Base Ball Game. (open access)

Base Ball Game.

Patent for a new and improved board game. This design "consists of a game-board marked out to represent a baseball field and provided with a series of marked depressions and a number of baffle-pins, guideways, or gutters being arranged in either side of the board, and a back-stop being arranged at the upper end of the board, provision being made for imparting a proper inclination to the board and for the propulsion of marbles through the gutters or troughs" (lines 13-22).
Date: June 3, 1890
Creator: Maxcy, John Wharton
System: The Portal to Texas History
Broadcast Seeder. (open access)

Broadcast Seeder.

Patent for a broadcast seeder designed to "cultivate, plant, and subsequently roll or cover the seed, the elements for accomplishing the same being combined in a single device simply constructed" (lines 10-13).
Date: June 3, 1890
Creator: Callaway, Johnathan Asa
System: The Portal to Texas History
Broom Rack. (open access)

Broom Rack.

Patent for a new and improved broom rack. This design "compris[es] the lower ring provided in its outer edge with a series of notches adapted to receive the head of the brooms, the upper ring arranged to fit within the opening of the lower ring when not in use and provided with a series of perforations to receive the handles of the brooms, the chains or other suitable means for connecting the rings, and the chains . . . secured to the upper rings" (lines 79-88).
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Neely, William D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling (open access)

Car-Coupling

Patent for a new and improved design concerning automatic car couplings that is novel in the some of its parts.
Date: June 17, 1890
Creator: Bullock, Henry Purnell
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Roller and Protector. (open access)

Combination Roller and Protector.

Patent for a new and improved roller and protector for maps and charts. This design consists, "with the case having longitudinal slot at its under side, the caps upon the ends of the case and formed with ears, the springs upon the case having their ends engaging the ends of the caps, metal bearings in the ends of the caps, the roller within the case with its pintles journaled in said bearings, and the cord wound upon the roller at one end in a reverse direction to the article carried by the roller with its free end passed through the opening in the under side of the cap at that end of the roller" (lines 21-32).
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cotton-Harvester. (open access)

Cotton-Harvester.

Patent for improvements to a cotton harvester that uses finger-pickers to harvest cotton into a bag or box with illustrations. The changes are intended to make the harvester more durable, less costly, and operable by non-skilled workers.
Date: June 17, 1890
Creator: Loonie, Patrick J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Envelope or Bag Machine (open access)

Envelope or Bag Machine

Patent for a machine "for making envelopes, paper bags, and the like wherein the blank which is to form the envelope or bag is automatically fed into the machine at its receiving end by a suitable feeder and is folded and gummed on its way through the machine, being finally delivered in a marketable condition at the delivery end of the machine" (lines 10-17).
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Clarke, George R.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hobby Horse. (open access)

Hobby Horse.

Patent for a new and improved hobby horse. This design "consists in providing a 'hobby-horse' or a 'stick-horse' with a pivoted head, to which is preferably connected a spring, so that the swinging of the head will give the appearance of the horse pulling on the reins held by the operator. The invention comprises a head pivoted at one end, a spring secured thereto and to the horse, and a lip on said head to limit the downward movement thereof" (lines 14-24).
Date: June 17, 1890
Creator: Alexander, Horace C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hoeing-Machine (open access)

Hoeing-Machine

Patent for improvements to hoeing machines "as will cause the hoes to cultivate around the particular plant pointed out without it being necessary for the indicator to remain at rest while each plant is being hoed; second, to provide a pair of oscillating disks that cultivate before and behind the plant as they oscillate across the row" (lines 15-21).
Date: June 17, 1890
Creator: Hurd, Judson B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Horse Detacher. (open access)

Horse Detacher.

Patent for a new and improved horse detacher. This design consists in "[t]he combination of the whiffletree-support, the whiffletree, the hinge connecting such parts having its upper and lower plates secured, respectively, to the whiffletree and its support and jointed at their rear edges, and the arm or lever extended forward from the upper plate, whereby upward draft on said arm or lever will turn the whiffletree backward from its normal position to release the traces" (lines 91-100).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Harrison, George W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine For Forming Cotton-Seed Meal Into Cakes. (open access)

Machine For Forming Cotton-Seed Meal Into Cakes.

Patent for "an organized machine adapted to compress charges of cotton-seed meal into cakes of sufficient solidity to bear handling and removing to the press which expresses the oil from the meal, and to carry said cakes from the point where they are compressed to a point or points in convenient proximity to the press or presses which express the meal" (lines 8-16).
Date: June 3, 1890
Creator: Price, James S.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Material for Lamp-Wicks. (open access)

Material for Lamp-Wicks.

Patent for a new and improved wick material for lamps.
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Chapin, Myron H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Method of Compressing and Baling Cotton Batting. (open access)

Method of Compressing and Baling Cotton Batting.

