Adjustable Fire Guard and Screen. (open access)

Adjustable Fire Guard and Screen.

Patent for a new and improved fireplace screen. This design "is to provide a simple and efficient device which may be suspended in front of open fireplaces or grates for the purpose of preventing the frequent and sometimes fatal accidents which are directly due to the absence of reliable safe-guards. The invention consists of a series of shields or plates of suitable size and material, which are so connected that when not in use they may be easily drawn upward in succession side by side and compactly placed in an appropriate receptacle attached to the front of a mantel or to a wall above a fireplace" (lines 16-29).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Gibson, Nathaniel B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal Trap. (open access)

Animal Trap.

Patent for Animal Trap especially adapted for the extermination of mice and similar rodents.
Date: 1920-09-5
Creator: Fredrick, Willaim.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ant Trap. (open access)

Ant Trap.

Patent for a new and improved ant trap. This design "compris[es] the sides adapted to encompass an anthill and composed of a bottom, inclined walls, and horizontal top portions, having depending inclined flanges, one of the sides having an opening in its bottom and provided with ways arranged on opposite sides of the opening, a removable receptacle provided with flanges arranged in said ways and having inwardly-inclined walls, and a discharge-tube arranged at one corner of the trap" (lines 77-87).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Royse, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Apparatus For Handling Seed Cotton (open access)

Apparatus For Handling Seed Cotton

Patent for an apparatus for handling seed cotton. Illustration included.
Date: May 3, 1904
Creator: Benefield, Chauncey R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Artificial Stone Block. (open access)

Artificial Stone Block.

Patent for a new and improved artificial-stone block. This design "consists in the particular formation of the protuberances by which interlocking joints or seams of the building-blocks are attained, the object of which is to so form the prolific protuberances of said blocks as to permit joining them in close proximity on all the sides or faces of the seam, to reduce the binding material for the same and increase the strength of the same" (lines 14-22).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Graham, George M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling Press. (open access)

Baling Press.

Patent for a new and improved baling press. This design "comprise[s] a frame and case having aligned baling-chambers at opposite ends, a follower having two head-blocks working one in each of the baling-chambers, a shaft journaled between the baling-chambers, and two ropes connected at one end to the shaft and at their other ends to the opposite head-blocks" (lines 46-53).
Date: May 3, 1887
Creator: Green, William Robert & Green, Newton Jasper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Baling Press (open access)

Baling Press

Patent for a baling press. Illustration included.
Date: May 3, 1904
Creator: Key, William C. & Frost, Harvey N.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bath Tub. (open access)

Bath Tub.

Patent for a new and improved bath tub. This design consists in "a removable bottom provided with perforations or openings, and with supports to sustain it above the permanent bottom of the tub, a single opening in said tub below the level of the removable bottom for inlet and outlet purposes, a valve for closing said opening, and a rod within reach of the head of the tub for operating the valve and the cover" (lines 9-16).
Date: May 3, 1887
Creator: Watson, David R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Blotter Holder. (open access)

Blotter Holder.

Patent for a new and improved blotter-holder. This design "relates to improvements in devices for attaching to the top of a desk the sheet of blotting-paper usually employed as a surface upon which to write; and it consists in certain appliances by which the blotter will be held tightly and securely to the desk-top and which will present no obtruding edges" (lines 11-18).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Welch, James S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Box and Package Elevating Apparatus (open access)

Box and Package Elevating Apparatus

Patent for an elevator for boxes and packages. Illustrations included.
Date: May 3, 1910
Creator: Brigance, Alice Osborne
System: The Portal to Texas History
Buckle. (open access)

Buckle.

Patent for a new and improved buckle. This design utilizes two separate tongues that run freely along a middle bar, which lengthens the life of the strap by distributing pressure and allowing for broken out, frayed, or otherwise worn holes to be circumvented for new ones.
Date: May 3, 1881
Creator: Burket, John
System: The Portal to Texas History
Burner (open access)

Burner

Patent for a hydrocarbon oil burner. Illustrations included.
Date: May 3, 1910
Creator: Butler, Albert C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes Pounder. (open access)

Clothes Pounder.

