Abstract: A closed system is provided for irrigation of the human bladder following surgery, or for other reasons. The system includes a unitary flow control device having a syringe and arranged for making sealed connections to a catheter and to supply and drain lines. Separate flow paths can be established by manipulation of the flow device between the syringe and the catheter, the supply line and the drain line so that the irrigation can be carried out without opening the system at any point and the risk of infection is eliminated.

Abstract: An air cushion landing system for aircraft, ground effect machines and the like utilizing boundary layer control around the outer sides of an inflated bag to improve its aerodynamic characteristics. This is achieved by air jets along the outside walls of the bag, the jets being normal or essentially tangential to the outside wall surface of the bag depending upon the aerodynamic effect desired. Preferably, the air jets are produced by simply permitting air, used to inflate the air cushion landing bag, to escape through orifices in the side walls of the bag.

Abstract: Liquid slag passes from an overflow in a pressure vessel into an underlying collecting vessel where the liquid slag is transformed into solid granular material by quenching in a liquid coolant. A desired coolant level is maintained within the collecting vessel by control valves under a pressure above atmospheric pressure. Two slide valves in the bottom of the collecting vessel are opened to discharge the granular material after accumulating to a predetermined measured level which is below the liquid coolant in the collecting vessel. A discharge vessel, beneath the collecting vessel, receives the discharged granular material. The discharge vessel is filled with a liquid coolant under either atmospheric pressure or under the same elevated pressure as the pressure within the collecting vessel.

Abstract: A hearth cleaning apparatus includes a wheeled car movable along a floor at the side wall of a reheat furnace wherein metallic workpieces are heated while they are advanced along the furnace hearth. The car is latched to the side wall of the furnace at any one of the normally-closed openings therein. An inverted U-shaped spacer slab is passed through the furnace between two workpieces for access to the hearth. An elongated digging bar which may be cooled by the internal flow of water is supported by the car and advanced through an opening in the side wall of the furnace to engage and loosen slag or other materials adhered to the soaking hearth while exposed by the spacer slab. The car includes a vernier elevation adjustment for the digging bar at the point of support adjacent the furnace and a course elevation adjustment for the digging bar at the opposite end of the car. The digging bar is propelled along the furnace hearth by a pair of pinch rolls.

Abstract: The proximal portion of a tracheostomy tube extends through an opening in the central body of a retaining member that is held against the front of the neck of a patient. A pair of laterally spaced struts at opposite sides of the opening are connected at one end to the central body. Means rigidly connected to the proximal portion of the tube extend laterally therefrom in opposite directions for connection to the struts extending forward beside the tube, whereby to hold the tube in place.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for controlling a mining machine, specifically a longwall mining machine, of the type in which the mining machine is advanced into a mineral seam by an advancing motor and a rotating mineral-cutting element on the machine is driven by a cutter drive motor. The invention resides in the realization that the specific cutting work of the machine, which is the work required to mine and remove a given unit of mined material, can be minimized by minimizing the differential quotient: ##EQU1## WHERE: N.sub.Wa is the driving power of the cutter drive motor; andV.sub.wi is the speed of the rotating mineral-cutting element.In carrying out the invention, the driving power of the cutter drive motor and the speed of the advancing motor are measured. From these quantities, the specific cutting work of the mining machine is computed and at least one of the aforesaid motors is controlled to minimize the specific cutting work.

Abstract: A semi-rigid aircraft wing is provided of the type having a rigid spar forming the leading edge, a flexible cable forming the trailing edge, and a fabric covering forming upper and lower surfaces. An inflatable air bag is placed within the wing extending from end to end of the wing adjacent the rigid spar to engage at least one of the wing surfaces when inflated to control the airfoil configuration.

Abstract: A railway car positioning carriage movable back and forth along a track parallel to a railway track is provided with a member for engagement with the end of a car on the railway track to move it. A pair of sheaves are rotatably mounted on the carriage, and first and second anchor devices are disposed at opposite ends of its track. A wire rope is secured at one end to each of the anchor devices and each rope extends therefrom toward the carriage and around one of the sheaves. The other ends of the ropes are connected to a member for pulling on either rope while simultaneously paying out the other one to thereby pull the carriage along its track. One of the ropes can be temporarily released from its anchor device and detachably connected to the carriage, which can then be pulled by the other rope so that the carriage will pull the released rope across its anchor device to take up slack in the ropes.

