Abstract: A brush-type packing means for shield tunnel excavators which is high in wear resistance and shielding effect against underground water is provided. The packing means comprises at least two rows of resilient wire brushes secured substantially in parallel ring shape along inner periphery of substantially cylindrical excavator body adjacent its tail end or peripheral edge of tunnel entrance on wall surface of vertical shaft as spaced in tunnelling direction to close a gap space between the tail end or the entrance edge and peripheral surface of tunnel wall element inserted in excavated tunnel, and the space between the respective rows of the wire brushes is sealed with a material which is viscous and impermeable to water.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a device for protecting a person from attack from an assailant wherein the device is worn on the person in such manner that it is always available for instant operation for defense without the necessity reaching into a pocket or hand bag to thereby enhance the safety of the user.

Abstract: A method of producing a stabilized electrical superconductor wherein a longitudinally extending slug is provided, the slug including a matrix such as bronze within which are embedded a multiplicity of wires or rods of a material such as niobium into which the tin in the bronze is diffused to convert the niobium into a superconductor. The matrix is surrounded by a ring of wires or rods of a material such as copper having a high electrical conductivity characteristic, forming an electrically parallel connection with the superconductors which provides a bridge of good electrical conductivity in the event the superconductivity of the superconductor is lost for any reason and each of these latter wires or rods is surrounded by a high resistance layer such as a copper-nickel alloy, which, in turn, is surrounded by a diffusion inhibiting layer such as tantalum to prevent diffusion of the tin from the bronze matrix into the copper wires or rods which would otherwise reduce their electrical conductivity.

Abstract: A grinding machine with a movable grinding stand on a rigid frame structure where the grinding stand is rotatable on a cross travel carriage and steps are taken to prevent vibrations caused by the drive motor of the grinding wheel be propagated to the grinding wheel.

Abstract: A turbine blade includes a longitudinally extending cavity into which air for cooling the interior wall of the blade is admitted. The air passes from the cavity through each of a group of inserts each of which is constituted by a plurality of stepped overlapping walls with spaced air passages therethrough, these walls establishing therebetween corresponding cooling spaces interconnected by the passages and which are bounded at one side by the blade wall. The cooling air passes in succession through the cooling spaces of each insert and is discharged from the insert and thence from the blade through an outlet port formed in the blade wall and which is connected to the last cooling space of each insert through which the air is passed. The passages through the overlapping walls also provide impingement cooling of the blade wall. The outlet ports for the cooling air are formed in the suction side of the blade as well as in its trailing edge.

Abstract: A foodstuff slicer which is particularly useful for shaving ice, frozen fruits and the like is disclosed. The foodstuff slicer is provided with a rotor composed of a downwardly diverging hood, a plurality of carrier-arms and a boss connected to a vertical driving shaft. The carrier-arms extend radially and upwardly in spaced relation with a wall of a conical case which diverges upwardly. A cutting blade is attached to a upper portion of the conical case. Centrifugal forces acting on lumps of foodstuff become nearly maximum at the position of the cutting blade to slice the foodstuff steadily.

Abstract: A method of completing a tunnel excavation with a slurry shield type tunneling machine through a soft ground having a high water content or much gushing water, advancing the machine from the ground into a vertical shaft at, for example, a tunnel terminating point while preventing any ground collapse or gushing water at a vertical shaft wall finally excavated, and an apparatus for performing the method.

Abstract: A composite support structure for the casing of a rotary machine comprising coupled turbine and compressor units includes a pair of non-articulated multiple bar type pendulum supports upstanding on a support base at opposite sides of and secured to the casing. The load imposed by the casing on the pendulum supports is relieved by a system of vertical adjustable sprung supports extending between the casing and support base, and a pin projecting downwardly from the casing in alignment with a vertical plane through the machine axis is secured to a horizontally positioned flexible membrane which likewise is secured to the support base for securing the casing against movement in any and all directions in a horizontal plane but permitting expansion in a vertical direction. A transverse metallic sheet either slotted or provided with cut-outs is secured between the underside of the casing and support base and accommodates torsion and/or axial expansion of the casing.

Abstract: Apparatus for overvoltage protection of a direct converter utilizing controllable semi-conductor valves and whose output is connected to the rotor circuit of an asynchronous electrical machine includes a stepped impedance circuit which is controlled by a stepped current valve switching circuit. The stepped impedance circuit is connected to the output terminals of the converter and the valves of the switching circuit are controlled in accordance with the amplitude of any transient overvoltage induced in the rotor circuit in such manner that the total resistance value of the impedance circuit varies inversely with the amplitude of the overvoltage. The impedance switchable into and out of the circuit can be arranged in series, or in parallel, or in series-parallel.

