Abstract: A pipeline is made by joining a number of pipe sections, each of which includes an inner pipe structure and an outer pipe structure. The outer pipe structure, which may be zinc plated or encased in an protective elastomeric material, includes mating couplings at each end to fasten similar sections together end to end. The inner pipe structure includes a hole extending throughout the pipeline and means for sealing around the hole at each joint. The inner pipe structure is resiliently mounted within the outer pipe structure. The outer pipe structure of each pipe section extends in both directions past the ends of the inner pipe structure.

Abstract: An improved hypodermic syringe includes a needle retraction feature permitting the needle to be fully retracted into the cylindrical cavity of the syringe barrel following the injection of medicine into a patient. The needle is held on the distal end of the barrel by means of an attachment hub, which includes an internal abutment surface to prevent outward movement of the needle. Inward movement of the needle is prevented by an expandable restriction of a distal barrel opening, extending between the cylindrical cavity and the distal end of the barrel. The needle is part of a subassembly including a flange held between this internal abutment surface and this expandable restriction. The distal end of the plunger is fitted with a needle extractor, which moves into the distal barrel opening as the plunger is pushed fully into the cylindrical cavity.

Abstract: A dental implant for holding a dental prosthesis in place, after implantation within a hole drilled in bone, includes an upper surface, a generally cylindrical portion with a plurality of longitudinal shallow grooves, and an apical portion. The shallow circumferential grooves permit bone to grow entirely therein, so that the entire exposed surface of the implant has bone adhered thereto. The apical portion has a continuous truncoconical surface for diffusing the stresses into the bone. The head and uppermost portion of the cylinder have a smooth metal surface to retard the attachment of bone after implantation, while the remaining portion of the implant has either a roughened metal surface or a bioactive coating, such as hydroxylapatite, fluorapatite, or a bioactive carbon for the purpose of promoting the attachment of bone.

Abstract: A tool for the intraluminal insertion and deployment of a tubular graft within a blood vessel includes a flexible insertion shaft with a tapered distal end, a tubular sheath, a deployment slider and a safety locking tube. The deployment slider and the graft are slideably mounted, end to end, on a cylindrical portion of the shaft. A tubular sheath, which is slideably mounted to cover the graft and a distal portion of the deployment slider, includes a tapered distal end portion with tabs extending into a circumferential groove in the shaft. The graft is deployed, or released, by first removing the safety lock tube and then the tubular sheath is withdrawn over the proximal end of the shaft, exposing the graft from the outside and from the distal end of the tool. Then the shaft is then withdrawn as the deployment slider is held in place to prevent the withdrawal of the graft.

Abstract: A perch for a domestic bird has a tree suspended from the ceiling or other overhanging structure. The tree portion may be made using a natural hardwood or artificial tree, such as a manzanita tree, suspending its trunk and major branches in a substantially horizontal orientation. The perch is prevented from rotating about vertical and horizontal axes through the perch by being suspended at three points forming a triangle circumscribing a substantial part of the perch, including its center of gravity. In a preferred version, a bird using the perch is prevented from crawling upward on a suspension member by a disk which is mounted on the suspension member in such a way that it can be easily tipped. The perch also includes a feeding dish connected thereto by a quick release mechanism, including a pin assembly extending from the dish into a coupling which accepts the pin assembly at one angular orientation while it holds the pin assembly in place at another angular orientation.

Abstract: An aircraft has the space between the bulkheads on the interior of the aircraft filled with a polyisocyanurate solid closed cell foam material. The foam is applied so that it adheres to both the inside of the aluminum skin of the fuselage and the facing sides of the bulkheads. The foam may be applied by either spraying or by pouring the resin with appropriate catalyst materials to cause the resin to form the foam. The foam acts to significantly strengthen the aircraft structure and thereby increase the time of usage of aging aircraft before the catastrophic failure of the adherence of the skin to the bulkheads.

Abstract: A kaleidoscope in a housing includes inner and outer object wheels with transparent portions and visible patterns, mounted to turn in opposite directions when a crank extending from a side of the housing is manually turned. A diffusion filter is mounted at an end of the housing to project diffuse illumination through the wheels when this end is held toward a light source. Elongated, inward directed reflective surfaces extend between the inner object wheel and a viewing hole in an end of the housing opposite to the filter. A shaft extends inward, within the housing, from the outer object wheel to an attached outer wheel drive gear. An inner wheel drive gear, turns on the shaft in engagement with the inner object wheel. The crank engages a crank drive gear engaging the inner and outer wheel drive gears on opposite sides of the crank drive gear, so that the inner and outer object wheels are rotated in opposite directions.

