Abstract: Plates destined to receive frozen dinners on them are washed automatically by apparatus which receives a train of horizontal plates, tilts the plates progressively upwardly to a more upright position as they move along a conveyor, applies sprays of cleaning and rinsing materials to them and dries them with warm air while they are moving along in that more upright position, and then progressively tilts the plates back to their horizontal positions as they continue to move along the conveyor. The tilting of the plates is accomplished by means of a twisted track serving as a guide along which the plates slide in response to moving belts frictionally engaging both sides of each plate as the plate executes its upwardly and downwardly tilting motions.

Abstract: A system for actuating an alarm device secreted in a packet of bills when the packet is carried outwardly through a transmitted field at an exit from protected premises, in which such actuation is prevented when the packet is carried into the field near the exit and then back again into the protected premises. This is accomplished by constituting the field of two different field regions, an inner field region and an outer field region, having different identifying characteristics which are distinguishable by electronic circuitry in the packet, these field regions being disposed so that a person removing the packet from the protected premises must pass along an egress path extending in sequence through the inner field region and the outer field region.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for measuring the individual strengths of two superimposed vector fields at different frequencies by sensing the three orthogonal directional components of the field, sampling these three components in rapid repetitive sequence, squaring the amplitudes of the resulting samples, filtering the squared samples to select the second harmonics of those field frequency components to be measured, amplitude-detecting the filtered signals, and detecting the square root of the amplitudes of the detected signals. Such method and system eliminates the need to provide highly accurately matched components for each separate frequency channel, as is required in previously-known systems.

Abstract: Apparatus for filling containers with two products from different sources, using a rotating volumetric filler which picks up first one product then the other, and discharges them both simultaneously into a container. The filler uses a pair of concentric pistons, the central one of which is retracted to pick up the first product as it rotates over an arcuate slot beneath which the first product is stored; the outer, cylindrical piston is then retracted to pick up the second product as it rotates over another arcuate slot beneath which the second slot is located. Both pistons are later extended simultaneously to discharge the combined product into the container. Since the two products picked up by the successive retractions of the two pistons are held beside each other, a more uniform mixture of the two products is obtained than if they are picked up one above the other by a single piston.

Abstract: A sandwich cookie is made of a chocolate-coated bottom biscuit and a plain top biscuit by applying a pair of stripes of molten chocolate to the chocolate-coated surface of the bottom biscuit, placing the biscuits against each other, and cooling the molten chocolate to set it and bond together the top and bottom biscuits to form the desired chocolate sandwich cookie. Apparatus is provided for performing these steps automatically on rapidly-moving trains of top and bottom biscuits. Stepping conveyors and synchronized lugged conveyors move each top biscuit into vertical alignment with a corresponding coated and striped bottom biscuit, whereupon the top biscuit is dropped upon the bottom biscuit and passed beneath a presser spring which urges the top and bottom cookies toward each other prior to cooling of the molten stripes.

Abstract: A modular construction of an interface board for mounting electrical connectors comprises a plurality of interlocked modular blocks on which the connectors are mounted. Each side face of each block comprises one or more sets of locking elements which engage with a mirror-image set of locking elements on another of said blocks to prevent relative lateral motion between the blocks or structures. Motion of the blocks or structures away from each other, in a direction normal to their mated side faces, is prevented by providing a tapered mortise in each of said side faces, the adjacent mortises of adjacent interlocked blocks or structures being in mutually confronting, aligned relationship to each other so that the tenons of a double dovetail wedge can be inserted into both mortises simultaneously to hold them in fixed position.

Abstract: A can-orienting system in which open-topped steel-based cans in random orientations are first automatically aligned with each other by feeding them to an aligning chute to form an end-on train of cans which are fed end-on, at a controlled rate, to the edge of a first rotating magnetic pick-up wheel which picks up and carries with it the successive leading cans in the train. A second magnetic wheel, rotating oppositely to the first wheel, is preferably located above the first wheel and to the opposite side of the first wheel from the point at which the cans are fed to the first wheel. Those cans initially having their bottoms against the first wheel stay on the first wheel until they are rotated far enough to be wiped off onto a first separator plate, all with their bottoms against the plate; those cans having their open ends against the first wheel are pulled off by the second wheel and carried by it to a second separator plate, all with their bottoms against the plate.

Abstract: Apparatus for dispensing uncompacted rice upon each of a continuously-moving train of plates from a hopper containing an auger which is rotated to effect dispensing only when a plate is in position beneath the outlet of the hopper. The hopper is caused to swing back and forth about an axis at right angles to the direction of motion of the plates, so that the outlet of the hopper swings downstream at about the same speed as the underlying plate while the auger is operating, thereby to concentrate the dispensed rice on a predetermined part of the plate. The timing may be such that, while the hopper is executing its upstream return motion, the next plate passes beneath it without receiving rice, the hopper dispensing only upon every other plate; another similar hopper at a downstream position then provides similar rice deposits upon similar parts of those alternate plates which do not receive rice from the upstream hopper.

Abstract: A security device including a sleeve adapted to fit over the body portion of a padlock and provided with slots or apertures to permit closing or locking of the sleeve with the sleeve enveloping the padlock body. An internally accessible pocket is provided in one internal face of the sleeve to receive a key or other object to be secured. The presence of the padlock body in the sleeve prevents access to the pocket. A window may be provided in one of the sleeve walls to provide access to the padlock release mechanism such as a combination mechanism or keyhole.

