Abstract: An athletic shoe for use on a relatively hard playing surface has an outer ground sole with grooves therein that define ribs between adjacent grooves, particularly in the toe and ball areas of the sole, is characterized in that the grooves are generally arranged in concentric curves with reference to the center of the toe and ball area and the grooves define similarly arranged concentric ribs between adjacent grooves, each groove being defined by two evenly spaced walls into the surface of the sole, the outer wall and the inner wall, the outer wall being substantially perpendicular to the sole surface and the inner wall being tapered from the sole surface toward the outer wall to the bottom of the groove. Thus, each rib has an inner side substantially perpendicular to the sole surface and an outer side that tapers from the sole surface toward the outer perimeter of the sole.

Abstract: A payload loaded into a chamber is cycled to a low temperature of about -320.degree. F. using liquid nitrogen fed to a heat exchanger evaporator that is located at the top of the chamber so that gaseous nitrogen vapor from the evaporator, at substantially the same temperature as the liquid nitrogen, is circulated to a payload in the chamber below, and, at the same time, gas from the chamber is circulated upward to highly thermally conductive fins on the heat exchanger that are cooled by the liquid nitrogen evaporation. Thus, heat from the payload is fed from the gas circulating upward to the heat exchanger to evaporate the liquid nitrogen and so the payload located at the bottom of the chamber is cooled by gas kinetics and is never touched by the liquid nitrogen.

Abstract: Electric power uses or loads in a premises are controlled or managed depending upon whether the use is for heating, hot water, heat pump, air conditioning, lights, appliances, pumps, etc., according to programs that are controlled by the electric Power Company, for the purposes of spreading power uses at the premises over a day or other time interval, to avoid peak load periods encountered by the Power Company, while still providing the normal comfort levels required by the subscriber from the various power uses. Power levels of several uses at the subscriber's premises are sensed and the power for each use is controlled according to a program that includes a schedule of power level and/or the time of day that is inserted in the program or controlled in the program by the Power Company to accomplish the spreading. In a particular embodiment, a programmed computer unit is provided at the premises that is monitored by the Power Company via the subscribers telephone line.

Abstract: A high power, high frequency, Y-junction three port circulator containing at least one metal plate in the Y-junction covered with ferromagnetic material and an external magnet producing a magnetic field through the ferromagnetic material so that it is magnetized to saturation magnetization when the temperature of the material is within a predetermined temperature range; and a method and means of maintaining the temperature of the ferrite material within said predetermined range even while the circulator operates in a variable ambient environment at high power, including means connected to the metal plate for heating and cooling the plate, thereby controlling the temperature of the ferromagnetic material to maintain the temperature thereof within said predetermined temperature range.

Abstract: A three-way modulated diverting valve is provided in the return line to the boiler of a hydronic heating system between the heating loop return and the boiler return, the valve having its input from the heating loop return, one output to the boiler return and the second output to the heating loop supply, so that the valve diverts some of the cooler return water to the boiler hot supply water, diluting the supply water to reduce the temperature of supply water that feeds the heating loop; and the valve is modulated by a feedback signal representative of the temperature of the diluted supply water. In a preferred embodiment, the feedback modulation is accomplished using a non-electric thermostatic actuator head that drives the valve stem and is controlled by a capillary temperature sensor, the sensor bulb being immersed in the diluted supply water or clamped to the supply line next to the heating loop supply so that it is at the temperature of the diluted supply water.

Abstract: A power line carrier (PLC) communication system operating on a conventional three wire (Hot (H), Neutral (N) and Ground (G) wires) power line uses more than one of the several RF transmission lines that are defined by the three wire power line to improve communication between units of the PLC system. According to a first embodiment a PLC system transmitter sends out of phase RF signals across the H and G wires and across the N and G power wires to the PLC system receiver, which receives and combines both of the out of phase transmissions, and so even if one of these paths is severely attenuated, the other path can deliver a sufficiently strong RF signal to the receiver for effective communications. According to another embodiment three different pairs of the H, N and G wires of the power line are selected in sequence for transmission of the PLC system RF and the pair that results in the best communication between a system transmitter and receiver is used for continuing communication.

