Piston-Rod Packing (open access)

Piston-Rod Packing

Patent for "provide a metallic packing for piston-rods that is self-adjusting; secondly, to provide a packing the parts of which are so arranged as to avoid any escape of steam through the gland of the stuffing-box; thirdly, to provide a packing that does not require a lubricator; fourthly, to provide a packing that relieves the piston of all friction, except when steam is admitted to stuffing-box end of cylinder" (lines 19-27).
Date: May 9, 1890
Creator: Carlson, Frank A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Electric Bath-Brush (open access)

Electric Bath-Brush

Patent for improvements to an electric brush so that it is "exceedingly effective in its operation and at the same time simple in construction, combining lightness with durability, and securing the best results medicinally to the user. A further object consists in providing a construction whereby the entire brush may be dismantled, so as to obtain access to the interior when necessary, and to permit of the brush being used as an ordinary bath-brush by simply removing the batteries" (lines 15-25).
Date: May 20, 1890
Creator: Williams, Robert E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Conveying and Cleaning Apparatus. (open access)

Cotton Conveying and Cleaning Apparatus.

Patent for improvements in cotton conveying and cleaning apparatus by using the combination of “a rearwardly-open feeder and a conveyer in position to receive cotton discharge at the rear of the feeder” (lines 103-105), as a result when a conveyer bring “cotton to the feeder, it would provide a branch in position to take up the cotton delivered by the conveyer” (lines 106-108) thus preventing undue accumulation of excess cotton and continuous movement of the cotton in all the parts. Illustration is included.
Date: May 5, 1891
Creator: Elam, William E.; Thomas, Robert S. & Hardwick, Saunie W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Automatic Track Sweeping and Oiling Attachment for Street-Cars. (open access)

Automatic Track Sweeping and Oiling Attachment for Street-Cars.

Patent for improvements in automatic track sweeping and oiling attachments to street cars by having a transverse shaft carries a hub which has a series of brushes. When “the street car moves forward, the brushes on the transverse shaft are revolved, which sweep the rails and keep them clean.” (Lines 90-93) Illustration is included.
Date: May 12, 1891
Creator: Nesmith, Robert Henry
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
Mechanical Attachment for Pianos and Organs (open access)

Mechanical Attachment for Pianos and Organs

Patent for a "mechanical attachment for pianos and organs whereby and musical composition executed upon the instrument shall be automatically recorded upon a travelling strip or band or, if preferred, on the cylindrical surface of a revolving drum" (lines 10-15).
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Harriman, John Emery, Jr.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wrench. (open access)

Wrench.

Patent for an improved wrench that has two movable jaws and can separate about the length of the handle. The wrench's "head or nut for operating the upper jaw is swiveled and forms a part of the handle" (lines 14-15). The wrench can be converted into a pipe-wrench.
Date: May 9, 1893
Creator: King, Will Henry Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combined Cotton and Corn Planter. (open access)

Combined Cotton and Corn Planter.

Patent for an improved, inexpensive, and simple planter that is "adapted to plant either corn or cotton and that at predetermined distances; to so construct the machine as to adapt it readily for change from one form of planter to the other; and to improve the manner of securing the furrow-opening shovel-carrying standard and the seed tube, whereby the former and latter are prevented from breaking or becoming injured should they contact with a stone, stump, or other obstacle of sufficient size and firmness to injure them" (lines 10-21).
Date: May 16, 1893
Creator: Schofield, James Drommond
System: The Portal to Texas History
Child's Seat for Vehicles. (open access)

Child's Seat for Vehicles.

Patent for a removable child's seat for buggies, phaetons, carriages, sleighs, and similar vehicles that folds up so it can be stored under the seat when not in use. The chair sits next to the dash, and is locked into place so the child is safe.
Date: May 15, 1894
Creator: Padgitt, Thomas B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Harrow. (open access)

Harrow.

Patent for an improved harrow made up of a yielding frame, an extensible truss-bar, slotted braces, an angle iron, a lever connected to the frame and the truss-bar, a hook that holds the open end of the lever, and a plate on the lever that straddles a bail.
Date: May 15, 1894
Creator: Johnson, John C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car Wheel and Axle. (open access)

Car Wheel and Axle.

