Improvement in Cotton-Bale Ties. (open access)

Improvement in Cotton-Bale Ties.

Patent for cotton-bale ties with metal plates and hooks.
Date: April 28, 1874
Creator: Lane, James H.
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
Cooling and Preserving Apparatus. (open access)

Cooling and Preserving Apparatus.

Patent for a "cooling apparatus in which a cloth envelops a vertically-disposed series of supports, and has its upper end dipping into a receptacle supplied with water; and the object of the improvement is to secure a uniformity of temperature throughout the structure, and particularly in the several compartments formed between the various supports, as well as to prevent the spoiling of food by foreign matters entering the same by accidental dislodgment from a support immediately thereover." (Lines 8-19) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Brown, Elijah Clark
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Couch and Storage-Chest. (open access)

Combined Couch and Storage-Chest.

Patent for a couch that stores clothes in its body and head. The clothes can be readily accessed.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Caruthers, Robert A. & Savage, Charles P.
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
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
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
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
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
Perforating Mechanism for Cylinder Printing-Presses. (open access)

Perforating Mechanism for Cylinder Printing-Presses.

Patent for a perforating mechanism for cylinder printing-presses that is simple and automatic. It produces "lines of perforations at any required distance apart and of any desired length in paper or cardboard at the time of printing thereon the forms for checks, draft, bills, notes, tickets or other printed or lithographed matter" (lines 12-17).
Date: April 17, 1894
Creator: Kellner, Eugene
System: The Portal to Texas History
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
Cotton-Chopper (open access)

Cotton-Chopper

Patent for an improved cotton-chopper.
Date: April 23, 1912
Creator: Leubner, Carl W.
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
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
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
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
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
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
Mattress Making Machine (open access)

Mattress Making Machine

Patent for a mattress making machine. Illustration included.
Date: April 6, 1909
Creator: White, Charles W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Motor. (open access)

Motor.

Patent for improving the “’multiple cylinder rotary engine’“ (lines 9-10) through "controlling devices" (line 24) that are both automatic and manual and help engine pistons function more effectively. This patent builds upon earlier patents regarding motor design by the inventor, and will connect to a generator concurrently patented by the inventor. Detailed explanations and illustrations included.
Date: April 1, 1902
Creator: Walker, James C.
System: The Portal to Texas History