Apparatus for Testing Errors of Refraction (open access)

Apparatus for Testing Errors of Refraction

Patent for an eye testing device that has a movable lens, a measuring device for correction, and two different cards with test type on them which are fed into the machine during testing for astigmatism and myopia, presbyopia, and hyperopia to determine the level of correction needed in glasses.
Date: July 2, 1907
Creator: Bahn, Gustavus Adolphus
System: The Portal to Texas History
Airship. (open access)

Airship.

Patent for an airship with multiple gas bags inside an outer enclosing casing, which maintain the buoyancy of the airship in case one or more of the smaller bags should rupture. This airship also supports one or more persons other than the pilot, has an "envelop adapted to serve as a parachute in the event of danger", and can "alight upon and rise from the surface of a body of water".
Date: July 2, 1918
Creator: Richmond, George E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Machine for Making Tamales (open access)

Machine for Making Tamales

Patent for a Machine for Making Tamales
Date: July 2, 1918
Creator: Winfrey, Herbert O.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Fan Attachment. (open access)

Fan Attachment.

Patent for a new and improved fan attachment. This design consists in "[t]he combination, with the sewing-machine table and the upright of the fan-supporting frame, of the triangular base provided with a rubber-covered base hinged to a sleeve adjustably fitted upon said upright" (lines 111-115).
Date: July 2, 1889
Creator: McComas, Arthur W.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Draft-Rigging for Railway-Cars. (open access)

Draft-Rigging for Railway-Cars.

Patent for a draft-rigging for railway-cars that consists of a metal plate in an inverted U-shape, with its legs doubled upward and attached to the middle sills of the car, and the option of attaching a coupler to the plate. The plate legs can receive a king bolt ransom.
Date: July 2, 1895
Creator: Roosevelt, James A.
System: The Portal to Texas History