Abstract: A compact hoisting device is constructed with a primary hoist link pivoted at one end on a shaft secured to a base and pivotally connected to a final hoist link by means of a journal in the other end. A load support is pivotably mounted at the free end of the final hoist link on a shaft driven by attitude control transmission means into a constant spatial attitude regardless of the angular movement of the primary and final hoist links. Motion transmission means engage said journal to ensure that the angular rotation of the final hoist link mirrors the rotational motion of the primary hoist link, itself governed by a hydraulic jack or other drive means. The motion transmission means and the attitude control means may employ planetary gear trains, sprocket-and-chain drives, or parallel-rod drives, as suited to a particular application. One or more intermediate links may be interposed between the primary and final hoist links, with the several links in the hoist train sequentially pivoted to one another.

Abstract: An automatic control system for carwash installations is constructed with electromechanical logic elements--relay-operated switching devices and timer-controlled switches--combined into an Input Control Unit and into a plurality of Program Control Units. Each vehicle entering the carwash is automatically assigned to one of the Program Control Units which performs the sequence of operations, including optional operations such as the application of hot wax to the vehicle, in the proper sequence as the automobile travels along the conveyer of the installation. No controllers or sensors are required to be installed along the conveyor, and the conveyor itself is automatically stopped when there are no automobiles moving along the conveyor, or when there is a possibility of a collision between successive vehicles leaving the conveyor system.

Abstract: A flow control device incorporates a flow sensor and a flow control circuit responsive to the output signal of the flow sensor. The flow control circuit operates, via a servo, a flow control valve. The flow sensor incorporates a self-heated thermistor located in the divergent discharge throat of a nozzle in the flow stream. Two unheated thermistors are also located in the fluid, at arbitrary points distant from the nozzle, and incorporated in the control circuit for temperature compensation. The valve controls the flow of fluids therethrough by the distention of an integral seal tube into a cavity formed in an anvil inset into the seal tube. The cavity is conical in shape and the elastomeric seal tube is pressed thereinto by means of a ball. Two orifices issue into the cavity and terminate in the flow channel at the upstream and downstream ends of the valve. With the ball at the inmost limit of its travel, the seal tube blocks the exits of both orifices into the cavity and prevents flow in the channel.

Abstract: A fluid control valve assembly comprises a pair of identical valves mounted on a manifold with connections to the controlled actuator and to the high and low pressure sides of a fluid circuit incorporating a pump or other source of high-pressure fluid. Each valve includes a reciprocating tappet directly connected to a conical valve head and spring biased into a closed position of the valve, with a portion of the tappet protruding from the valve body. Superimposed on the two protruding tappets is a rocking beam which may be pivoted into contact with either tappet by means of a handwheel engaged in a bracket. A threaded shaft affixed to the handwheel passes through a nut pivotally secured to the rocking beam, so that rotation of the handwheel in either sense will result in the depression of one of the two valve tappets and the opening of the valve associated therewith.

Abstract: Siliceous compositions are prepared from naturally occurring plant materials (particularly rice hulls and rice straw) which have relatively high silica concentration by controlled incineration of the plant material to preserve the original cellular structure of the material and to prevent formation of crystalline forms of silica so that the silica in the product (which may contain from about 49% to about 98% silica remains in the amorphous state; the novel silica containing compositions find utility as a constituent of novel hydraulic cement compositions of high strength and acid resistance, useful in the preparation of mortar and concrete.

Abstract: A flow control device incorporates a flow sensor and a flow control circuit responsive to the output signal of the flow sensor. The flow control circuit operates, via a servo, a flow control valve. The flow sensor incorporates a self-heated thermistor located in the divergent discharge throat of a nozzle in the flow stream. Two unheated thermistors are also located in the fluid, at arbitrary points distant from the nozzle, and incorporated in the control circuit for temperature compensation. The valve controls the flow of fluids therethrough by the distention of an integral seal tube into a cavity formed in an anvil inset into the seal tube. The cavity is conical in shape and the elastomeric seal tube is pressed thereinto by means of a ball. Two orifices issue into the cavity and terminate in the flow channel at the upstream and downstream ends of the valve. With the ball at the inmost limit of its travel, the seal tube blocks the exits of both orifices into the cavity and prevents flow in the channel.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for the incineration of organic material, and particularly agricultural waste products, to produce useable energy, consists of exposing the material to elevated temperature in an excess of air in a cylindrical furnace which terminates at the top in a frustum of a cone, the furnace having tangential inlet means at the bottom and discharge means comprising a concentric hollow cylinder projecting into the bottom portion of the furnace; the process and apparatus are particularly useful in the preparation of siliceous compositions from materials such as rice hulls and the process can be conducted under conditions whereby a highly reactive amorphous form of silica is produced, which silica is useful as a component of hydraulic cements.

Abstract: A composition of matter is disclosed which includes rubber, plastomer and elastomer materials, that is, natural and synthetic rubbers and polymeric materials commonly referred to as plastics containing as a filler material a carbonaceous siliceous material derived from organic agricultural material having high initial silica contents (for example, rice hulls) of up to about 28%; which carbonaceous siliceous material is obtained from the original organic agricultural material by a process of controlled incineration such that the resulting material contains minor residual impurities and small quantities of residual carbon and is amorphous in nature while retaining the original cellular structure of the agricultural material from which it is derived; the rubber; elastomeric and plastomeric compositions also may contain other ordinary components used in the preparation of such materials employing other fillers.