Abstract: An educational apparatus for teaching symbols, such as letters, words and numbers which includes a number of cards, each of which features a drawing and/or a word or other assembly of symbols, and a number of symbol blocks, such as letter blocks, each of which features a hollowed-out region representing a single letter, and a frame for holding one of the cards and several of letter blocks. The user can select a card, place the card on the frame, and proceed to select and place onto the frame the appropriate letter blocks to form the word represented on the card. If a sheet of paper is place below the frame, the user can proceed to stencil in the word. Furthermore, the user can fill in the letters with soft non-adhering pliable plastic putty, such as play dough or silly putty and the like, and/or to fill in the hollow letters with specially designed letter segments.

Abstract: A ship mooring system for securing a ship to a fixed object by means of a mooring cable, includes a mounting member pivotally mounted on the ship, a drum rotatably mounted at one end of the mounting member for receiving one end of the mooring cable, locking means for selectively unlocking or locking the drum against rotation, and a dashpot device engageable with the opposite end of the pivotal mounting member for absorbing tension forces applied to the mooring cable.

Abstract: A pulsator device includes a water chamber having a small inlet orifice for inletting pressurized water at a relatively low rate in a continuous manner, and a large outlet orifice. An outlet valve assembly controls the large outlet orifice to open it at a relatively high chamber pressure and to close it at a relatively low chamber pressure. The outlet orifice is one end of a hollow stem passing through a wall of the water chamber. The outlet valve assembly includes an expansible/contractible control chamber and a valve member effective, in the normal expanded condition of the control chamber, to close the one end of the hollow stem, and in the contracted condition of the control chamber to open the one end of the hollow stem, and thereby to output pulses of pressurized water through the hollow stem.

Abstract: A keyboard operable by one hand includes a first group of four elongated finger keys extending vertically in parallel spaced relation so as to be accessible by the four fingers of a user's hand, and a second group of thumb keys extending laterally of the first group and spaced vertically with respect to each other so as to be accessible by the user's thumb. The keyboard may include a first section operable by one hand and having the above two groups of keys for selecting alphabetical characters, and a second section operable by the second hand having further keys for selecting numerical characters, punctuation and operational controls.

Abstract: A shut-off device particularly useful as an artifical sphincter for shutting-off the flow from a passage in a subject's body includes a conduit assembly attachable to the body with its inner end in alignment with the passage, a ring rotatably mounted in the outer end of the conduit assembly, and an elastomeric sleeve passing through the conduit assembly and ring, with the inner end of the sleeve attached to the inner end of the conduit assembly, and the outer end of the sleeve attached to the ring. The pliable sleeve is of a length such that the ring may be rotated with respect to the conduit assembly to twist the pliable sleeve from an untwisted open condition permitting the flow of the material from the body passage, to a twisted closed condition shutting-off the flow of the material.

Abstract: A data telemetering system includes a plurality of remote transmitter units connected via an alternating current power supply mains to a central receiver. Each cycle of the line voltage is divided into a plurality of time slots, and each transmitter transmits its data in a separate time slot assigned to it. The data is binary multi-bit digital data, and one bit is transmitted by each transmitter in its assigned time slot during each cycle of the line voltage.

Abstract: A depilatory device for removing body hair, includes a pair of jaws adapted to sequentially traverse an opening in the housing when the hair-plucker body is driven by an electrical motor. The jaws of each pair are normally spaced apart in an open condition to receive a hair between them, but are movable towards each other to a closed condition to clamp the hair received between them. Camming elements carried by the housing move the pairs of jaws to their closed and open conditions as they sequentially traverse the housing opening.

Abstract: A piston-cylinder assembly in which the piston includes two piston heads connected together in spaced relation by a stem and cooperable with two portions of the cylinder, dividing the cylinder into a working chamber on one side of the first piston head between it and the end wall of the cylinder, a drive chamber on the opposite side of the second piston head communicating with the drive, and an intermediate chamber between the working chamber and drive chamber. The first piston head defines a clearance seal with respect to the first portion of the cylinder, and the second portion of the cylinder guides the reciprocatory movements of the piston. The intermediate chamber includes a semi-permeable seal between the cylinder and piston, which seal is permeable by gas but impermeable by liquids, to thereby prevent the passage of liquid from the drive chamber through the intermediate chamber to the working chamber.

Abstract: An orientation-sensitive display system, includes a portable housing including a visual display; at least one source of information, such as time and/or temperature, to be displayed; a gravity-sensitive device for sensing the relative position of the housing; and a data processor receiving information from the source of information, and controlled by the gravity-sensitive device, for controlling the visual display in accordance with the orientation of the housing as sensed by the gravity-sensitive device.

Abstract: An electrolytic dispensing device includes a first contractible chamber for receiving a liquid to be dispensed, and a second contractible chamber for receiving a gas to control the rate of dispensing of the liquid from the first chamber. An electrolytic cell generates a gas which is fed to the second chamber to dispense liquid from the first chamber in accordance with the electrical current conducted through the electrolytic cell. The electrolytic cell includes a partition of an ion-permeable, but gas-impermeable, material separating its two electrodes. The partition is effective to permit gas generated at one electrode to be fed to the second chamber, and to block from the second chamber gas generated at the other electrode, and thereby to prevent the formation of a hazardous mixture of gases.