Abstract: The inner end of a boom is pivotally supported on a horizontal axis in front of a well, over which there is an oil well drilling derrick. Pivotally connected to the outer end of the boom on an axis parallel to the axis just mentioned, is clamping means for gripping drill pipe connected at one end to elevators in the derrick. The clamping means allows the free end of the drill pipe to swing across the boom as the outer end of the boom is raised or lowered. Line means connected at one end with the traveling block that raises and lowers the elevators and at the other end to the boom pass around sheaves mounted in the derrick. Also connected with the boom is a counterweight for swinging it in one direction in a vertical plane when the traveling block moves in the same direction as the boom. The sheaves are so positioned that when the traveling block moves in the opposite direction the line means will pull the boom in that direction. Means are provided for keeping tension on the line means at all times.

Abstract: A combined storage bin and display assembly for rolls of decorative paper, such as wallpaper, wherein a plurality of parallel upstanding partitions are arranged along an essentially straight-line path with each of the partitions being disposed at an angle with respect to the straight-line path. Shelves span the space between successive ones of the partitions to form vertically-spaced bins for the storage of rolls of decorative paper, the shelves terminating before a forward edge of an associated one of each of the partitions whereby a display area is formed for each bin between the termination of its shelf and the forward edge of an associated partition. In this manner, a sample of the decorative paper stored in a bin can be displayed on a display area in front of the bin, all of the display areas being readily visible to a shopper as he walks along the forward edges of the storage bins.

Abstract: A plurality of vertically spaced rows of longitudinally inclined fingers spaced laterally in each row are pivotally supported on transverse horizontal axes near one end. The fingers slope upwardly from the supporting means and also project in the opposite direction from said axes. Vertically movable cam members at the lower ends of the fingers are provided with vertical surfaces that overlie the lower ends of the fingers when the cam members are in their uppermost position. The cam members are movable downwardly step by step by reversible means to cause them to depress the lower ends of the fingers and thereby raise their upper ends. The upper ends of the fingers in the row immediately below the lowest row of raised fingers are positioned to receive a horizontal pipestand lowered onto them. Inclined conveyor screws spaced laterally from the fingers and sloping to the same extent are movable vertically with the cam members.

Abstract: Three fluidic control devices of special construction receive streams of air that are deflected to the atmosphere at predetermined intervals by means of jets of air controlled by valves and the liquid level in a container being filled as a filling machine moves through its cycle. At one point in the cycle, air pressure from one of the fluidic control devices causes the filling valve of the machine to open and remain open until a jet of control air is delivered to another of the fluidic control devices when the desired liquid level in the container is reached, whereupon those two control devices are vented to the atmosphere and the filling valve closes. If a container is not in filling position when it should be, there will be no blow-down through the level-sensing tube and the filling valve will not open.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus including a probe adapted for removal through an aperture in the side wall of a high pressure chamber. The probe is supported at one end of a rod that is coaxially received within a sleeve. A plate at the free end of the rod forms a sealed connection between the rod and the sleeve. The sleeve extends within a tube attached at one end to the high pressure chamber in an enclosing relation with the aperture therein. The tube is divided along its length and secured by flanges to a valve used to selectively block the flow of media from the high pressure chamber after the sleeve is withdrawn along the tube beyond the valve. Screw threads on the external surface of the sleeve mate with internal screw threads formed in a screw head that is supported by the end of the tube to displace the sleeve therealong.

Abstract: A method for making envelope blanks from a continuous web of paper such that the cut blanks can move essentially continuously from one or more cutting stations to envelope-gumming and folding stations. The invention is characterized in cutting two or more side-by-side envelope blanks from the web with a minimum of scrap. This is accomplished by cutting adjacent edges of the side-by-side envelope blanks with a common die and along a single cut. Since the sealing flaps of the blanks must face in the same direction in an envelope machine of the type wherein blank cut from a web move essentially continuously through folding and gumming stations, the method of the invention results in side-by-side envelope blanks wherein the side flaps are on the back panel of one blank while they are on the front panel of an adjacent blank or on either alternately.