Patent for a car wheel and axle made up of a built-up metallic wheel with dished side-plates that have flanged and riveted rims, hub-nuts, a lock-plate, hollow screw-threaded ends, hexagonal offsets, tubular journals, a tubular journal, and a radial lubricating feed-tube with a cross-head and a collar.
Date: May 14, 1895
Creator: Flatau, Louis Spencer
System: The Portal to Texas History
Strainer for Coffee-Pots. (open access)

Strainer for Coffee-Pots.

Patent for a strainer "by which the steam from the fluid coffee which has passed through the percolating-cloth to the base of the coffee-pot can rise above the strainer, there condense, and then return again through the strainer, thus causing a thorough extraction of the strength of the coffee" (lines 9-15).
Date: May 5, 1896
Creator: Massey, Andrew J. & Stallings, James W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Trunk. (open access)

Trunk.

Patent for a trunk that is usual except for its multiple trays, "a series of levers connecting the trays, and a second series of levers connecting the first-mentioned series of levers with the trunk-lid" (lines 56-59). The levers raise the trays and move them outward, and they can lock in place.
Date: May 12, 1896
Creator: Giraud, Paul
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Elevator and Gin-Feeder. (open access)

Cotton-Elevator and Gin-Feeder.

Patent for an inexpensive cotton-elevator and gin-feeder that is easy to assemble and have removable screens and suspended chutes and feeders. Suction draws the cotton through the distributing trunk, and gravity drops the cotton into a gin. These concepts are also outlined in the inventor's previous patents, Nos 472,607 and 488,446.
Date: May 26, 1896
Creator: Murray, Stephen A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Separating Decorticated Cotton-Seed. (open access)

Machine for Separating Decorticated Cotton-Seed.

Patent for a machine dedicated to "increase the capacity of machines for separating decorticated cotton-seed" (lines 9-10) and to "separate the meal from the husks of the decorticated cotton-seed, whereby perfectly clean meal is collected" (lines 12-15)
Date: May 11, 1897
Creator: Bell, Thomas
System: The Portal to Texas History
Pneumatic Apparatus for Handling Seed-Cotton. (open access)

Pneumatic Apparatus for Handling Seed-Cotton.

Patent for a machine that removes cotton from a "wagon or other vehicle" (line 11), and moving it to a storage facility. It also moves the cotton from the storage facility and into the cotton gin. The cotton is elevated during movement via suction.
Date: May 11, 1897
Creator: Murray, Stephen D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Design for a Nut Cracker. (open access)

Design for a Nut Cracker.

Patent for a Nut-Cracker.
Date: May 25, 1897
Creator: Collins, Corties
System: The Portal to Texas History
Primary Battery. (open access)

Primary Battery.

Patent for a simplified primary battery "whereby the parts thereof may be readily removed and replaced without special tools by unprofessional persons, while at the same time providing a construction of primary battery involving new and useful connections for the positive and negative elements thereof." (Lines 10-16) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 25, 1897
Creator: Sutton, Henry M. & Steele, Walter L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Elevator, Cleaner, and Feeder. (open access)

Cotton Elevator, Cleaner, and Feeder.

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in cotton elevators, cleaners, and feeders, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 24, 1898
Creator: Seifert, John W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Air-Tight Heating-Stove (open access)

Air-Tight Heating-Stove

Patent for certain new and useful improvements in air tight heating stoves, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 31, 1898
Creator: Wilson, John Wesley & Wilson, William Wharton
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton Chopper and Cultivator (open access)

Cotton Chopper and Cultivator

Patent for a simplified and "improved cotton-chopping mechanism which may be readily applied to a straddle-row cultivator of ordinary construction, whereby the cotton may be plowed and chopped at one operation" (lines 10-14). It also allows for the chopping mechanism to be adjusted to regulate the chopping operation and provides better support of the mechanism while operating.
Date: May 9, 1899
Creator: Ledbetter, William H.
System: The Portal to Texas History