Abstract: A toothbrush includes a plurality of bristle holders spring-urged outwardly from the brush head. In one described embodiment, the springs are produced by a planar strip of elastic material stamped with a plurality of spirally-extending slits pressed out of the plane of the strip to produce a plurality of helically-extending springs underlying each of the bristle holders. In a second described embodiment, the springs are in deformable bellows-shaped elements each underlying one of the bristle holders. In some described embodiments, the brush head is pivotally mounted to the handle.

Abstract: A dental flossing device includes a housing manually grippable by a user, a pair of spaced arms projecting from one end of the housing for engaging the opposite ends of a length of dental floss to be tautly secured along a dental floss axis between the arms, and a drive for displacing the length of dental floss when secured between the arms. The drive displaces at least one end of the length of dental floss, when secured between the arms, through a unidirectional, curved closed-loop planar path defined by the two axes substantially perpendicular to each other and to the dental floss axis. In one described embodiment, only one end of the length of dental floss is displaced in the above-defined unidirectional, curved, closed-loop path; and in a second described embodiment, each of the two ends of the length of dental floss is displaced in the above-defined unidirectional, curved, closed-loop path.

Abstract: A drip irrigation emitter includes an elastomeric member fixed within a housing and defining, with an internal surface thereof, at least a part of a flow-reducer passageway. The elastomeric member is embossed with an integrally formed relief formation on the surface thereof facing the internal surface of the housing to space it from the internal surface and to permit the enlargement or reduction of the flow-reducer passageway upon the deformation of the elastomeric member in response to the flow.

Abstract: A device for accelerating a projectile to an extremely high velocity includes a launch tube having electrodes engageable with the projectile assembly for applying a large electrical voltage to it, the projectile assembly includes a pair of travelling electrodes fixed to the rear end of the projectile and engageable with the launch tube electrodes during the travel of the projectile assembly through the launch tube. The travelling electrodes define a spark gap which, under the high voltage applied from the launch tube electrodes, forms a high-temperature, high-pressure plasma arc travelling with the projectile and effective to increase its acceleration.

Abstract: An electric grilling appliance includes a pair of infrared radiation emitting heaters disposed within a housing on opposite sides of a food holder. The food holder includes a pair of metal food holder plates of a size and configuration to directly contact, on their inner surfaces, substantially the complete outer surface of the food article to be grilled. The outer surfaces of the metal food holder plates are blackened to absorb the infrared radiation emitted by the heaters. Springs urging the metal food holder plates towards each other into firm contact with the food article to be grilled.

Abstract: A gas laser includes an inner tube filled with gas and having mirrors at its opposite ends to define a resonant chamber, an outer tube filled with gas and defining a gas reservoir for the gas in the resonant chamber, and electrodes for energizing the gas in the resonant chamber. The gas reservoir includes a pair of intermediate tubes coaxial with and between the inner and outer tubes. One of the intermediate tubes is open at one end facing one end of the laser and is joined at its opposite end facing the opposite end of the laser to the outer tube. The other intermediate tube is open at its end facing the opposite end of the laser and is joined at its end facing the one end of the laser to the inner tube, whereby the pair of intermediate tubes divide the reservoir into a plurality of annular spaces defining a zigzag path between the opposite ends of inner tube.

Abstract: A bathroom accessory includes a base member; suction cups on one face of the base member for removably mounting the accessory to a mounting surface, such as the wall of a shower or the wall of or adjacent to a bathtub; a plurality of projections projecting from the opposite face of the base member for massaging the back of user when the accessory is mounted to the mounting surface; and a flexible back-cleaning pad removably attached to cover the outer tips of at least some of the projections for cleaning the back of the user.

Abstract: A cleaning system for cleaning tubing by circulating balls through the tubing includes a system for separating and recirculating the balls back to the upstream side of the tubing. The separator includes a hollow separator tube having perforations through its wall such that the balls accumulate in a chamber on the outer side of the hollow separator tube while the fluid flows through the interior of the hollow separator tube through a passageway to the atmosphere.

Abstract: A power-operated tweezers device for plucking hairs includes a reciprocatable member coupled to a motor, tweezers, a lost-motion coupling between the reciprocatable member and the tweezers effective to move the tweezers to an extended position only during a first part of the forward stroke of the reciprocatable member, and to a retracted position only during a first part of the return stroke of the reciprocatable member; and means effective to move the tweezer jaws to their closed positions during a last part of the forward stroke of the reciprocatable member, and to their open positions during a last part of the return stroke of the reciprocatable member.

Abstract: A gear drive sprinkler includes a fixed ring gear fixed to the sprinkler housing and having a circular array of teeth; a rotatable ring grear coupled to the sprinkler nozzle and having a circular array of teeth coaxial with, but of a different number than, the teeth of the fixed ring gear; and a planetary gear rotated by the sprinkler drive and having a circular array of teeth meshing with the teeth of both ring gears so as to planetate around both ring gears and thereby to rotate the rotatable ring gear at an angular velocity corresponding to the difference in the number of teeth in the two ring gears.