Abstract: A bicycle handlebar that connects to a steering post foreward of the bicycle seat has an adjustable support pad assembly for the rider on which to support his body at his forearms or elbows including a support member having a top side and a bottom side, of which the top side is adapted with cushioning to accommodate the rider's forearm or elbow in support thereof and clamped to the bicycle handlebar by a clamp assembly at said bottom side of said support member. The clamp assembly has a clamp band, a nut member within said band, a bolt member that engages said nut member and a hood member that spaces the band member from said bottom of the support member so that the support pad assembly is attachable to said handlebar and is adjustable thereon in two degrees of translational freedom and two degrees of rotational freedom.

Abstract: Several high pressure gas cylinders are attached together in a pack, each container having a valve at one end that controls flow of gas from the cylinder and each valve having a removable valve control handle, the cylinders being arranged coextensive and contiguous in the pack with all cylinder valves at the same end of the pack, a gas manifold at that end of the pack having a gas input for each cylinder and a gas output for feeding gas to a utilization device, a gas line from each cylinder valve to one of the manifold inputs and a manifold valve at the manifold output, so arranged that the manifold valve controls gas flow from the pack of cylinders to the utilization device and the cylinder valves control gas flow from each cylinders to the utilization device.

Abstract: A hypodermic syringe which can be filled with liquid medication for injection into a subject only from a container of the liquid under pressure greater than the ambient pressure around the syringe includes a moveable piston in a cylinder and an injection needle extending from one end of the cylinder defining a liquid dosage space between the piston and the needle and on the other side of the piston in the cylinder is a piston stem that extends from the other end of the cylinder and is manipulated by the user to inject a liquid from the dosage space under the force of the piston out of the needle, the piston and the piston stem being adapted so that the stem can be manipulated to push the piston toward the needle, but the stem cannot be manipulated to pull the piston away from the needle, and the position of the stem in the cylinder can be adjusted at any of a plurality of positions that limit the travel of the piston away from the needle and so limit the volume of the liquid dosage space defined between the p

Abstract: In a point to point microwave communication service including a microwave antenna system at each point directed at the other point, the radiation pattern of the antenna system at at least one point has a substantial null in the direction of an antenna of another microwave communication service to avoid an exchange of signals with the other service, the antenna system provided at said one point includes two antenna elements having substantially equal directional radiation patterns, so oriented and spaced apart a distance that is at least several wave length of the operating frequency of the elements so that the radiation patterns of the elements overlap producing a net radiation pattern that results from interference of the patterns and the net pattern has a substantial lobe in the direction of the other point of said service and a substantial null in the direction of an antenna of the other microwave communication service.

Abstract: A magnetically driven centrifugal pump includes a sealed housing enclosing a magnetically driven rotor on an axle of rotation contained within the housing, the axle being attached to the back inside wall of the housing and extending therefrom into the rotor, the rotor having impellers attached to the face thereof toward the front of the housing, the impellers defining radial fluid passages leading from the axial center of the front of the housing to the periphery of the housing and the rotor having radially oriented magnets in the back face thereof for coupling with similarly oriented magnets in an external magnetic drive, whereby the axial dimension of the rotor need be only the width of a radial magnet plus the axial projection of an impeller and the axial dimension of the sealed housing may be only slightly greater than the axial dimension of the rotor and may be substantially less than the radial diameter thereof.

Abstract: An automatic electrically operated visor or sun blocker system for a vehicle includes a sun blocker, such as a visor (81), that is automatically positioned laterally across the vehicle windshield (1) to selected azimuth (.psi.) directions, depending upon the relative azimuth direction of the sun and is automatically extended downward to selected elevation (.theta.) directions, depending upon the relative elevation direction of the sun, as required to block the sun so that it does not strike the vehicle driver's eyes. Thus, the visor (81) or sun blocker is automatically positioned depending upon the azimuth (.psi.) and elevation (.theta.) angles of the sun direction relative to the driver's eyes. Those angles are detected by photo-responsive elements (61) that produce signals indicative of the azimuth and elevation angles of the sun, that initiate positioning the sun blocker (81) laterally and extending it downward to block the sun so that it does not strike the driver's eyes.

Abstract: A portable band saw for cutting boards of variable thickness from a log has a frame that carries the band saws wheels and a space between the cutting length of the band and the frame that is large enough for the board that is cut from the log to fit through and a slide or rollers for riding on the log when the band saw is cutting a board from the log is carried by the frame in the space between the cutting length of the band and the frame so that the band saw rides along the log from end to end of the log while cutting a board from the log of thickness determined by the space between the cutting length of the band and the bottom of the slide. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, to make the first cut on a rough log, anchor plates are attached to each end of the log that carry supports for a smooth rigid beam suspended between the supports on which the band saw slide rides to cut a straight flat surface longitudinally along the log.

