Attachment to Cotton Gins. (open access)

Attachment to Cotton Gins.

Patent for a new and improved attachment for cotton gins. This design "consists of a lever-frame journaled to the gin-frame and carrying a shaft provided with a friction-pulley which may, by will of the operator, be thrown in contact with the driving-pulley of the gin, thus rotating the shaft, which is provided with a set of cleaning-blades fitting between the gin-saws between which they are, by the said mechanism, made to revolve rapidly, thus cleaning the said saws" (lines 18-27).
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Steward, Francis Marion
System: The Portal to Texas History
Axle Box. (open access)

Axle Box.

Patent for a new and improved self-oiling axle box. This design utilizes a sleeve with several small, oil-filled holes to be placed between the spindle and the axle box, which lubricates the machine and reduces friction. A nut keeps the spindle and axle box together.
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Barnes, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Chopper. (open access)

Cotton Chopper.

Patent for a new and improved cotton chopper. This design has an axle "provided with holes, so that the choppers or cultivators may be adjusted thereon to bring them nearer together or place them farther apart, as may be desired, to change the implement from a chopper to a marker or cultivator" (lines 30-35).
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Lindsey, James E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Handling Seed-Cotton to be Ginned. (open access)

Device for Handling Seed-Cotton to be Ginned.

Patent for a gin-house constructed of double tramway that can be used to improve the process of gaining seed-cotton.
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: James, Andrew P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hame Fastener. (open access)

Hame Fastener.

Patent for a new and improved hame fastener. This design utilizes a clasp that slides along a bar. When the clasp is at the desired position relative to the hame, a pin and a locking plate on the clasp lock the clasp in place; thus the hame is fastened.
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Crump, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sawing Machine. (open access)

Sawing Machine.

Patent for a new and improved drag-saw. This design "consists in the combination of a drag-saw, an operating-lever, and a wheelbarrow or truck, the wheelbarrow being made to support the saw and move it . . . [t]he object of [the] invention is to provide an easy and ready means of transporting the saw from place to place, and to so connect it to the wheelbarrow or truck which supports it that they can be readily separated, so that the wheelbarrow or truck can be used by itself" (lines 13-24).
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Crump, Thomas Jefferson
System: The Portal to Texas History
Stalk Cutter. (open access)

Stalk Cutter.

Patent for a new and improved stalk cutter. This design has "the combination of the A-shaped frame, consisting of side pieces hinged together at their forward ends, and provided with lateral projecting knives or cutters and horizontal slots, in which work set-screws for adjusting the cross-braces, tongue or pole, hinged at its rear-end to a bracket, vertically adjustable on the front side of [the] cross-brace, and the seat-bar hinged or otherwise secured to the underside of [the] cross-brace" (lines 76-85).
Date: April 26, 1881
Creator: Horn, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Canceling Stamp. (open access)

Canceling Stamp.

Patent for a new and improved stamp canceler. This design utilizes a washer, flanges, and vertical slots "for the purpose of adjusting the roughened face of the head . . . so that the correct operation of the face is insured" (65-68). This represents an improvement over previous stamp cancelers.
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Grothaus, Frederick E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Door Fastening. (open access)

Car Door Fastening.

Patent for a new and improved car-door fastening. This design "consists in a novel construction and arrangement of a staple, a hook-hasp, key, and a key-plate, whereby several advantages are obtained . . . for securing the sliding doors of box-cars and other railway-cars" (lines 8-14).
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Alexander, Francis Marion
System: The Portal to Texas History
Caster. (open access)

Caster.

Patent for an improved design for casters, otherwise known as "rollers for bedsteads and the like" (lines 15-16), including illustrations.
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Custer, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Game Apparatus. (open access)

Game Apparatus.

Patent for a new and improved game. This design "relates to that class of game apparatus in which tilting levers or arms located at the end of an alley or board and bearing numerals designating their value in the game are designed to be struck by balls, so as to displace or change the position of said levers. The invention consists in the construction and combination of the parts forming the apparatus" (lines 14-22).
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Pittman, William D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Saddle Bags (open access)

Saddle Bags

Patent for improvements in saddle bags
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Elliot, George W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Walking Seed-Planter (open access)

Walking Seed-Planter

Patent for an improved walking seed-planter.
Date: April 19, 1881
Creator: Thomas, Joseph H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Corn and Cotton Planter (open access)

Combined Corn and Cotton Planter

Patent for a combined corn and cotton planter
Date: April 12, 1881
Creator: Hiram H. Carter
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Coupling. (open access)

Car Coupling.

Patent for a new and improved coupling for railroad cars. This design utilizes "a draw-head, formed with the usual flaring mouth, and interior cavity. . . . the interior of the draw-head is narrowing from the mouth to the center of the pin, and widening from the latter backward. The object of this construction is, that it directs the entering link to the pin, and increases the power of resistance of the latter to the strain" (lines 23-33).
Date: April 5, 1881
Creator: Nuckols, William L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Planter. (open access)

Cotton Planter.

Patent for an improvement in cotton-planters.
Date: April 5, 1881
Creator: McFall, Mark M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Seed Planter. (open access)

Cotton Seed Planter.

Patent for a new and improved cotton-seed planter. This design "consists in the combination of a front pair of scraping-wings attached to a central furrow-opener, a revolving biconical wheel for pressing open the furrow and operating a toothed or spiked seed stirring and distributing shaft, and a rear covering-roller having a concave periphery" (lines 18-24).
Date: April 5, 1881
Creator: Crow, John Alexander
System: The Portal to Texas History
Engineer's Level-Rod. (open access)

Engineer's Level-Rod.

Reissued patent for an improvement in engineer's level which introduces a novel manner of marking the scale upon the face of the rod.
Date: April 5, 1881
Creator: Lynch, Michael L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Shingle Gage. (open access)

Shingle Gage.

Patent for a new and improved gauge for the installation of roofing shingles. This design utilizes a set of metal brackets and joined metal bars to guide in the nailing of shingles to the roof. This eliminates the need for marking in advance the target of the nail.
Date: April 5, 1881
Creator: Gay, Edward R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for improvement of plows; and it consists of a combination of two plows, which are attached to separate beams of their own, and which run upon opposite side of the growing plants for the purpose of cutting away weeds and dirt from around them, with two culitivators or shovels, which run immediately in the rear of said plows, and which clutivators are attached to beams of their own and serve to throw the dirt back toward the plants, as will be more fully described hereinafter.
Date: April 4, 1881
Creator: Carter, Charles Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History