Abstract: A rotary internal combustion engine includes a stationary housing having one or more housing slots extending to a housing interface surface and a rotor, having one or more rotor slots extending to a rotor interface surface turning adjacent to the housing interface surface. A piston and an adjacent vane are slidably mounted in each housing slot, and an intake valve is included to open each housing slot to an intake port. A spark plug is mounted in an outer surface angularly adjacent to each housing slot. The rotor includes cam surfaces to impart motion to each intake valve, piston, and vane. As each rotor slot moves adjacent to each housing slot, a vane is moved into the rotor slot and an intake valve is opened. A mixture of air and fuel floods the space of housing and rotor slots outside the piston on one side of the extended vane, while exhaust gasses from previous combustion are forced out of the space on the opposite side of the extended vane, through an exhaust port, by the motion of the rotor.

Abstract: A pin chuck holds a wafer during translation by an X-ray lithography machine. The chuck is designed to be the same size as the wafer and includes a plurality of extensions having tops along a common plane. The space between the extensions is evacuated to hold and level the wafer. In order to load or remove a wafer from the pin chuck, three extendable posts are provided which can be extended to permit a robot arm to position a wafer thereon for lowering to the pin chuck or remove a wafer therefrom lifted from the pin chuck. The three posts are triangularly positioned within a space sufficient to hold the wafer which at the same time close enough together to permit the fingers of the robot arm to fit therearound.

Abstract: A lithographic system, having a stepper and exposure station built on a block of granite attached to the ground using isolation legs, includes a servo control system for providing signals a motor associated with the stepper to control the movement of the stepper. The control system includes means to calculate a filter formula used to generate the control signals, which formula is calculated in response to the initial velocity, the movement of the stepper and a certain time between discrete movements, so that a minimum amount of energy is utilized. The filter formula requires that the difference in the velocity of the base and the stepper be zero at the time the stepper reaches the final position. Where time is short, both the base and the stepper initially move with the same velocity and end with the same velocity, and an array processor calculates the time varying filter formula.

Abstract: A security seal includes a first seal member having a first locking portion and a first detection circuit portion. A second seal member has a second locking portion and a second detection circuit portion. The first locking portion is engagable to the second locking portion to engage and irretrievably lock together the first seal member to the second seal member. Engagement of the first seal member to the second seal member operatively connects the first detection circuit portion to the second detection circuit portion to provide a combined detection circuit throughout the security seal. In a preferred embodiment, the first seal member includes a spear having the first locking portion, and the second seal member includes a sleeve having the second locking portion.

Abstract: A security seal includes a first seal member having a first locking portion and a first detection circuit portion. A second seal member has a second locking portion and a second detection circuit portion. The first locking portion is engageable to the second locking portion to engage and irretrievably lock together the first seal member to the second seal member. Engagement of the first seal member to the second seal member operatively connects the first detection circuit portion to the second detection circuit portion to provide a combined detection circuit throughout the security seal. The first seal member preferably includes a spear having the first locking portion, and the second seal member includes a sleeve having the second locking portion. The spear is insertible into the sleeve to engage the first locking portion to the second locking portion, and to thereby engage the first seal member and the first detection circuit portion to the second seal member and the second detection circuit portion.

Abstract: A nonsmooth surface of an object in a fluid flowstream permits a reduction of turbulent drag. The surface shape is designed to approximate a minimal surface and satisfies the equation (V.multidot..gradient.).gradient..PHI.=0, where V is the relative velocity between the fluid and the surface, .gradient..PHI. is the velocity of the strain tensor. The improved surface shape may be an array of diamond shaped elements having an airfoil like diagonal along the streamline, or it may be a series of wavelets juxtaposed to one another. The specific shape of the various types of elements to be used on the surface is selected based upon the acceleration or deceleration of the fluid at the particular position on the surface, as well as the intensity of the turbulence at that position.

Abstract: A catheter is used to insert a probe into a tumor undergoing hyperthermia treatment. The probe is designed to isotropically measure the electric field and temperature in the tumor during the hyperthermia treatment. The probe is constructed on a triangular prism and includes a dipole on each prism face oriented at an angle of 54.74 degrees relative to the axis of the prism. Each dipole includes rectifier means therein and the three dipoles are coupled serially using high resistivity lead means. In addition, high resistivity leads are used to couple the dipoles to a high input impedance amplifier. A pair of thermistors are coupled between the three dipoles, and high resistance lead means couple the thermistors to high input impedance amplifiers. A current source is used to provide current to the thermistors in a time shared manner when the electric field is not being measured.