: April 27, 1920
Creator: Jones, Sidney, P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Railway-Tie. (open access)

Railway-Tie.

Patent for a composite railway tie that is durable and adjustable and can be used for both trolley and steam rail systems.
Date: April 23, 1912
Creator: Ogden, James D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Rotary Engine. (open access)

Rotary Engine.

Patent for an improved, simple, and effective rotary engine that economically uses steam and automatically controls steam discharge. "Two distinct rotary motions in reverse directions are obtained at the same time" (lines 16-18) in this engine.
Date: April 11, 1893
Creator: Walker, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fan. (open access)

Fan.

Patent for a fan designed for use on a table or desk.
Date: April 1, 1902
Creator: Fitzhugh, Cameron S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Furnace. (open access)

Furnace.

Patent for portable field furnaces, that also provide a heating chamber that can engage the walls of containers of various sizes.
Date: April 4, 1916
Creator: Winchell, Frederick A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Harness Fastner (open access)

Harness Fastner

Patent for a harness fastener. Illustration included.
Date: April 12, 1904
Creator: Cornitius, Ermst
System: The Portal to Texas History
Provision Safe. (open access)

Provision Safe.

Patent for a new and improved safe. This design "has for its objects, among others, to provide a simple, cheap, and economical safe, in which provisions may be kept cool during the hot season and from freezing during the winter weather. I provide a suitable post or support, from which extend brackets, shelves, or hooks or other provisions for the support of the various articles to be contained therein. [T]he whole [is covered] with a cloth and [has] a water tank or receptacle at the upper end and . . . ha[s] a stream of water flow[ing] or trickl[ing] down upon the cloth to saturate the same" (lines 14-25).
Date: April 26, 1892
Creator: Schrib, Juni
System: The Portal to Texas History