Abstract: This invention provides a locking fastener in which a nut is provided with symmetrical axial slots extending inwardly from one end, a sleeve surrounds the nut and has ribs in the slots for engaging the thread of a threaded shank received in the nut, and a tubular member extends around the sleeve for pressing the sleeve into an annular groove in the nut for retaining the sleeve on the nut. The ends of a tubular member are bent inwardly adjacent the ends of the sleeve for holding the tubular member on the sleeve.

Abstract: A motor generator set that is used to provide clean, noise-free power to a load, such as a computer, is upgraded to a complete uninterruptible power supply by the addition of a logic controlled, battery powered inverter that is readily connected in the main power supply line to the motor generator. The emergency power inverter operates only when normal utility power fails, and employs the ability of the motor generator set to handle brief power outages to power the load for the brief time needed to decouple the main line power supply and couple the inverter to the motor generator. An oscillator that clocks trigger pulses for the inverter tracks motor voltage frequency and phase until power is supplied to the motor from the standby inverter. Switching to the emergency power inverter is accomplished by detecting both reverse power and zero current.

Abstract: A hinged closure panel of a vehicle sunroof is detachably connected and locked to its frame by means of an articulated latch pivoted at one end to a detachable connector. The connector has projections extending outwardly and upwardly into mating recesses in the frame so as to prevent all motion of the connector relative to the frame except only a single downwardly pivoting motion. This one motion is itself restrained by a connector lock pivoted on the connector and spring urged into locking condition.

Abstract: This invention provides a captive screw and a nut, the captive screw including a collar having an opening receiving the shank of a screw, the opening having a portion of wide diameter and a portion of narrow diameter. The screw has a full-depth thread at its outer end, and a truncated thread inwardly thereof, the truncated thread being dimensioned to pass through the narrow part of the opening in the collar while the full-depth thread cannot so that the screw is retained by the collar yet the end of the screw can be entirely retracted within the collar. The nut assembly includes a sleeve with an external shoulder, a straight knurl, and a flarable end, internally having a hexagonal portion in its bore. The nut has a hexagonal portion which extends into the sleeve and is smaller in lateral dimension than that of the opening to permit lateral floating movement, and longer axially than the hexagonal portion of the bore, to permit relative axial movement of the nut relative to the sleeve.

Abstract: A clear, transparent, rigid plastic sheet is bent into an inverted U-shape to provide a top supported by continuous transparent legs. A fresnel lens, coextensive with the top, is secured to the top or actually formed in one of its surfaces to provide a hand-free, self-supporting large area magnifier capable of use in reading a complete printed page with little or no shifting of the magnifier. For various scientific and other purposes, scales, grids, or other reference marks or patterns are carried on transparent elements secured to the bottoms of the legs where they are likewise magnified for counting or measuring or other large area analysis, or study of a full page or document being read.

Abstract: A pair of resilient side-by-side elongated coils of different thermocouple material are mounted in a ceramic housing and project forwardly with their forward ends connected to form a thermocouple junction that is adapted to be pressed against a surface of which temperature is to be measured. A retractable protective sleeve is spring-urged to a forward position in which it extends beyond the end of the thermocouple housing and is retractable, when the probe is pressed against the surface, to a limit position in which the end of the ceramic thermocouple housing is maintained just clear of the surface, while the resilience of the thermocouple coils enables good contact of the junction and the surface.

Abstract: This invention provides a unit for forming alternatively a relatively small box or one-half of a relatively large box. It includes a rectangular cardboard sheet with interconnected doubled over side and end edge panels. Localized parts of the side edge panels are secured by adhesives to the sheet. Score linesare provided for bending and perforations allow severing the side edge panels for making a relatively small box with integral lid. The side edge panels are left intact and the adhesive is torn away in forming one-half of a relatively large box.

Abstract: An adjustable track means for louver-type drapes or blinds having a telescoping supporting frame and telescoping driving means for drawing the drapes transversely and for rotating the individual louvers is described.

