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 Poke. (open access)

Animal Poke.

Patent for a new and improved animal poke. This design "is to construct a device which may be secured to horses, cattle, and other animals, and which will effectually prevent fence-jumping, while at the same time allow the animal free use of [its] head and limbs, doing away with any tendency to cramp the wearer" (lines 17-23). It consists, "with bar and a means for suspending it beneath the animal's body and the bar, which is secured at its outer end to the animal's head, of a hinge to the opposite side of which the adjacent ends of the said bars are pivoted" (lines 78-83).
Date: May 17, 1892
Creator: Stracener, Upton W.
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
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
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
Cabinet for Holding Postage Stamps, &c. (open access)

Cabinet for Holding Postage Stamps, &c.

Patent for a new and improved cabinet. This design "consists in a commercial postage-stamp holding, preserving, and denomination-indicating book, the same having its blank leaves formed of paper so prepared that postage-stamps will not adhere to them, and some of said leaves being provided at intervals with exposed tabs which have numerical indices marked upon them and serve for indicating the denomination of the stamps placed between the leaves at different parts of the book. It also consists in . . . a rigid outer supporting-cabinet provided with means for confining the book" (lines 12-27).
Date: May 24, 1892
Creator: Exline, Marcus P.
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
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-Gin Attachment. (open access)

Cotton-Gin Attachment.

Patent for a cotton gin attachment that cleans and separates the lint before it reaches the machines condenser.
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Scott, Eugene C. & Kelly, George A.
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
Extension-Ladder. (open access)

Extension-Ladder.

Patent for a new extension ladder, including illustrations.
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Crews, Dayton H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fish and Game Trap. (open access)

Fish and Game Trap.

Patent for a design for improvements of fish and game traps, including illustrations.
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Bolling, Allen G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Folding Bed. (open access)

Folding Bed.

Patent for a new and improved folding bed. This design consists "of the base having side standards and an intermediate screen, two beds pivotally connected together and to the said standards at their inner corners and adapted to fold on each other and against the said screen, two drop-doors to close the open sides of the base and adapted to extend beneath the outer corners of the beds and support and hold them in a closed position, and two twin springs, one for each side of the bed, each spring being approximately U-shaped, the parallel members having coils at their upper ends" (lines 81-93).
Date: May 10, 1892
Creator: Yeager, James Ernst
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate Latch. (open access)

Gate Latch.

Patent for a new and improved gate-latch. This design "relates to gate-latches; and it has for its object to provide a device of this character which will be simple in construction and efficient in operation, and to provide a gate-latch that not only permits the gate to be opened in both directions, but also prevents the same from being opened or lifted from its hinges by the stock, and also a latch that can be easily manipulated without dismounting from the horse" (lines 8-17).
Date: May 10, 1892
Creator: Brown, William
System: The Portal to Texas History
Gate Latch. (open access)

Gate Latch.

Patent for a new and improved gate latch. This design "will automatically lock the gate or door when swung closed and which will firmly hold the same, which can be readily opened by hand or otherwise" (lines 17-20). It consists in "[t]he latch consisting of the case, the two triangular catches, the transverse pivots therefor in the lower outer corners of the case, the rigid stops at the lower outer corners of the case to prevent outward swing of said catches, the inwardly and laterally extending arms at the upper inner end of said catches, and the horizontal lifting-bar normally resting on said pivots" (lines 24-32).
Date: May 24, 1892
Creator: Haggar, Morys
System: The Portal to Texas History
Grain Conveyer for Binders, &c. (open access)

Grain Conveyer for Binders, &c.

Patent for a new and improved grain conveyer for binders. This design "relates to that class of grain-conveyers for binders and harvesters, &c., in which arms unfold when started from the outer end of its travel on its forward movement and in that position shift the grain in front of it, and thus shift the grain off the inner end of the platform and deliver such grain to suitable compressors . . . and such arms fold back at the beginning of its rearward movement and pass back underneath the grain on the platform" (lines 12-23).
Date: May 24, 1892
Creator: Schubert, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Grain Conveyer for Harvesters and Binders. (open access)

Grain Conveyer for Harvesters and Binders.

Patent for a new and improved grain-conveyer. This design "relates to improvements in grain conveyers for grain binders and harvesters in which the grain receiving platform is provided with a reciprocating conveyer or arm or arms to deliver the grain to or off the stubble end of the platform; and the objects of [the] improvements are to provide a chain with one or more arms, preferably a pair arms, one on each side of the chains, and said arms are to fold to the chain on their rearward movement, so as to pass to the grain end of the platform beneath the grain and partly around . . . the shaft" (lines 9-21).
Date: May 10, 1892
Creator: Schubert, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hand Car. (open access)

Hand Car.

Patent for a new and improved handcar. This design "is to provide for hand-cars a motive power which will produce a high rate of speed and which will enable a hand-car to be propelled in either direction without necessitating turning the car end for end" (lines 9-14). It consists of "an opening in its platform disposed over one of the axles, a rectangular casing arranged over the opening, a drive-shaft journaled in the sides of the casing, a train of gears consisting of cog-wheels and pinions connecting the drive-shaft and the axle, and the crank-handles arranged at the ends of the drive-shaft" (lines 64-71).
Date: May 17, 1892
Creator: Parker, Joseph R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hay Press. (open access)

Hay Press.

Patent for an improvement in the hay-press that involves operation by horse-power. Includes illustrations.
Date: May 10, 1892
Creator: Finch, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hydraulic Excavator (open access)

Hydraulic Excavator

Hydraulic dredging machine in which a revolving bucket wheel is used in excavating silt and sand
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Douglas, William M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Insect Trap. (open access)

Insect Trap.

Patent for a new and improved insect trap. This design is "for catching such insects as are attracted by light, more especially cotton-flies, potato-bugs, and the like" (lines 11-13). It consists "of a frame having a bottom provided with an approximately star-shaped opening, the transparent walls mounted in the frame and forming re-entrant angles and providing entrance-openings and being adjustable to vary the size of the entrance openings, a receptacle arranged beneath the opening in the bottom of the frame, and a lamp arranged within the frame" (lines 72-80).
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Edwards, Joseph H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Locomotive Ash Pan. (open access)

Locomotive Ash Pan.

Patent for a new and improved locomotive ash pan. This design "relates to ash-pans for locomotive and other fire-boxes; and it has for its object to provide a simple and improved device of this character in which the contents of the pan may be discharged therefrom by a single operation of a controlling-lever. To this end the invention consists . . . in a sliding frame working in guides, a series of slats forming the entire bottom of the pan pivoted to the frame and carried thereby, a lever for operating said frame, and means for sustaining the slats normally in horizontal position" (lines 11-23).
Date: May 31, 1892
Creator: Johnson, Charles J. W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Locomotive Headlight. (open access)

Locomotive Headlight.

Patent for a new and improved train headlight. This design "has for its object to improve locomotive head-lights by so constructing the reservoir and burner and mounting the same that they may be easily removed from and connected with the reflector without moving the latter; and it consists of a reservoir for the head-light having certain features of novelty and in various improvements in the apparatus as a whole" (lines 11-19).
Date: May 17, 1892
Creator: Jobling, Lance L.
System: The Portal to Texas History