Billiard-Ball Holder. (open access)

Billiard-Ball Holder.

Patent for a simple billiard-ball holder that is meant to "provide a means for holding the balls when not in use, so that they will not fall out of the holder to the floor, and means to provide for the tilting of the holder out of line, so that the balls will roll to the opposite end, and out of the opening into the triangle, thereby saving a good part of the time in taking the balls out of the holder" (lines 20-27).
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Rohrbach, Gabriel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Animal-Trap. (open access)

Animal-Trap.

Patent for an improved animal trap that can catch a large variety of animals, including fish, and does not injure the animals. Bait is placed in the trap, and the door on one end is spring-activated. A hinged door on the top is where the operator can take out the animal.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Crockett, William E. & McAdams, Richard E.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Clothes-Pounder. (open access)

Clothes-Pounder.

Patent for a simple and inexpensive clothes pounder that has a conical casing, interior concentric partition, and equal draft and suction. The casing is divided into two compartments, but the divider has openings for air and suds.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Ware, William P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Car-Coupling. (open access)

Car-Coupling.

Patent for an improved car coupling that can be operated without going between cars. The coupling facilitates "the coupling of cars having drawheads at the same and different heights by readily guiding the link of one of them into the other" (lines 14-17).
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Norcross, George A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Cattle-Guard. (open access)

Cattle-Guard.

Patent for a simple cattle guard for railroads "which may be applied conveniently and economically to a cattle gap, and which will prevent cattle from getting their legs caught between the sleepers above the gap, which will also prevent cattle from passing over the gap, and which will frighten the cattle from the track" (lines 16-22).
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Hills, Lorenzo
System: The Portal to Texas History
Coin-Controlled Apparatus. (open access)

Coin-Controlled Apparatus.

Patent for a simple, inexpensive, and durable coin-controlled apparatus that is "designed to indicate by the varying positions occupied by the spheres, the nature of a dream, the apparatus being designed primarily as a dream-revealer" (lines 17-20). The operator pulls a lever which forces the dice inside the glass container to move into holes. The operator reads a key on the outside of the device that indicates what he will dream.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Taylor, James P.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Combination Harrow and Cultivator. (open access)

Combination Harrow and Cultivator.

Patent for a combined harrow and cultivator that can easily change between the two. It consists of a beam with front and back removable tooth-seats, handles, adjusting holes in the beam, a perforated plate on the top and bottom sides of the beam, pins, and a wedge-shaped key between the bar and a slot in a tooth.
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: West, Edward B.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Truck or Vehicle for Elevated Railways. (open access)

Truck or Vehicle for Elevated Railways.

Patent for an improved, strong, simple, inexpensive, and durable truck or vehicle for elevated railways that is meant to throw the lateral force of the car-body is exerted vertically downward onto the car's wheels.
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Turner, Ephraim M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Vehicle-Pole. (open access)

Vehicle-Pole.

Patent for a simple vehicle-pole that has an improved fastening. It consists of a table with a socket, a pole in the socket, arms connected to the table, singletrees attached to the extending ends of the arms, and a running gear.
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Rohn, Frank G.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Twin Cultivating-Harrow. (open access)

Twin Cultivating-Harrow.

Patent for a twin cultivating harrow with an especially designed coupling that connects the harrow frames. It is adjustable and is meant to cultivate corn, cotton, and similar crops.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Waldrip, Thomas A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Type-Writing Machine. (open access)

Type-Writing Machine.

Patent for a simple, reliable, and easily operated attachment for a type-writing machine that continuously feeds paper to the type. "Several sheets, as they are printed may be severed in equal lengths, without disturbing the engagement of the continuous web with the paper-cylinder and feeding-devices" (lines 13-17).
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: Smith, John D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Weather-Strip. (open access)

Weather-Strip.

Patent for a simple, inexpensive, and improved weather strip that "will be operated by the opening and closing of the door, and which will not interfere with carpets, and which will when the door is closed effectually exclude wind, rain, dust and the like" (lines 12-16).
Date: July 4, 1893
Creator: Bradford, McDuffee
System: The Portal to Texas History
Bale-Wiring Tool. (open access)

Bale-Wiring Tool.

Patent for a bale wiring tool that "consists of a shank of proper length and diameter, with wire clamping and cutting mechanism on its lower end, and mechanism on its other end to rotate said tool" (lines 23-27). It also has "two independent clamping and cutting jaws, so that one wire can be clamped in the tool, while the other wire can be drawn tight around the bale and then placed in the tool and clamped and cut off, when the tool can be rotated by a brace or by a rack and pinion...and the wire twisted to form a tie" (lines 28-35).
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Schubert, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Ventilator for Refrigerators. (open access)

Ventilator for Refrigerators.

Patent for an improved, simple, and inexpensive ventilator for large refrigerators. It "can be readily applied to an ice box or refrigerator and so constructed that the hot air which is pressed upward is forced through the ventilator and thereby lowering the temperature of the ice box and a consequent saving of ice" (lines 23-28). The ventilator has a valve that releases hot air and automatically closes after the air is released.
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Netzer, Joseph
System: The Portal to Texas History
Triangle for Billiard-Balls. (open access)

Triangle for Billiard-Balls.

Patent for an improved triangle for billiard balls that consists of sides, movable doors on the bottom edge, a fixed guide on the side of the triangle, and springs to hold the doors.
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Rohrbach, Gabriel
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hog-Pen. (open access)

Hog-Pen.

Patent for a hog pen and feed trough that can hold and feed a variety of variety of animals. It consists of an inclosure with an opening, ways extending into and out of the opening, a sliding trough mounted in the pen, rollers that slide into and out of the pen, pulleys in the trough, a shaft journaled in the front of the trough, ropes that go around the pulleys, and a turning mechanism for the shaft.
Date: July 4, 1893
Creator: Wilkinson, Benjmon M.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Hoof-Cleaning Tool. (open access)

Hoof-Cleaning Tool.

Patent for an improved farriers tool that cleans animals' hoofs that is a specially designed hook. It works quickly, thoroughly, and easily.
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: Jenner, Robert C.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Thill-Coupling. (open access)

Thill-Coupling.

Patent for a strong, durable, and simple thill coupling that does not need a spring connection in order to maintain a flexible connection between the thill and axle.
Date: July 25, 1893
Creator: Cobb, Woodson D.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Air-Brake. (open access)

Air-Brake.

Patent for "a direct air brake system [that is] adapted to be used in combination with an automatic system, whereby the brakes can be applied by either the automatic or quick system, or the direct, or by both, as the conditions may require" (lines 8-13).
Date: July 11, 1893
Creator: Pinkston, Lucien A.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Saw-Hammering Machine. (open access)

Saw-Hammering Machine.

Patent for a simple hammering machine for circular saws that "carries the saw in such a way that it may be held at any necessary or desired angle to suit the operator, which has a sliding anvil adapted to be adjusted so as to come opposite the various parts of the saw, which is provided with an adjustable hammer adapted to be brought opposite the anvil, which is constructed so as to cause a blow to expand both sides of the saw equally, and which in general is intended to facilitate the quick and efficient hammering of a saw" (lines 12-23).
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Dillon, Thomas H.
System: The Portal to Texas History
Design for a Badge. (open access)

Design for a Badge.

Patent for design for a badge.
Date: July 18, 1893
Creator: Edwards, Charles L.
System: The Portal to Texas History