Abstract: A syringe comprises a main tubular body, the body being open at one end and receiving a hypodermic needle at the other end, and a plunger, one end of the plunger extending into the body, through the open end thereof, the plunger having a longitudinal passageway therein permitting air flow therethrough. A fluid-tight seal is formed between the outside surface of the plunger and the inside surface of the syringe body. An air permeable filter member extends across the first end of the plunger, in the passageway, whereby the body can fill with blood, causing the air in the body to pass through the filter member to the open end of the body. The blood does not flow through the filter. A valve extends across the passageway and allows the syringe to be used to aspirate in the absence of natural blood pressure.

Abstract: The laser beam of a flying spot scanner is turned on and off to write data under control of a reference clock that generates clock signals determined by the position of the writing beam. To detect position of the writing beam a reference beam is scanned in synchronism with the writing beam along and through a coding mask to a strip of retroreflective material fixed adjacent the mask. The reference beam is retroreflected through the mask back through the scanning optics to a fixed detector that produces an output determined by the scanning coded reference beam. Unwanted reflections from the mask surface are separated by tilting the mask.

Abstract: A floating vessel is moored to a floating facility, a fixed dock or another floating vessel by a pair of rigid compressive links pivotally connected to each other and to the two facilities that are to be moored to each other. A partly submerged spar buoy is pivotally connected to the two rigid links at their pivotal connection to each other and, by virtue of its weight and buoyancy, provides a restraining force acting through the rigid links that tends to maintain the distance between the two interconnected facilities.

Abstract: A screed bar support saddle is carried by vertically adjustable legs mounted on the ends of support arms swingable in a horizontal plane so as to vary the spacing between the legs, between the legs and the screed bar, and to adjustably position the legs relative to the screed bar. The adjustable positioning and spacing of the legs enables the screed bar support assembly to be placed to avoid interference with reinforcing steel or wire, pipes, and the like, and to accommodate concrete pouring upon corrugated surfaces having different spacing ofcorrugating grooves. The screed bar is held against torsional and pivotal motion within a support saddle and precisely adjusted in elevation by rotation of an adjustment tool formed on the end of a sight rod that is used with a transit, level, or the like, for precision elevation control.

Abstract: The platinum resistive sensor of a temperature measuring surface probe has a resistance greater than the resistance to which the associated meter is calibrated. This provides a compensation that is a function of temperature and decreases errors due to heat loss from the probe. An immersion probe having no heat loss can be used interchangeably with the same meter by adding sufficient fixed resistances in the circuits of the two probes to provide equal resistance outputs to the meter from both the probe that experiences no loss and the one that does, with the meter being calibrated to a standard resistance curve.

Abstract: The push fastener of this invention includes a plastic receptacle held by a metal member to a workpiece, the receptacle having four leaf springs for improved alignment and load carrying ability. Two inclined inner surfaces are provided on the receptacle, one for engagement by the end of the plunger and the other for engagement by the release collar. A lip at the ends of the leaf springs is received within the interior of a washer on the end of the plunger when the fastener is secured, resisting outward displacement of the ends of the leaf springs.

Abstract: This invention provides a shear resistant panel fastener that includes a bolt having a head and a shank with a first relatively large diameter portion adjacent the head and a second smaller diameter threaded portion, a sleeve on the second portion of the shank, a collar around the sleeve and movable to a position around the first portion of the shank, the collar including a means for attachment to a workpiece, and a retainer means for prohibiting movement of the collar off of the sleeve in one direction. The smaller outer end of the shank is adapted to enter a clearance opening in a part for engagement with a floating nut at the opposite end of the opening, while the larger portion of the shank is drawn into the opening and the fastener is tightened. The smaller portion of the shank permits the fastener to be mated when the openings are misaligned while the larger portion of the shank provides shear resistance when the fastener is mated.

Abstract: A microform viewer has a case section pivotally mounting a screen, to move from a collapsed position to a viewing position, and slidably receiving a two-part projection section that telescopes into the case section. As the projection section moves into and out of the case section it positively drives the screen between collapsed and display positions. The projection section is made of two mutually separable housings that fit together along the film path so that when the two housings are separated the two pressure plates forming part of the film path are readily accessible.