Abstract: A video image system for rapidly (in a few seconds) recording a person and his identification (ID) card makes video images of the person's hand palm and face along with the ID card presented by the person that may be a badge, card, drivers license, passport, or other item issued by some authority, and combines those images and presents the combined image on a video monitor for immediate inspection by a guard, store clerk or attendant, and, in addition, stores the combined image along with time and date superimposed thereon so that it can be reviewed later. The system includes at a designated place entered by the person to be recorded, a viewing table in easy reach of the person on which there are viewing areas for the person's palm and the ID card that he presents and video cameras arranged for scanning his palm, ID card and his face producing video images that are combined electronically producing a combined video image of the palm.

Abstract: Undesired, intefering narrow band received signals in a radio receiver are automatically cancelled by a cancellation system including a variable narrow band pass filter that separates a sample of the undersired signals from the total received signal, reverses phase of the sample and combines it with the total received signal, substantially cancelling the undesired signals therein. In a Loran-C receiver, desired beacon signals in the band 90 to 110 KHz are received aling with narrow band interfering (undesired) signals. During a "cancel mode," a narrow band of the total received signal is sampled by a variable narrow band pass filter and the narrow band sample is reversed in phase and then combined with the total received signal to cancel the undersired signals therein.

Abstract: A high power TV antenna for operation at the ultra high frequency (UHF) frequency F includes a radiating antenna located at the top of a tower structure (often hundreds of feet high), a transmitter at the bottom of the tower and a main circular waveguide transmission line of diameter D1 between the transmitter and the antenna carried by the tower; the feed to and/or from the transmission line including transition sections such that wave propagation in the transition sections is below cutoff for the TM01 mode while it is above cutoff for the dominant TE11 mode while wave propagation in the main circular waveguide transmission line of diameter D1 is substantially totally in the dominent TE11 mode even while it is above cutoff for the TM01 mode, whereby the transition sections tend to inhibit wave propagation in the system in the undesired TM01 mode.

Abstract: A controlled gas environment is provided against a surface area of a semiconductor wafer for performing processes on the area in the fabrication of integrated circuits thereon, including processes of deposition, impurity implantation, etching, ablation, and other radiation induced chemical processes involving the gas atmosphere by maintaining a continuous gas flow over the area and a portion of the surrounding area of the wafer surface covered by an enclosure that is suspended on the surface on a film of the flowing gas, the pressure, temperature and composition of the gas atmosphere against the surface area being controlled to meet the requirements of each processing step and/or to carry away particles while the gas seal is maintained.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of dry processing a semiconductor wafer including processes of vacuum baking and dry silylation provides a gaseous atmosphere of pressure up to 760 Torr against the surface of the wafer, one or more of the constituents of the gas being obtained from a liquid fluid source of the constituent, including a metering device that controls flow of the liquid fluid from a remote reservoir and feeds it to a vaporizer that converts the fluid to a vapor gas at pressure up to 760 Torr and feeds the vapor gas at that pressure into a wafer processing chamber where the particular dry process involving the vapor gas is carried out on the wafer surface. In a preferred embodiment the metering device is an automotive fuel injector, sometimes referred to as a throttle body injector (TBI) that is energized by electrical pulses, each electrical pulse causing the TBI to inject a given predetermined amount into the vaporizer which heats the fluid, turning it into a vapor gas at pressure up to 760 Torr.

Abstract: A computer system for processing analog and digital data input signals from many sources and producing analog and digital data output control signals includes a plurality of digital processing devices for processing the input data, a Processor Bus that interconnects the processing devices for relatively very high speed data transmission between the processing devices a plurality of analog and digital input and output data converter modules, a Converter Bus that interfaces the converter modules and a controller device that couples the Processor Bus and the Converter Bus together and controls the flow of signals therebetween, whereby analog and digital input data received at a range of data rates from relatively low to relatively high rates by input converter modules is transmitted on the Converter Bus to the Processor Bus, via the controller device, in digital format and is processed in the digital format at relatively very high data rates by one or more of the processing devices and digital output data from t