Abstract: A draining system for a marine propulsion engine is provided in which a manifold is located at a low portion of the cooling system to allow all of the water within the cooling system to drain through a common location, or manifold. A rigid shaft is connected to a valve associated with the manifold and extended upwardly from the manifold to a location proximate the upper portion of the engine so that a marine vessel operator can easily reach the upper end of the shaft and manipulate the shaft to open the valve of the manifold. In this way, the valve can be opened to allow all of the water to drain from the engine without requiring the marine vessel operator to reach toward locations at the bottom portion of the engine.

Abstract: An engine cooling system is provided with one or more flexible conduits attached to drain openings of the engine and its related components. First ends of the conduits are attached to the drain openings while the second ends are sealed by studs attached to a plate of a stationary bracket. A retainer is slidably associated with the flexible conduits and attached to a tether which is, in turn, attached to a handle. By manipulating the handle, the tether forces the retainer to slide along the flexible conduits and control the position of second ends of the flexible conduits. This allows the system to be moved from a first position with the second ends of the conduits above the first ends of the conduits to a second position with the second ends of the conduits below the first ends and in the bilge of the boat.

Abstract: A shutter valve construction for the exhaust system of a marine engine that discharges exhaust underwater. The valve construction includes an adaptor having an annular body that is adapted to be engaged in the end of an exhaust pipe. Opposite sides of the body are provided with outwardly projecting bosses which are received within holes in the exhaust pipe to position the adaptor relative to the pipe. The valve construction also includes a butterfly-type shutter valve that consists of a pair of valve members which are hinged to a hinge pin that is removably connected to the adaptor. To connect the valve to the adaptor, the ends of the hinge pin extend into opposed openings in the body of the adaptor and receive resilient grommets.

Abstract: A video camera is provided with means for producing lap and/or dissolve effects between successively recorded scenes. Means are provided for controlling the level of AC bias accompanying the video signals applied to a magnetic recording head. A dissolve effect is achieved by gradually decreasing the level of such bias at the end of a recorded scene. A lap effect is achieved by gradually increasing the bias level at the beginning of a new scene. A simultaneous lap and dissolve effect is achieved by performing the individual lap and dissolve effects on the same segment of tape. To do this, the tape drive is reversed at the end of each scene to position the dissolved portion of the scene upstream of the magnetic recording head. Upon recording a new scene while gradually increasing the level of AC bias at the beginning thereof, a simultaneous lap and dissolve effect is achieved automatically.

Abstract: Flutter and skew prevention in the playback of recorded multitrack signals is provided by means of an articulated multitrack magnetic head. The head is positionable, with respect to the medium which is the source of the playback signals, by means of a pair of signal controllable actuators; and such actuators connect to the head at width-wise spaced-apart locations thereof. Operation of the actuators is by means of a pair of respective control signals: a sum signal and a difference signal. The sum signal represents the sum of a first phase error signal corresponding to the phase difference between signals produced by different cores of the multitrack head and a second phase error signal corresponding to the phase difference between a signal produced by a head core and a reference signal. The difference signal represents the difference between the first and second phase error signals, or similarly produced error signals.

Abstract: A high Q magnetic playback head applies its developed signal to the input of a voltage mode circuit. To facilitate equalizer design, the head is resistor-damped. While mere resistor damping reduces the Q of the head, it does so at the expense of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the head-and-amplifier circuit. To maintain SNR substantially without change, the amplifier employs a large resistance to which negative feedback is applied so the resistance appears as an effective resistance equal to its actual value divided by the amplifier gain. The value of this effective resistance is made to equal the magnetic playback head inductive reactance at the point of resonance, thereby reducing the head Q to approximately 1, and equalizer design is made easier.

Abstract: This invention provides a dental `floss` of an oriented monofilamentous polymer together with a method of manufacturing the `floss` and a tool for its use.

Abstract: A bag closure securable around the neck of a flexible bag has an elongated strip of material with opposite end portions connected by a pair of laterally spaced flexible ribbon portions. The strip is of synthetic plastic material, and the thickness of the connecting ribbon portions is substantially less than the thickness of the end portions. The ribbon portions are substantially molecularly oriented in the direction of their length, and the end portions are not so molecularly oriented.

Abstract: Time base instability of signals in a train thereof is corrected by use of analog shift registers. As employed in the correction of time base instability of video signals, plural analog shift registers are used. Two clock rates are used, respectively, to clock video signals into and out of the analog shift registers. The clock-in rate is set so that samples of a video signal which has been stretched a predetermined amount may load all stages of an analog shift register within the duration of the stretched signal. The clock-out rate is set to unload all stages of an analog shift register within the nominal duration of a video signal.