Patent for a new and improved method of baling cotton. This design "consist[s] in, first, folding the cotton in successive layers and slightly compressing the same at their folds; second, severing the web at intervals into sections; third, subjecting the sections successively and independently to compression; fourth, piling the sections; fifth, subjecting the mass thus formed to final compression, and sixth, binding or baling the same while under such compression" (lines 90-100).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Rembert, Henry
System: The Portal to Texas History
Milk Cooler. (open access)

Milk Cooler.

Patent for a new and improved cooler. This design "consist[s] of the main vessel adapted to contain the substance to be cooled, having its upper end open and the walls of said open end drawn or inclined inward, as described, the water vessel supported on said main vessel, with a space between its bottom and the top of the main vessel, and made larger at its bottom than the upper open end of the main vessel, and the enveloping-sheet arranged to be wet by the contents of the water-vessel and extended past the space between the said vessels, whereby to protect the contents of the main vessel" (lines 79-92).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Stiles, Frederick
System: The Portal to Texas History
Millstone Dress. (open access)

Millstone Dress.

Patent for a new and improved millstone-dress. This design is "to provide a millstone-dress having angular furrows intersecting the main furrows of the stone and of gradually increasing depth from their outward extremities to the point where they intersect the main furrows, said angular furrows being oppositely inclined upon the upper and lower stones to form a perfect cutting system, to discharge the grain over the face of the stone and throw it toward the skirt or edge thereof, thereby giving a good draft" (lines 30-41).
Date: June 24, 1890
Creator: Snodgrass, George M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Motor. (open access)

Motor.

Patent for a new and improved motor. This design consists, "with a stool having its seat-block perforated centrally, a loose seat, and a depending pusher-bar attached by one end to the loose seat, of a rock-shaft journaled in parallel stretcher-bars, which are secured to legs of the stool, a crank-arm, a bell-crank, an adjustable weight, a ratchet-bar, and a ratchet-wheel revolubly supported" (lines 58-65).
Date: June 3, 1890
Creator: Gilbert, Frank L.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Mud Scraper. (open access)

Mud Scraper.

Patent for a new and improved mud-scraper. This design consists, "with a vehicle, of the transverse shaft geared to one of the wheels and provided at one of its ends with spiders, having its arms provided with perforations, the approximately U-shaped scrapers arranged to straddle the wheel, and the L-shaped plates or knees having one arm secured to a scraper and the other arm provided with perforations adjustably connected to the spider" (lines 88-102).
Date: June 3, 1890
Creator: Mangum, George A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for "an improved device of this character, which may be readily converted from a turning-plow to a shovelplow, or from a shovel-plow to a turning-plow, by resetting the bar, mold-board, and share, and which may be used either with a steel or wood beam, as desired" (lines 14-20).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Wilhelm, Albert
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design consists in "[t]he slide for shovel-plows, consisting of two members having enlargements at their ends, provided with radial notches, the upper member being provided with a longitudinal slot, and a pivot-pin inserted through the enlargements of the members" (lines 62-67).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Mason, Thomas J.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Plow. (open access)

Plow.

Patent for a new and improved plow. This design consists in "the combination of the share having the keeper on the mold-board and the arm, the detachable point bearing against the outer side of the arm and having the tongue engaging the keeper, and the lever fulcrumed to the mold-board at a point between the keeper and landside, and having the short arm adapted to lap the joint between the point and mold-board and to engage the outer end of the tongue to lock the latter in the keeper" (lines 82-92).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Hyer, Robert Stewart
System: The Portal to Texas History
Protractor. (open access)

Protractor.

Patent for a new and improved protractor. This design "is to make a protractor or plotter by which may be calculated the length of the base, perpendicular, and hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle where the latitude and departure or the altitude and depression are given" (lines 15-20). To this end, it consists, "with the semicircular protractor provided with a rectangular opening the edges of which are graduated, and centrally-pivoted vernier, of the departure-scale arranged to move up or down within the said rectangular scale within the semicircular scale" (lines 6-12).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Dolman, John H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sash Balance. (open access)

Sash Balance.

Patent for a new and improved sash balance. This design consists "of the strap provided with a series of holes and designed to have one end secured to the upper sash of a window, the hanger secured to the top of the window-frame and provided with the roller, the clasp or fastener secured to the lower sash and consisting of the plate having the ears and provided with a roller journaled in the ears and having the pin or stud arranged to engage the hole of the strap" (lines 85-95).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Estill, Charles C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Sash-Holder (open access)

Sash-Holder

Patent for "an improved device, easily attached,cheap of manufacture, and durable and efficient in use, which will dispense with the employment of weights and cords, and which will not be affected by the Weather to allow the window to fall by the shrinkage of the holder" (lines 14-20).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Stukes, John Marion
System: The Portal to Texas History
Screw. (open access)

Screw.

Patent for a new and improved screw. This design consists in "[a] screw, the body and shank of which are of corresponding diameter throughout their length, the shank terminating in a rounded end, and the shank and body being provided with a longitudinal straight channel extending throughout their lengths, one of the terminal shoulders of the channel being removed" (lines 4-10).
Date: June 10, 1890
Creator: Ericson, John
System: The Portal to Texas History