Abstract: A carriage movable along the coke side of a coke oven battery and carrying a coke guide, a door extractor, a frame cleaner and a door cleaner. These elements can be manipulated on the carriage so as to effect door extraction, coke pushing, door cleaning and frame cleaning in a minimum amount of time and without the necessity for moving the carriage itself along the coke oven battery while servicing any one coke oven chamber.

Abstract: A spill-plate housing extends along one side of the course of travel by a mining machine. A flexible cutter cable and water conduit are carried from the mining machine by a carrier arm for extending into the spill-plate housing by projecting through a longitudinal slot formed in a faceplate of the housing. Upper and lower resilient apron strips are secured to the faceplate so that their longitudinal edges abut along the longitudinal center of the slot. Vertical support pipes are secured to the faceplate by upper and lower members to form an internal housing space adapted to accommodate the cable and conduit while coupled to the mining machine. Bias blocking arms are pivotally supported by the faceplate within the housing to prevent unintentional emergence of the cable from the slot in the housing. Pipe-engaging surfaces on clamp plates arranged at opposed sides of the vertical support pipes are used to carry a door for vertical movement to expose the interior of the housing space.

Abstract: A connector apparatus to couple an electrical cable of a low-voltage power supply to an electrically-resistive heater strip carrying a layer of thermoplastic adhesive. The connector includes an elongated housing having a projecting support leg and a clamp jaw at opposite ends of the housing to support the housing so as to extend in a downwardly-inclined manner. The walls of the housing form an open cavity which is adapted to receive a helical spring through which a cable extends from an end wall of the housing to a connector used to secure the end of the cable to a bus bar. The bus bar is guided for movement along the length of the housing. The bus bar is urged by the spring toward the clamp jaw to grip the edge of the electrically-resistive heater strip used to heat in situ the thermoplastic adhesive that forms carpet seaming tape.

Abstract: The range of movement by a winning tool of a tunneling machine is controlled to release material from a heading wall to form a tunnel having a desired profile. The tunneling machine carries gyroscope detectors and a detector for a laser beam which is projected along a desired tunnel heading. Such detectors provide electrical signals corresponding to a position change of the tunneling machine. Position transducers, coupled with counters, provide electrical signals corresponding to perpendicular position coordinates of the winning tool with respect to the tunneling machine. Means, including a computer, receive these electrical signals and continuously compute a limit coordinate signal based on a desired tunnel profile provided by a computer program.

Abstract: An alloying addition agent for iron or steel baths comprising a mixture of a ferroalloy, an oxide of the desired alloying element and silicon carbide. The oxygen in the oxide enhances an exothermic reaction with silicon carbide to maintain the temperature of the bath. At the same time, the reaction produces very little smoke which normally results from prior art addition agents of this type, thereby reducing pollution of the surrounding atmosphere.

Abstract: A drum continuously rotating on a vertical axis carries at least two pairs of label transfer members spaced circumferentially around its axis and rotatably connected to the drum on vertical axes. One of the transfer members in each pair is a pick-up member and the other a delivery member, with the pick-up members alternating with the delivery members. The pick-up members are continuously rotated on their axes in one direction while the delivery members are rotated in the opposite direction at the same speed. Each of the transfer members has a label-contact surface provided with a vertical row of air inlets, the contact surface of each pick-up member facing away from the axis of the drum when that member is in pick-up position at the label magazine, at which time suction is applied to the air inlets to withdraw a label from the magazine.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for the inspection of nuclear fuel rods to detect defects or failures in such rods. Assemblies of fuel rods are immersed in water and means are provided for causing a change in the relative pressures in the water and within the fuel rod such that material is expelled from the rod through any defects that may exist. Means are provided for detecting the emission of bubbles, or other material expelled from the rod, and for locating the position of the defective rod in the assembly. The method is also applicable to detection of contaminants in new fuel rods which may result in the development of defects in the rod.

Abstract: A reversible foot for the lower end of an inclined brace in a railway hopper car is a metal forging arched transversely to fit over a crossridge in the car, to which the foot is fastened. The foot is provided with a central vertical opening extending lengthwise of it for receiving the lower end of a brace inclined at a predetermined angle. The end wall of that opening that will be beside the upper inclined surface of the lower end of the brace is inclined substantially parallel to that surface, but the opposite end wall of the opening is inclined in the opposite direction at a different angle so that it will lie substantially parallel to the upper inclined surface of the lower end of a brace inclined at a different angle than the first-mentioned brace if the foot is reversed to receive such a brace. Whichever brace is used, its lower end is welded to the foot.

Abstract: A link is provided at one end with a first opening for receiving a member supported by a railway car body, and at the opposite end with a second opening. Extending through the second opening is a clevis that has parallel free ends provided with aligned openings for connecting it to the upper end of a brake beam lever. The shape of the second opening and the portion of the clevis in it is such that the clevis is restrained by the link from swinging relative to the link in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the clevis opening. The supporting member for the opposite end of the link has a hook extending through the first opening. The link may be made short enough to be located substantially horizontally between the dead lever and the adjacent axle.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to reinforced support walls arranged to extend transversely of the length of a battery of coke ovens in a cellar for supporting battery decking of underjet coke ovens. Ducts extend in the cellar for supplying gaseous combustion media to the heating flues of the heating walls and control members are arranged in the cellar to control the flow of the combustion media in the individual ducts. A foundation slab includes reinforcement members bonded to reinforcement members within the support walls. Expansion joints, including slip plates, are arranged between the support walls and the battery decking. The decking may include a projection extending downwardly along the center line of the battery for bonding engagement with the support walls.

