Abstract: In a railway sleeper assembly, a pair of rail insulators (3) designed for use with a steel railway sleeper (1) which includes at the opposite sides of each intended rail location thereon a pair of openings (6) for receiving the respective stems (8) of a pair of shoulders (4), are each operatively disposed, when in use, between a foot of the rail (2) and the respective proximate shoulder (4). Each insulator (3) includes a member (11) which, when the insulator is in use, operatively extends below a top surface of the sleeper (1) and into the associated opening (6) so as to lie between the walls of that opening (6) and the stem (8) of the associated shoulder (4), thereby to retain the shoulder (4) in its operative position relative to the sleeper.

Abstract: An elastic under-rail pad, made of an elastic plastic or rubber, has two opposite sides. At least one of its opposite sides presents a surface which at least partly is defined at least approximately by a simple sinusoidal or cosinusoidal trigonometric function or by a composite sinusoidal and cosinusoidal trigonometric function, so that at least on a part of one of the two opposite sides of the elastic pad there are formed protrusions (3) and cavities (4) arranged alternately and changing softly into one another. The elastic pad is used mainly in permanent ways of rail transport as an element attenuating vibrations and absorbing dynamic loads transmitted by railway vehicles to underlying rails.

Abstract: A fastening device (20), for use in holding a base plate down to a railway sleeper. The device is of the type having a head portion (21), a screw-threaded shank portion (22) and an intermediate portion (23) connecting the head portion (21) to the screw-threaded shank portion (22), with the intermediate portion (23) and the screw-threaded shank portion (22) being of smaller diameter than the head portion (21).

Abstract: An apparatus and method for transferring a particulate material in a non-contact manner. The apparatus has a driving device including a nozzle curved surface portion fitted to the transfer pipe to join with the inner wall surface of the pipe. The nozzle curved surface portion has a curved surface whose diameter continuously increases from the inner wall surface. The driving device further includes an annular gap-forming member that forms a nozzle gap between it and the nozzle curved surface portion. A fluid is caused to flow into the transfer pipe from the driving device, thereby forming a buffer layer of a spiral flow in the vicinity of the inner wall surface of the transfer pipe and thus keeping the particulate material in a non-contact state.

Abstract: A resilient rail-fastening clip has a first straight portion (11) for locating the clip in a clip anchoring device (2) when the clip is in use, a second bent portion (12), a third heel portion (13), a fourth bend portion (14) and a fifth toe portion (15). When viewed such that lower most points of the first and fifth portions (11 and 15) of the clip lie in a horizontal plane, proceeding from the first portion (11), the second portion (12) appears to bend up out of that plane towards and then away from a vertical plane passing through the fifth portion (15). The clip (1) is used in an assembly including a baseplate (2) having a non-vertical stop (21d) on its shoulder (21) up which the clip (1) slides during installation until brought to rest through friction at a desired height above the rail (3).

Abstract: Ophthalmic "spare parts" which are made of biocompatible material and may be implanted by a surgeon in either the ciliary sulcus or the residual natural capsular bag of a patient's eye following cataract surgery so as to serve as a receptacle for an IOL or other optical or mechanical device, may have the form of an either anteriorly incomplete and posteriorly complete capsular bag-like structure with a generally toroidal equatorial region, or the form of a both anteriorly and posteriorly incomplete generally toroidally ring-shaped capsular bag-like structure, the interior space of the toroidal part of the structure between the anterior and posterior walls constituting a compartment, which may be divided into two subcompartments by an interior circumferential rib, into which an optical or other device may be inserted.

Abstract: A bottle closure for collecting and removing solid sediment particles from a liquid being fermented in situ in a bottle to form an alcoholic beverage. The closure has a skirt portion which is adapted to be removably fastened to the neck of the bottle and terminates at its top end in an inwardly directed annular flange defining a central opening, a tubular trap portion which is closed at its top end and communicates at its open bottom end with the central opening in the skirt flange, and a correspondingly tubular liquid- and gas-tight liner of a sealing material which is disposed in the trap portion and has at its bottom end an outwardly directed annular flange which underlies the skirt flange and is adapted to be pressed by the latter, when the closure is fastened to the neck of the bottle, against the annular sealing surface located at the top end of the bottle. In use, the sealed bottle is inverted so that any sediment settles unobstructedly into the closed end region of the trap portion.

Abstract: A bullet trap with a passageway defined between flat upper and lower boundary walls extending convergingly, at opposite angles of inclination of between 0.degree. and about 15.degree. to the horizontal, from an entrance opening to an exit opening or throat, and a deceleration chamber having a generally spirally curved circumferential boundary wall and provided in its upper region with an inlet opening and in its lower region with a discharge opening leading to a collecting vessel. The circumferential boundary wall of the chamber is constituted by two oppositely concave channel-shaped members the respective upper end regions of which are spaced from each other to define the inlet opening, and the respective lower end regions of which are spaced from each other to define the discharge opening.

Abstract: An apparatus for selectively aerating or anaerobically mixing a liquid in a container includes a hollow, star-shaped, multi-vaned rotor (6) arranged in the bottom region of the container (1) for rotation about a vertical axis. The hollow interior of the rotor at one of the two opposite faces thereof is in communication with a gas feed line (15), and each of the vanes (10) at its trailing flank (11), as viewed in the direction of rotation of the rotor, is provided with a respective gas exit opening (12). The inter-vane spaces of the rotor are open at one of its two opposite faces for admitting liquid from the container into those spaces. The rotor is surrounded by a stator (7) providing a plurality of circumferentially spaced flow channels (9) for receiving and guiding away either liquid with admixed gas when gas flows through the gas feed line or liquid without admixed gas when no gas flows through the gas feed line.

