Clothes Pin (open access)

Clothes Pin

Patent for metallic clothes pins. Illustration included.
Date: April 24, 1906
Creator: Boese, Charles W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Churn. (open access)

Churn.

Patent for a churn dasher that will fit in any size churn and is simple and economical to produce.
Date: April 30, 1907
Creator: Koch, Rudolph
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 "[t]he combination of a draw-head, the laterally-movable pin-retaining arms supported therein, and a pivoted wing normally held in the path of an approaching link, and arranged to distend the arms to drop the pin when acted on by the links" (lines 30-35).
Date: April 6, 1886
Creator: Thomason, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a vertical hook car coupling that also couple air-brakes. In the invention "the drawheads are provided with interlocking tongues to prevent the disconnection of the drawheads by vertical movement; the interlocking faces of the drawheads are provided with sockets to receive a plug for completing the air passage for the train pipes; the drawheads are provided with means for receiving the ordinary hose-coupling on cars not provided with [the] drawhead, and finally other features of [the] invention are the means for securing the drawhead to the car and for uncoupling" (lines 14-25).
Date: April 4, 1893
Creator: Ervin, Robert N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Boring and Tenoning Machine. (open access)

Boring and Tenoning Machine.

Patent for a new and improved combined hollow auger attachment and felly-boring machine. This design "relates to an improved felly-boring machine which is adapted with slight adjustment to co-operate with a hollow auger for forming the tenons on the spokes. [The] invention consists in the construction of the frame, the clamp for securing it to the spokes or felly-supports, and in the means for holding and adjusting the auger" (lines 14-21).
Date: April 24, 1883
Creator: Ryan, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Water Gage and Recorder (open access)

Combined Water Gage and Recorder

Patent for a combined gage and recorder meant to measure the water used in steam generators.
Date: April 15, 1919
Creator: Holland, J. M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap (open access)

Animal-Trap

Patent for an animal trap which is to be sprung by the animal when the bait is touched. It is constructed in such a manner that the animal will be instantly killed. The metal parts of the trap are to create a strong and durable trap and to be manufactured at a small expense.
Date: April 5, 1921
Creator: Brewington, Philip Jennings
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Picking and Cleaning Cotton. (open access)

Machine for Picking and Cleaning Cotton.

Patent for a new machine for picking and cleaning cotton with all its specifications.
Date: April 2, 1912
Creator: Johnson, Billie
System: The Portal to Texas History
Vehicle-Wheel Scraper. (open access)

Vehicle-Wheel Scraper.

Patent for a "device adapted to be readily applied to a vehicle to prevent mud from clinging to the wheels, and thereby make the draft lighter on a horse or team, and at the same time prevent mud from being thrown upon the body of a vehicle and the occupants thereof." (Lines 12-17) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 20, 1897
Creator: Taylor, Mascener
System: The Portal to Texas History
Scarf Protector. (open access)

Scarf Protector.

Patent for a new and improved scarf protector. This design "is to provide an improved device for protecting the upper exposed edge of a necktie or scarf from wear . . . in such a manner that said securing [device is] concealed from view. With these ends in view the first part of [the] invention consists in an extensible protector, U-shaped in cross-section, to fit closely over the upper edge of the scarf and consisting of two members or sections, which are connected at the rear thereof by a pin-and-slot connection to adapt them to be extended longitudinally with respect to each other" (lines 17-33).
Date: April 23, 1889
Creator: Moyer, Jesse Hechler
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow-Point Mount (open access)

Plow-Point Mount

Patent for a plow point mount. Illustrations included.
Date: April 18, 1911
Creator: Swindle, Houston H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Peg for Violins. (open access)

Peg for Violins.

Patent for a new and improved violin peg. This design "has for its object to dispense with the usual string-aperture in the peg and to so construct the peg that a string may be expeditiously, conveniently, and securely attached thereto and as readily and conveniently removed therefrom, as desired, and to accomplish these objects without disfiguring the peg" (lines 11-18).
Date: April 19, 1892
Creator: Rowe, George H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Improvement in Reversible Axle-Skeins. (open access)

Improvement in Reversible Axle-Skeins.

Patent for improvements in reversible axle skeins: "My invention consists of cast mental axle skeins fitted on the axles, whether of wood or iron, so that they can be turned from time to time, as they wear away, to remove the worn place from the wearing position and bring a part not worn thereto." (lines 5-10).
Date: April 16, 1872
Creator: Smith, Andrew F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Door Check. (open access)

Door Check.

Patent for a new and improved door check. This design "consists in a disk pivoted on a plate and provided with a notch for receiving the corner of the door, and with a series of teeth with which a pawl engages for locking the disk in place after it has been adjusted" (lines 11-15).
Date: April 14, 1885
Creator: Callaway, James William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Stacking Mail-Matter. (open access)

Device for Stacking Mail-Matter.

Patent for a device for stacking and bundling all manner of print materials sent through the mail.
Date: April 21, 1914
Creator: Thompson, Earl P. F.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Curtain-Hanging Apparatus. (open access)

Curtain-Hanging Apparatus.

Patent for an apparatus to hang curtains in pairs, designed in a way so that the curtains "may be simultaneously moved in opposite directions to open and close the same" and "to provide improved means for adjustably connecting each curtain to the supporting-pole, and also to provide improved means for hanging the pole" (lines 13-19), including illustrations.
Date: April 9, 1901
Creator: Cloud, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cultivator. (open access)

Cultivator.

Patent for a new and improved cultivator. This design "is to provide a device to enable the shovels of the cultivator to yield when they strike an immovable object—such as a stone or stump—and thereby prevent the cultivator-shovels from being broken, and more especially in time-saving in readjusting the shovel for plowing" (lines 14-20).
Date: April 13, 1886
Creator: Eubanks, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton or Hay Press. (open access)

Cotton or Hay Press.

Patent for a new and improved baling-press. This design consists in "[a] duplex cotton or other press comprising connected pressing-boxes, each having a loose lower platen and platen-supports on its sides, devices . . . for raising said lower platens, a truck for supporting said boxes, traveling wheels or rollers journaled to said truck and having bevel or V-shaped treads or peripheries, a track mounted upon suitable supports and having a V-shaped or recessed top face to receive and guide said wheels or rollers during the reciprocatory movements of said truck and the thereto-connected boxes" (lines 15-27).
Date: April 26, 1887
Creator: Berry, William Robert
System: The Portal to Texas History