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.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Back-Pad. (open access)

Back-Pad.

Patent for an inexpensive and simple concave back-pad meant to be used between the horse and the saddle. The design of the invention makes saddles stay in place.
Date: May 14, 1895
Creator: Powell, John S.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for a car-coupling which is an improvement on a patent (No. 520,380) previously granted to the inventor. It has two jaws that are used with a combination of other parts to couple cars.
Date: May 28, 1895
Creator: Roosevelt, James A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Truck Bolster. (open access)

Car-Truck Bolster.

Patent for a car-truck bolster "made of cast steel or malleable iron, cast in one piece, and provided with a plurality of corrugations running longitudinally or in an approximately longitudinal direction along the girders which form the sides of the said bolster" (lines 15-20).
Date: May 28, 1895
Creator: Maher, John N. & Wheless, Thomas H.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Caster Attachment for Plows. (open access)

Caster Attachment for Plows.

Patent for "a simple and practical attachment for a sulky or other plow which will enable the operator to readily turn the plow at any point where this may be desired while the plow is in service, and furthermore, to furnish a device of the above-indicated character which will be especially well adapted to facilitate the turning movement of a disk plow and dispense with the use of a tongue to guide the plow." (Lines 14-23) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 26, 1896
Creator: Waters, George W.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
The Death Valley Expedition: A Biological Survey of Parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, Part 2 (open access)

The Death Valley Expedition: A Biological Survey of Parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, Part 2

Collection of reports on Death Valley, the bordering region of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Reports include birds, reptiles and Batrachians, fishes, insects, mollusks, trees and shrubs, cactuses and yuccas, and list of localities in the reports.
Date: May 31, 1893
Creator: Fisher, A. K.; Stejneger, Leonhard; Gilbert, Charles H.; Riley, C. V.; Stearns, R. E. C.; Merriam, C. Hart et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Wrench. (open access)

Wrench.

Patent for a simple, inexpensive and efficient wrench device, which is "capable of extracting nails and of being used as a screw-driver without interchanging any of the parts or substituting one part for another" (line 14 - 17).
Date: May 3, 1898
Creator: Weiss, Martin
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire Stretcher and Splicer. (open access)

Wire Stretcher and Splicer.

Patent for "a wire-patcher by which the wire rails of fences may be spliced when broken and stretched when any slack occurs." (Lines 16-18) Includes instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 26, 1896
Creator: Massey, Joseph Borygard
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

Patent for a wire-stretcher that has "a body portion bifurcated at one end with the rigid integral forks of the bifurcation oppositely notched with said notches arranged in line substantially transverse of the body portion, whereby the device is adapted to operate in holding the wire for stretching" (lines 75-81).
Date: May 26, 1896
Creator: Willie, William T.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wrist-Guide and Foot-Guard for Pianos. (open access)

Wrist-Guide and Foot-Guard for Pianos.

Patent for “…a piano attachment consisting of an adjustable wrist-pin and foot-guard adapted to serve as a means for securing the proper position of the wrist and forearm in practice and also adapted to protect the front panel of the instrument and serve, with children, as a foot-rest. Further objects and advantages of this invention will appear in the following description, and the novel features thereof will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims” (lines 8-19).
Date: May 18, 1897
Creator: Norcross, Levi Watson
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-Stretcher. (open access)

Wire-Stretcher.

The patent is for a wire stretcher used to repair fencing.
Date: May 3, 1892
Creator: Dean, G. A.
Object Type: Patent
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
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Wire-and-Picket-Fence Machine. (open access)

Wire-and-Picket-Fence Machine.

Patent for a machine that secures "pickets in wire fencing, the wires having been secured to and stretched between the fence-posts and the machine applied to the wires and operated by hand to secure the pickets to the wires by an operation which places them in crossed relation to form loops within which the pickets are secured at the proper distance apart" (lines 9-16). The machine works on wires that have already been stretched.
Date: May 12, 1896
Creator: Rice, Elisha A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Washing-Machine (open access)

Washing-Machine

Patent for "improvements in the water-wheel and in the, mechanism for imparting motion thereto, whereby the washing-liquid is made to flow upward between the sides of an outer and inner pan and downward upon the articles to be washed, which are inclosed in the said inner pan, as will be now described and claimed, and is adapted to wash any articles that may be placed within the said inner pan" (lines 17-26).
Date: May 13, 1890
Creator: McCausland, William, I.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Journal-Lubricator. (open access)

Journal-Lubricator.

Patent for improvements in lubricators by mounting a box, with a pair holes near its ends, on a bearing; with partitions across the box adjacent each holes, a pair of cord shape wicks and a depending flange, depressing the wicks to the bottom of the box. “When the box filled with liquid lubricant and the cover closed, the lower edge of the flange depresses the wicks, submerging them at the center of the box, and the wicks absorb oil at this point, the oil is lead thence by capillary attraction along the wicks down through the holes in the bottom of the box and into the groove, whence it is delivered by direct contact upon the upper side of the rotating shaft which it is desired to lubricate.” (Lines 52-63) Illustration is included.
Date: May 19, 1891
Creator: Hubbard, Benjamin V.
Object Type: Patent
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.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Violin. (open access)

Violin.

Patent for an improved violin that is meant to "improve the acoustical properties of the instrument whereby it is enabled to give forth a deeper and softer tone, free from the "twang" common in instruments of this character, and second, to improve the mechanical construction of the instrument so that it will be less liable to become split" (lines 26-33).
Date: May 2, 1893
Creator: Clopton, John B.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History
Lumber-Stacker. (open access)

Lumber-Stacker.

Patent for a certain new and useful improvement in lumber stackers, including instructions and illustrations.
Date: May 23, 1899
Creator: Coleman, Thomas A.
Object Type: Patent
System: The Portal to Texas History