Baling-Press. (open access)

Baling-Press.

Patent for a simple and efficient baling-press that has an improved press-box and plunger-operating power. The connections between the power and the plunger will be lighter and the feed-opening of the press-box will be closed automatically. The machine has a continuously-rotating operating wheel that allows for an easier way to engage and disengage the pitman.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Franks, Lewis W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brake-Lever. (open access)

Brake-Lever.

Patent for a brake lever that is locked by an arc-shaped ratchet-bar. There is "a pawl loosely mounted on the rear side of said lever and bearing against said side when the brake is set, said pawl being spring-actuated to move parallel with said side and project beyond the same and contact radially with the ratchet-teeth between said yoke" (lines 25-30).
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Burkett, Joseph B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car-coupling that has a "hollow draw-head provided with a horizontal chamber, a vertical pin-hole near the forward end of said chamber, and a slot in the lower part of said draw-head opening into said chamber, of a sliding latch mounted in said chamber and provided with a lip projecting beyond the outer end of said latch and curved downward as shown, and with a groove on the lower side of said latch, of a pivoted arm engaging in said groove, and a weight integral with said arm and wholly inclosed within said slot and adapted to move said sliding latch forward beneath the lower end of the pin when the latter is raised" (lines 5-18). A coupling pin is mounted in the pin-hole.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Barry, Jefferson D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Crate. (open access)

Crate.

Patent for "a crate for packing and transporting bottles of such material and such form of construction as will present a minimum liability to breakage of the contents." (Lines 9-13) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Riviere, Richard Andrew
System: The Portal to Texas History
Disk Plow. (open access)

Disk Plow.

Patent for "a new and useful improvement in disk plows, the object being to construct a plow of the kind described in which the resistance encountered by the main cutting or master disk in operation is counteracted by oppositely-disposed disks, one of which acts as a subspoiler, the other as a jointer, making a partial penetration of the land, which is followed by the master-disk in the succeeding furrow." (Lines 24-33) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Stewart, John A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Means for Making Bats for Mattresses. (open access)

Means for Making Bats for Mattresses.

Patent for a simple means for making bats for mattresses, and is an improvement on a previous patent (No. 399,041). "I gin into a room or place having the width or the length of the average width or length of a mattress, but extending the necessary length-say twenty or twenty-five feet, more or less to allow the cotton or material used to settle uniformly across it, the top at the extreme end preferably covered with wire-gauze to assist the draft from the gin. The floor and sides of this box or room or other receptacle into which the material for the mattress-bats is falling from the gin is provided with a means to carry the ginned material along from the gin as fast as it is worked. The bats may be formed in one long continuous web,from which the desired length may be cut" (lines 19-34)
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Haynes, Daniel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mergenthaler Linotype-Machine. (open access)

Mergenthaler Linotype-Machine.

Patent for an improvement "to the elevator-arm of the Mergenthaler linotype-machine, and its object is to prevent the rubbing of the matrices against the inner walls of the channel-plates when being raised therefrom." (Lines 9-13) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Sundstrom, Herman Theodor
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mirror Attachment for Dressers. (open access)

Mirror Attachment for Dressers.

Patent for a mirror attachment for dressers with an improved clamping mechanism so that it can be easily adjusted when in use and easily put to the side when not in use. Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Gibson, Lizzie & Crank, Albert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Reaping-Machine. (open access)

Reaping-Machine.

Patent for a reaping-machine that has grooved rollers spread throughout a recess in the base, slides where the rollers are mounted, horizontal movable shafts with pinions, racks on the slides that engage the pinions, a ring-driver wheel that surrounds the rollers and fits in the rollers with interior flanges, cutters, a belt extending from the rollers to the mechanism that operates the cutters, and a belt that connects the rolls. The cutter is a series of knives on a bar and springs that prevents the cutter from moving independently.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Rich, Benjamin F.
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
Tree-Protector. (open access)

Tree-Protector.

Patent for "wire fenders or protectors for trees, [the] purpose being to provide a simple and inexpensive guard capable of being readily applied to trees of any size and having such construction that it shall be held by its own elasticity at such a distance from the trunk that rabbits or other rodents shall not be able to gnaw the bark, and the fender shall not chafe or wear the tree by continued use." (Lines 8-17) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 7, 1896
Creator: Smith, John Dawson
System: The Portal to Texas History