Abstract: In the process disclosed, gas from a coke plant is washed with an aqueous metallic salt solution including sulfureous and sulfuric acid to absorb the ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide from the gas. The washing solution is then oxidized in an aerating tank to recover elementary sulfur. A portion of the washing fluid from the oxidizer is returned for continued washing of gas and a portion of the fluid is heated in the presence of a catalyst to yield products of combustion including an acid anhydride and a metal or metal oxide. After processing the combustion products through a heat recovering system, the acid anhydride and metal oxides are combined and react to form renewed aqueous metal salt solution that is combined with the oxidized washing solution to wash additional quantities of gas.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for gasifying fine-grained fuel, e.g., coal and a gasifying medium, e.g., oxygen in a slag bath generator. The fine-grained fuel and gasifying medium are injected at a downwardly-inclined angle to tangentially impinge with a turbulent rotary motion upon a slag bath in the lower end of a vertically-extending reactor shaft within a pressure vessel. A desired slag bath level is maintained in the bottom of the vessel by using an overflow to discharge slag from the bath through the bottom of the vessel. A first treatment zone for the high temperature gasification of the fuel is formed between the slag bath and a circular constriction to the reactor shaft. A second treatment zone for the final gasification of the fuel at a lower temperature as compared with the temperature in the first treatment zone extends above the circumferential constriction along the reactor shaft. Fuel and gases passing through the circumferential constriction are essentially free of a turbulent rotary motion.

Abstract: An aqueous solution of an alkali metal silicate and a silicate setting agent containing polyvalent metal ions is mixed with waste material to convert the mixture into a consolidated stable earth-like material substantially insoluble in water. The material is pulverized and mixed with polluted waste water, with the mixture being maintained long enough for the pulverized material to react with pollutants in the waste water to reduce or remove them, following which the suspended solids in the water are separated from it, leaving the water improved in quality; that is, water that is materially less contaminated than before treatment.

Abstract: Individual subscribers belonging to a class including superannuated, disabled, sick and medically unstable are monitored in a communication system by establishing time-based periods for telephone link responses between each subscriber and a monitor station where separate electrical signals are produced corresponding to the telephone link responses. The electrical signals are used to energize indicator means including lights used to detect a failure of a subscriber to respond according to the established time-based period for a telephone link response. An alert is provided on behalf of a subscriber based on the detected failure of a subscriber to respond. The indicator means is reset at preselected intervals of time corresponding to the time-based periods for telephone link responses.

Abstract: A rack is provided for the storage of spent nuclear fuel assemblies in a water-filled storage pit. The rack consists of an array of storage cells containing the fuel assemblies and poison boxes consisting of water-filled enclosures having walls incorporating a neutron-absorbing material. The poison boxes function as neutron traps, and the storage cells and poison boxes are arranged in such a manner that each poison box is immediately adjacent at least one storage cell, and adjacent storage cells are in contact on at least one side of each cell. This results in maximizing the number of fuel assemblies that can be stored in a given space.

Abstract: A liquid metal level indicator is provided comprising a number of separate, substantially identical coils supported in a vertical array and adapted to be extended into a liquid metal bath. Means are provided for comparing the impedance of each coil to that of the next adjacent coil successively from one end of the array to the other to indicate the liquid level by the change in impedance of the coils due to the presence of liquid metal surrounding them.

Abstract: A chamber in a valve case has an inlet port of exhaled air in one of its end walls. Spaced inwardly from the side wall of the chamber is a valve seat surrounding the inlet port and engaged by one side of a sealing member, the opposite side of which is engaged by a rigid disc secured to a valve stem that extends through the port and into guiding means for the stem. The diameter of the disc is nearly as great as the diameter of the chamber. A spring in the case is compressed between the disc and the other end wall of the valve chamber for pressing the sealing member against the seat. The disc is spaced from the ported wall of the chamber far enough for the marginal portion of the disc that extends laterally out beyond the sealing member to be inclined toward the ported wall but spaced from it.

Abstract: A portable mixer for asphalt sealer has a frame with bearings at its opposite ends, in which the trunnions of a rotatable horizontal drum are mounted. Secured to one of the trunnions is a crank for rotating the drum, which is provided in its top with a filling opening that is normally sealed by a removable cover. The end wall of the drum at the end opposite the crank has an outlet opening that is located at the bottom of the drum when the filling opening is at the top, and a discharge valve connected with this outlet projects from the end of the drum beneath the overlying bearing that is spaced inwardly from the end of the frame in such a manner that the valve will not strike any part of the frame as the drum is rotated. The mixer also is provided with a braking system that locks the wheels supporting the frame.

Abstract: This disclosure pertains to an apparatus within a container wherein solid particles of the type that form a sediment in a liquid, are withdrawn from a liquid-filled processing chamber at the upper side of a funnel-shaped plate into a liquid-filled collecting chamber below the plate. In one embodiment, the funnel-shaped plate includes a central discharge nozzle that forms an annular discharge gap by extending downwardly within the side walls of a bell-shaped chamber that is inverted and contains a mushroom-shaped distributor supported above its bottom wall by a liquid supply pipe. The top surface of the mushroom-shaped distributor has a conical shape with the apex extending upwardly to the terminal end of the discharge nozzle.

Abstract: The heating walls for a battery of coke oven chambers are formed by rows of twin heating flues. Each heating flue includes a crosswall having an internal passageway with exit ports at graduated elevation to form a header flue. The header flues in two adjacent heating walls are connected by a first series of ducts to regenerators that supply preheated air during the heating half-cycle. A second series of ducts extend between other regenerators and exit ports on the sole of the heating flues for conducting preheated lean gas or, optionally, preheated air when heating with rich gas. The ducts of each series alternate from heating wall to heating wall so that the sequence of upgoing and downgoing flues alternates from heating wall to heating wall.