Abstract: A three element, three phase hydrodynamic torque converter having improved structural and hydrodynamic characteristics, and automatic transmissions that use a plurality of such hydrodynamic torque converters as replacements for multiple disc wet clutches or the like to effect transmission ratio changes. The hydrodynamic torque converters use a centrifugal impeller and a centrifugal turbine on the forward axial side of the torque converter, and a centripetal stator mounted to the converter shell on the rearward axial side. Three phase operation results when using the specified geometries: [1] torque multiplication, where the speed ratio i=n.sub.t /n.sub.p is greater than one; [2] coupling phase, where the speed ratio approaches one; [3] extension phase, where the speed ratio equals one and then exceeds one. For operation with speed ratio i=n.sub.t /n.sub.p in the range 0.6 .ltoreq.i .ltoreq.1.3, operational efficiency .eta. is found to be between 82 and 88 percent.

Abstract: A rotatable wheel assembly which is suited for use as a wheel calculator, including a wheel having an axial hole therein and bearing indicia on one of its faces, front and back covers between which the wheel is sandwiched, the front cover having a window opening therein for selective viewing of the indicia on the wheel face, and the back cover and the front cover being adhesively bonded to each other through the hole in the wheel, the bond providing a grommetless pivot or axle for the wheel. To inhibit contact between the adhesive bond and the wheel while maximizing the width of the axle relative to the size of the hole in the wheel, a mask having a hole therein which is of substantially the same size as, but not greater than, the hole in the wheel, is interposed between the back cover member and the wheel with the two holes axially aligned with each other.

Abstract: A posterior chamber intraocular lens (IOL) designed for in-the-bag implantation has a central optic and a surrounding pair of 360.degree. haptics constituted by two concentric endless rings of different diameters. The outer diameter of the outer ring is slightly larger than the inner diameter of the capsular bag at the equator thereof, and the plane of the outer ring is anteriorly offset relative to the plane of the inner ring.

Abstract: An apparatus for aerating liquids includes a gas- and liquid-feeding rotor (6) and a surrounding stator (7) arranged in the bottom region of a container (2). The rotor (6) is mounted for rotation about a vertical axis, and the stator (7) comprises two vertically spaced, horizontally parallel, annular plates (8, 8a) defining a central rotor-accommodating cavity (7b) and includes a plurality of circumferentially spaced guide channels (9) located between the plates and arranged non-radially in the direction of rotation of the rotor (6) for conducting the gas-liquid mixture from the stator cavity (7b) to the outer perimeter of the stator (7).

Abstract: A process and system for enhancing the oxygen uptake by a liquid being aerated in a basin or tank with the aid of an aerator which can only aerate the liquid over a cross-sectional zone smaller than the total floor surface of the basin or tank. To achieve the enhancement, there is provided vertically above the aerator but at the surface of the body of liquid an enclosure which is open at its top and bottom and has a cross-sectional size sufficient to surround approximately the entire region where the rising directly aerated quantity of liquid reaches the surface of the body liquid.

Abstract: A method and system for nondestructively testing in a continuous sequence a multiplicity of railroad track crossties of wood or concrete to determine the condition and life expectancy of each of the crossties and of the track as a whole. The system includes an electric pulse generator and a pair of transmitting and receiving transducers, which transducers are adapted to be brought into moving contact with the crossties at respective locations straddling desired test regions thereof, for example, the regions under a tie plate, for sending sonic mechanical pulses through that region of the crosstie from one transducer to the other. If desired, three pairs of transducers may be provided for simultaneously straddling both tie plates and a medial reference zone on each crosstie. The transducers and the pulse generator are carried by a vehicle riding on the track rails, along with a computer for processing/evaluating/storing/reproducing the test data.

Abstract: A pad, suitable for spacing the bottom of a railway rail from a rail foundation on which the rail stands, comprises a plate-like rail-supporting portion (1), made of cushioning material, having an upper main face supporting the rail and softer, resiliently-deformable, sealing portion (3) located at a peripheral region of the lower main face of the rail-supporting portion (1). When the pad is placed on a rail foundation and a rail is placed on the upper main face of the rail-supporting portion (1), the sealing portion (3) deforms under the weight of the rail so as to form a substantially watertight seal, between the rail foundation and the pad, around the periphery of the pad.

Abstract: A device for separating multiple-component fluids includes a truncated cone structure having a conical main section defined by a plurality of coaxially aligned and axially spaced rings of progressively diminishing inner diameters as viewed in the direction of movement of the fluids being separated. The largest ring is located at that end of the conical main section at which the fluid is admitted thereto, and the smallest ring is located at that end of the conical main section at which separated solid particles are discharged. Each ring has an inside surface which is convexly curved in a radial cross-section along the axis of the cone structure and faces in part counter to and in part across the direction of fluid flow. The inside surface of each ring meets the bottom surface of that ring in a sharp edge, with the tangent to the bottom surface at that juncture making an angle of at most 90.degree.

Abstract: For use in ophthalmic surgery, the surgeon has available a supply of "spare parts" which are artificial members, possibly simulating different components of the eye, that are suited, depending on their structural forms and shapes, for surgical implantation in the eye as and/or in connection with repair and/or reinforcement and/or replacement structures for damaged or diseased eye components. The members basically are made of cohesive sheet materials of biocompatible substances such as cross-linked hyaluronic acid, PMMA, or other equivalents thereof. Certain of such "spare parts" are particularly well suited for dealing with the problem of the torn posterior capsule when encountered during an extracapsular cataract extraction.