Electric Railway. (open access)

Electric Railway.

Patent for "a new and useful improvement in electric railways, and particularly to such railways as are adapted to use underground conduits, and has for its object to so construct such conduit and the line-wire connections therefor as to insure a constant connection between the line-wire and the motor of the car, and, further to greatly simplify and increase the efficiency of such systems." (Lines 8-17) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 14, 1896
Creator: Reid, Lemin Wallace
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Log-Loading Mechanism. (open access)

Log-Loading Mechanism.

Patent for a machine that hauls and loads logs upon cars from either side of the track, or both sides at once. The machine can easily be transported on a car. The machine "consists, essentially, in a platform of about the length of an ordinary log-car and of a height and width to enable it to span the same, mounted upon which are a steam engine and a boiler and a rotating crane, said platform being provided with pivoted legs for holding it above the track, with pivoted legs for holding it above the track, with means for locking said legs in a vertical position" (lines 23-30).
Date: April 14, 1896
Creator: Fletcher, William Andrew
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seed-Planter Attachment. (open access)

Seed-Planter Attachment.

Patent for "seed-planter attachments; and it has for its object to provide a new and useful machine of this character adapted to simultaneously plant two rows of corn, cotton, or other seed at any desired distance apart and to also provide means for marking the third row at any width from the planter." (Lines 8-15) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 14, 1896
Creator: Adkins, Stephen J.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Window-Shade Raiser. (open access)

Window-Shade Raiser.

Patent for an improved way of raising, lowering, and locking window shades into place. "The operating-cord passes over a pulley located between two larger disks, one of which is screwed toward the other by a spring to clamp the folds of the cord and is screwed in the opposite direction by means of a lever, upon which the chord itself acts when drawn in the proper direction" (lines 14-20).
Date: April 14, 1896
Creator: McCauley, John H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
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.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Advertising-Fan. (open access)

Advertising-Fan.

Patent for "an attractive sign, which by reason of its revolutions will receive notice from the general public and illustrate business cards or signs, and furthermore to operate the same by and in conjunction with a fan, such as is commonly used in public places." (Lines 15-20) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Lo Casto, Tony
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Banker's Daily-Balance Index. (open access)

Banker's Daily-Balance Index.

Patent for a banker's daily-balance index meant to "promote the speed and accuracy of book-keepers in keeping the personal daily balance ledger in banking and other like business" (lines 9-12). The patent is for a piece of paper divided with ink into strips on the front and back.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Thomas, Thomas Parry
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Exercising Device. (open access)

Exercising Device.

Patent for an "exercising device for teaching beginners the correct touch on the piano to systematically develop finger [technique]." (Lines 9-11) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Felden, Oscar
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hay-Rake. (open access)

Hay-Rake.

Patent for an improvement on a revolving hay-rake that is simple, economic, and easily manipulated. It can move backwards as well as forward, and the teeth can turn freely. The ground pressure of the teeth can be adjusted.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Lunday, Isaac G.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Instrument for Dividing Angles into Equal Parts. (open access)

Instrument for Dividing Angles into Equal Parts.

Patent for an instrument for dividing angles into equal parts and is meant to be used with a beam compass. The "invention consists in a member having a point adapted to be placed at the point of the angle to be divided, and having movable thereon a beam extending horizontally and having at one end a transverse head projecting from each side of the beam and carrying at one end an indicating point and at the other end a marking pencil" (lines 22-29).
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Cornelius, Francis W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ironing-Table. (open access)

Ironing-Table.

Patent for "ironing-tables which are arranged to be capable of folding when not in use and of extending when used." (Lines 8-11) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Mills, Charles Richmond
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Music-Holder. (open access)

Music-Holder.

Patent for an adjustable, simple, inexpensive, and light music-holder that does not let the music slip and does not damage the music. The clamps will not get in the way of the music, and holds a book as easily as a sheet of music. Springs are not used, the staff is telescopic, and should be made from aluminum.
Date: April 30, 1895
Creator: Gross, Frederick D.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History