Patent for a new and improved clothes pounder. This design "consist[s] of an outer cone with openings and socket near its upper end, a plurality of smaller cones with open bottoms within the outer cone and having their upper ends secured to the bottom of the said socket of the larger cone, and a conical guard around the upper end of the outer cone and extended below said openings independent of the outer cone and terminating in a vertical depending flange at a distance from the said outer cone" (lines 77-87).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Davis, Jordan G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Pump and Motor. (open access)

Combined Pump and Motor.

Patent for a new and improved pump and motor. This design "is to produce a simple apparatus which may be connected with a main water or service pipe and which will operate by the fluctuation of pressure in said main or pipe so as to operate the pump. The device is especially advantageous in raising water from a well or cistern to a tank placed at a higher elevation, or it may be placed on a pump in place of an air-chamber and used as a feed-pump for a boiler or on a hydraulic ram as an auxiliary pump" (lines 9-18).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Henderson, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coop or Crate (open access)

Coop or Crate

Patent for a downwardly folding coop or crate used in shipping or tranport. Illustrations included.
Date: May 3, 1910
Creator: La Bauve, Odelon J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coop or Crate (open access)

Coop or Crate

Patent for a collapsible coop or crate. Illustration included.
Date: May 3, 1910
Creator: La Bauve, Odelon J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Baling Apparatus (open access)

Cotton-Baling Apparatus

Patent for a cotton baling machine in which "the condensing and bat-forming devices will condense and press the lint-cotton so close that the spring of the cotton is broken, thereby avoiding the necessity of providing additional compressing-rollers intermediate the condenser and the press-box. A further object of my invention is to arrange a condenser in such a manner as to save room in the gin-house and to provide means for carrying off the dust and air made by the gin and condenser to the outside of the building" (lines 12-24).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Carter, Edward D.
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 "the combination, with the follower-screw, the worm and worm-shaft, the combined worm-gear and nut, and the base-plate having a peripheral ledge . . . of the plate having bearings for said worm shaft and an annular portion which encircles said base-plate, and the bolts which pass through both such annular portion and base-plate for securing them together and to the base-timbers of the press" (lines 73-82).
Date: May 3, 1887
Creator: McGowen, Allexander
System: The Portal to Texas History
Design for a Shovel Cleaner or Knife. (open access)

Design for a Shovel Cleaner or Knife.

Design patent for a "shovel cleaner or knife" that has a particular configuration of a handle with a blade. The accompanying illustration is not included.
Date: May 3, 1887
Creator: Legler, Charles
System: The Portal to Texas History
Device for Marking Goods. (open access)

Device for Marking Goods.

Patent for a new and improved price tag. This design "consist[s] of a strip of ductile metal or any other material comprising a tapering finger, having a pointed hook or prong at its outer end and a square or rectangular plate integral with the tapering finger" (lines 96-100). It it further "provided on three sides with overturned edges or flanges and on the fourth side with a raised shoulder or offset adapted to form a stop for the removable marking-tag, so as to hold the same in place removably" (lines 1-5).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Brown, Sampson H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Disk Harrow. (open access)

Disk Harrow.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in disk harrows.
Date: May 3, 1898
Creator: Livengood, David R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ditching-Machine. (open access)

Ditching-Machine.

Patent for a certain new, useful, and valuable improvement in ditching machines for cutting ditches.
Date: May 3, 1898
Creator: Dillahay, John G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fly-Screen. (open access)

Fly-Screen.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in fly screens.
Date: May 3, 1898
Creator: Hart, Sara C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fuel Economizer (open access)

Fuel Economizer

Patent for a fuel economizer. Illustration included.
Date: May 3, 1910
Creator: Phillips, Edwin R.
System: The Portal to Texas History