Abstract: Water is discharged from spray nozzles toward cutting tools of a drum-cutting mining machine only during the actual time when material is released from the face of a mine. A pulse generator is driven by the traversing drive of the mining machine. The pulse output is fed to a controller which may include a computer that also receives an enabling signal produced by the secondary winding of a transformer in the power supply lines for the drive motor which is used to rotate the cutting drums of the mining machine. The enabling signal indicates an actual mining operation on the basis of the flow of current to the drive motor about a predetermined idle current load. Additional signals are fed to the controller such as a signal representing properties of the mine materials, and a signal representing characteristics of the drive system for the mining machine such as the dimensions of the capstan's chain drive wheel.

Abstract: A self-contained pendulum breathing main unit includes a first canister containing a bed of oxygen generating and carbon dioxide removing chemical, a breathing hose connected with the canister inlet at one side of the bed and a breathing bag connected with an opening to the opposite side of the bed. Tubular connections are associated with the cannister inlet and outlet for connecting a supplemental unit thereto. There also is a normally open valve for the inlet. Attachable to the main unit is a supplemental breathing unit provided with a canister containing the same kind of chemical as the first canister. The supplemental unit has a tubular inlet which closes the normally open valve and connects the second canister with the breathing hose when the two units are attached to each other. The second unit also is provided with a tubular outlet which connects the second canister with said opening in the first canister to put the second canister in communication with the breathing bag.

Abstract: A plurality of vertically spaced rows of substantially horizontal laterally spaced fingers are pivotally supported at one common end on transverse horizontal axes by means mounted on a carriage beneath the fingers. The carriage is movable from a starting location step by step in a direction lengthwise of the horizontal fingers to first locate at a pipe pickup station a pipe supported by the fingers in the upper row nearest their free ends, and then each successive pipe in that row until all of the pipes have been removed from that row. Thereafter, the upper row of fingers is swung up out of the way and the carriage is returned to its starting location so that its step by step movement can be repeated for each successive upper row of fingers after the row above it has been swung up out of the way.

Abstract: Apparatus for abrading workpieces, particularly semiconductor wafers, characterized in that the workpiece is disposed on an abrading material in a lapping and polishing tray carried on a generally horizontal support plate. The plate is caused to oscillate or eccentrically rotate by a single, centrally located eccentric arm, the plate being restrained against rotary movement about the eccentric arm by resilient means which extend between stationary pins arranged around the support plate and points on the support plate intermediate the pins.

Abstract: A fry kettle is divided by an internal crosswall to define an oil storage compartment having a heating element submerged in the oil for cooking foods. Crumbs and other contaminants are separated from the cooking oil by continuously drawing off a small portion of the oil from the storage compartment through an opening in the crosswall into an integral filter compartment where the oil passes through openings into a crumb catcher which is carried by a removable frame adjacent the internal crosswall and above a manually-operated flow control valve. The valve includes a valve stem projecting to the top of the kettle where it can be positioned to terminate the flow of oil through a passageway in a subfloor that is spaced above the bottom wall of a filter compartment.

Abstract: Rows of longitudinally spaced channel-like brackets are secured to supporting means for a sheet metal roof or siding and each bracket has spaced side walls with flanges extending downwardly from their tops. A gutter extends through the brackets in each row and is supported by them. A clip overlies the gutter in each bracket and is hooked under the bracket flanges. Sheet metal pans on the roof-supporting means at opposite sides of the gutter have side portions extending upwardly beside the brackets, with their upper marginal areas turned inwardly over the clips and gutter. A cap above the gutter and overlying clips has downwardly extending side flanges overlapping the side portions of the pans. Screws extend down through the cap and into the central portions of the clips, which engage the lower surface of the cap, to fasten the cap to the clips.