Abstract: A packing ring for use between two surfaces to be sealed relative to each other is comprised of two ring components each of which is constituted by an assembly of ring segments which are provided with a projection at one end which engages a complementarily configured recess located at one end of an adjacent ring segment thereby providing a circumferentially extending interlocking of all segments of each ring. The ring segments of one ring are circumferentially staggered relative to the segments of the other ring by half a segment pitch, and each ring segment is provided with one or more recesses such that the respective recesses in the segments of the two rings are aligned in face-to-face relation so as to form a circumferential array of slots for receiving pressure springs.

Abstract: At the end of a vehicle-carried crane arm a vertically extending frame is supported which at its lower end carries a movable split head with spreadable chopping blades. A ram raisable to the top of the frame drives, when released, by the impact on the split head the blades into the center of a tree stump that is to be extracted from the earth. Then the blades are spread to break the stump into separate portions which are easily individually removable in a direction substantially following the extension of the roots.

Abstract: A steam turbine construction wherein the turbine rotor shafting is mounted in bearing means located in the end walls of the turbine housing and wherein the bearings are lubricated with water condensed from the working steam supplied to the turbine. The lubricant flows in a re-circulating system tapped from the condensate-return line leading back to the boiler from the condenser after the turbine has been started and is supplying power, and an auxiliary supply of lubricant water is taken from a reserve gravity flow tank to supply water to the bearings during the starting and stopping runs of the turbine.

Abstract: A method for decalcifying raw sugar juice by the addition of active MgO to the final carbonation gassing vessel, carbonating to an alkalinity of about 0.01% CaO equivalent, and then re-alkalizing in a secondary reaction vessel with additional active MgO to an alkalinity of about 0.025% CaO equivalent.

Abstract: A method of making bearing bushes by joining together a plurality of segments along joints parallel to the bearing axis. In the preferred method, two semicylindrical segments are used, and are joined by electron beam welding. The welding is the last operation in the manufacture of the bush.

Abstract: A method and device for splicing a rotating new roll of material to a moving web which is nearly exhausted, each web having uniformly spaced indicia thereon and wherein the indicia on the new roll at the leading end thereof is unevenly spaced, the speed of the old web being adjusted to correspond with the peripheral speed of the new roll during a portion of its periphery and the indicia then being exactly registered along that portion so that the webs are spliced together to provide a continuing web having uniformly spaced indicia thereon.

Abstract: A gas-turbine plant of the air-storage type comprises a multi-stage gas-turbine having high and low pressure sections, a flow medium heating device located between the high and low pressure sections of the gas-turbine, a dynamoelectric machine coupled to the gas-turbine, a compressor also coupled to the dynamoelectric machine and an air-storage tank connected between the compressor outlet and the inlet to a heat exchanger heated by exhaust gas from the gas-turbine and through which the medium flows to the high pressure section of the gas-turbine.

Abstract: A watery sludge is at least partially dehydrated by a heat treatment which includes an electrolytic heat treatment, and thereupon is subjected to a dielectric high-frequency treatment, with the result that the sludge is converted to a friable pasteurized dried "mud.

Abstract: A method of and apparatus for starting a tunneling operation into a soft ground having a high water content or much gushing water while preventing any collapse of the ground or outflow of water. The tunneling machine is initially placed within a vertical shaft in the ground and a sheet pile is struck into the ground between a retaining wall of the shaft having a starting port through which the machine is to be ultimately advanced into the surrounding ground after the port is opened by raising the pile. A ring-shaped liquid-tight packing is applied to the retaining wall and surrounding the starting port engages the periphery of the head portion of the tunneling machine to form part of a liquid-pressurized chamber in front of the machine, the pressure in the chamber being at least as high as the surrounding underground water or ground pressure when the port is opened and the machine is then started through the port.

Abstract: Can changing apparatus for drawing frame having at least one series of a can filling station and one or more empty can ready stations spaced at regular intervals, doffing means reciprocably disposed along the series of the stations to intermittently produce one cycle of reciprocation and having a series of pivoted arms identical in number and identically spaced with the series of stations. The apparatus further comprises means to swing the series of arms all simultaneously upright on retracting stroke of the reciprocation motion while keeping in horizontally swung down position on advancing stroke to thereby advance succeeding cans on the stations all together one stroke ahead of their former locations toward and away from the can filling station.

Abstract: A sintered hard metal body (e.g., a cutting insert) is provided as to wear resistance by depositing thereon an intermediate thin coating of a metallic carbide or metallic nitride free from binder metal and applying over this intermediate coating a thin ceramic coating free from binder metal.