Abstract: Lubrication is provided for the pulling of a cable through a conduit by providing one or more lubricant nozzles on a nozzle head secured to the leading end of the cable, so that while the cable is pulled through the conduit the lubricating material is sprayed outwardly onto the interior walls of the conduit ahead of the leading end of the cable being pulled.

Abstract: A drill screw having primary and secondary cutting edges on opposite sides of its longitudinal axis, with the primary cutting edge offset so that it contacts the work-piece first, at a position displaced laterally from the screw axis, and produces initial very rapid drilling of an opening through the work-piece, followed by a period of drilling by both cutting edges. A conical portion is also preferably provided on the screw which extends divergingly from the cutting edges toward the head end of the screw until its diameter matches the root diameter of the screw.

Abstract: A system which dispenses sauce or the like onto selected areas of plates moving in a train beneath a dispenser. The areas upon which the sauce is to be dispensed may for example be those containing meat portions of non-uniform width in directions normal to the direction of motion of the plate or the conveyor. A slot-shaped dispensing aperture on the lower side of the dispenser is automatically opened and closed progressively by a movable closure in such manner that the length of the open portion of the slot matches the corresponding dimension of the areas to be dispensed upon as they move beneath the dispenser. This enables complete coverage of these areas with the sauce, without dispensing it upon other portions of other areas where it is not desired.

Abstract: Electronic printer apparatus in which the intensity of the beam of a cathode-ray tube is controlled during successive beam sweeps to display and project onto a rotating electrostatically-charged surface an image of successive slices through a row of characters to be printed, the latent line images thus formed being then converted to a toner image for subsequent transfer to a page of paper. Digital information bits organized in bytes and representing slices through each character are stored in respective areas of a permanent memory storage device. The appropriate slices of the characters are accessed in response to character-representing input signals, and are read out serially to control the beam intensity during each sweep and thus display, along the sweep, the desired slice through the row of characters.

Abstract: A system for verifying that the proper ingredient-containing transport containers have been assembled at a particular soup-blending kettle, in which a hole-coded metal key is permanently affixed to each container and provided with an array of machine-readable holes corresponding to a number unique to each container. At the ingredient-dispensing station, a key-reader reads out the identifying number of the container and transmits it to that kettle station to which the container is to be delivered. The transport container is then delivered to the kettle station, where the key code is again machine read; the container number thus read out at the kettle station is compared with that previously transmitted from the ingredient-dispensing station, and if they both represent the same number then the proper container has been delivered to the kettle station and its contents are dumped into the kettle.

Abstract: Cucumber spears are rapidly and reliably packed into and around the inner periphery of a jar with the same cut side of each of the spears facing outwardly. The spears are formed by pushing a cucumber lengthwise through a set of knife blades, and the resultant spears are individually pushed through twisted channels by flexible rods which deliver them onto a horizontal platform with their cut sides down and all facing the same way. Two conveyor belts are recessed in the top of the platform, so that by lowering the platform the set of spears is deposited on the conveyor belts and conveyed downstream to a pair of adjacent platens each having grooves aligned with the conveyor belts. A fence across the conveyor arrests a first set of spears above the first platen, which is then raised to lift the first set of spears from the conveyor, whereupon a second set of spears accumulate above the second platen.

Abstract: An exercise dumbbell of the type comprising a central grip portion and a pair of weighted bells on each end of the grip portion, wherein each of the bells comprises a soft, pliable outer covering filled with a yieldable mass of weighting material, and wherein the dumbbell comprises an axial support means extending axially of the grip. Preferably the support means is in the form of a rod, solid or hollow, and the end bells, as well as the supporting rod if hollow, are preferably filled with a yieldable mass of weighting material such as small balls or shot, a liquid or a gelatin, or a heavy liquid or gelatin with or without metal particles or pieces dispersed through it.

Abstract: Food cans are slid across a vertically-oscillating weigh platform while being guided by contacting means bearing against their upstream side surfaces. The contacting means comprise a pair of rollers rotatable about an axis transverse to the direction of sliding motion of the cans, and bearing against the vertical side surfaces of the cans above the bottom bead of the can. This avoids the indentations formed in the lug contactors of the prior art after many contacts with the bead of the can, and thereby improves the weighing accuracy.

Abstract: An eye implant device for relieving excessive eye pressure due to glaucoma comprises a thin, elongated, resilient, semi-rigid body of biocompatible material such as polymethyl methacrylate, having surface channels extending along its length to provide drainage passages for eye fluids and transverse perforations through it spaced from each other along its length. Preferably the material of the body is wettable by the eye fluids, and the device curved along its length to match the curvature of the interior of the sclera of the eye in the limbal region. The longitudinal channels are preferably provided by corrugating the body of the device longitudinally, and the device is preferably cruciform in shape.

Abstract: A circular gasket for sealing the opening between the exterior of a sewer pipe and the interior periphery of an opening in a manhole, in which greater sealing pressure is provided by using a plurality of longitudinal openings extending entirely around the gasket through the head portion thereof which contacts the sewer pipe.