Abstract: A multi-unit multipackage for beverage type containers or receptacles made of a number of small multipackages such as the well known six-pack, which small multipackages are assembled in vertical stacks and made in to larger multipackages, which larger multipackages are assembled into trays. Features of the multi-unit multipackage inure to the benefit of beverage producers, distributors, retailers and consumers.

Abstract: A compact storage file for box-like objects such as the IBM 3480 magnetic tape cartridge. The basic file unit comprises a U-shaped frame of a flat back wall and integral side walls with a plurality of shelves therein. The construction of the basic unit enables it to be replicated and arranged in many different multiples of the basic unit for efficient use of space in large or complex computer facilities. The shelves in the units are vertically spaced close together for the compact storage of the cartridges and arranged to provide for convenient hand removal of the cartridges from the file. Only the shelves of the storage file units are provided with cartridge separating walls which are constructed and arranged so that a grasped group of the IBM 3480 cartridges are easily quickly inserted as a group in any open area of the file unit.

Abstract: A package of a tray carrying relatively heavy objects such as an array of beverage cans, and a tube securely circumferentially applied about the tray. The tray has end walls that extend to the tops of the objects in the tray and the upper portions of the end walls are foldable outwardly away from the objects and have hand holds. The ends of the tube securely lap over the tops of the end ranks of objects. That arrangement permits the tray to be carried in a depending hanging condition from either upper end wall portion without having the objects fall from the tray.

Abstract: A package of a rectangular tray with a rectangular array of generally cylindrical containers carried therein in a conforming pattern with a stretched-tensioned-elastic plastics material tube encircling the bottom and side walls of the tray and the upper portions of the container array. The side walls of the tray are relatively low, and the end walls are relatively high and provided with hand holds. The tensioned tube causes the bottom wall of the tray to be curvilinear about an axis longitudinally and centrally of said package so that the package will not bend downwardly about a transverse central axis of the package when the package is carried by a person grasping the hand holds in the end walls of the tray.

Abstract: A packaging method and machine for placing highly stretched relatively thin elastic plastics tubes from a roll of such tubes about a series of generally rectilinear objects. The method and machine involve three basic mechanism, one is a jaw assembly that opens and closes and tilts up and down to receive and stretch a tube and release the tube about one of the objects, the second is a tube shuttle assembly that delivers a tube to the jaw assembly and retracts into the next tube, and the third is a chain and paddle conveyor that intermittently delivers objects to the jaw assembly and moves the objects from the jaw assembly after a tube has been applied.

Abstract: A cabinet arrangement for the storage and use of cassette-like objects such as microfilm boxes or data tape cartridges with the cabinet in one form intended to be placed upon a table adjacent a person's work station, and in another stacked form intended to be used from a floor position. The cabinet arrangement comprises a plurality of open-faced boxes individually rotatively mounted on a swivel base assembly. The boxes can be aligned in any combination of the open-faced sides facing outwardly for access to the microfilm boxes or inwardly for prevented access to the cassette-like objects. A number of constructions are shown for fixing the boxes against rotation in any such combination.

Abstract: Multipackages, packaging elements, and the method for making the multipackages wherein the containers of the multipackages are primarily containers having a generally cylindrical shape such as commonly used beverage bottles and cans and wherein the containers are arranged in the well known six or eight pack configurations. The package making elements are a pair of circumferentially continuous bands made from elastic plastic film materials capable of being highly stretched below the elastic limits thereof. The bands are applied in a highly tensioned condition, as opposed to known shrink film arrangements, about the group of containers with the axis of one band disposed vertically and with the axis of the other band disposed horizontally and longitudinally of the group to make a stable package capable of being carried by a person grasping the upper portion of the band arranged with its axis disposed horizontally.

Abstract: A modified coin track assembly for known slot machines of the type which is generally operated by a person first inserting a coin of a certain value into the machine which causes the machine to be conditioned for a gaming operation, and by the person then initiating a gaming operation. The modified coin track assembly receives the inserted coin and checks the coin for certain predetermined parameters such as thickness, surface light reflectivity and an attached string, and prevents condition of the machine for a gaming operation if the coin does not have those predetermined parameters or has a string attached.

Abstract: An improved swabbing cup construction for use on the mandrel of a swabbing tool for clearing liquids and particulate matter, and initiating the flow of oil, from an oil well pipe. The improved cup construction is manually adjustable on the mandrel to compensate for wear of the cup to greatly increase the life of the cup and to substantially facilitate the swabbing procedure for an oil well pipe. The method comprises the steps of observing the wear of the swabbing cup and of manually increasing the outer diameter of the swabbing cup while it is on the mandrel and during swabbing operations of said oil well pipe.

Abstract: A tray construction for growing plants in which the construction comprises a one-piece substantially rigid tray frame with a plurality of plant frames mounted in the tray frame to define a plurality of plant growing containers interconnected in a unitary assembly. The tray frame may be conveniently molded from a foamed thermoplastic material and essentially comprises a plurality of substantially rigid tubular members vertically aligned and integrally interconnected in a rectangular array of a plurality of adjacent rows. The open spaces between diagonally opposed tubular members permit air to pass between the upper and lower sides of the tray frame. The plant frames are preferably frictionally held within the tubular members, and each plant frame essentially comprises a base section and a plurality of ribs secured to the base section to upstand therefrom.

Abstract: An improvement in an injection planting tool of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,832. The improvement is a detent mechanism on the tool that is manually operable to grasp the plant container being injection planted by a person with the tool in the event a rock interfers with the attempted planting, so that the container can be retained in the tool for another attempted planting.

Abstract: A multipackaging method and apparatus for multipackaging containers with a stretchable plastics material device or carrier that essentially uses the containers as the carrier applicating elements.

Abstract: A planting system in which the basic unit of the system comprises a plurality of individual containers for growing plants to a stage suitable for transplanting and in which the plurality of containers are secured in a flexible carrier sheet. The securement of each of the containers in the carrier sheet is such that the entire basic unit can be handled in a number of shipping, handling, filling, growing, and transplanting operations in a convenient, unique and efficient manner. Various articles of manufacture are contemplated in the system of the invention which aid and render in the unique and efficient use of the system. Those articles of manufacture include shipping and handling cartons, holding trays, filler plates and portable pack arrangements.

Abstract: A high-speed planting method and machine in which a plurality of plants are provided in a plurality of webs. The webs are flexible and each web carries a plurality of plants fixed in an array of a plurality of adjacent rows and substantially perpendicular ranks. In the method and machine, each web is bent in a curve about an axis parallel to the ranks of plants, and during the bending operation each leading rank of plants is ejected from the web as a group. Concurrently with that operation, each removed rank of plants is conveyed toward the ground, and each plant in each conveyed rank is successively set into the ground in spaced relation along a line.

Abstract: A cup comprising a bottom and sidewall, the cup being shaped so that it can be assembled into a stack between other identical cups, in upright attitude, into a condition in which:(a) the upper of two adjacent cups is supported by the cup below, without jamming,(b) the two adjacent cups define between them a space,(c) the two adjacent cups are restrained from axial displacement away from each other unless predetermined axial separating forces are applied to the two cups,(d) the space is cut off from atmosphere by a seal, or near-seal, provided by cooperation between a circumferential surface on one of the two adjacent cups and a circumferential line or surface on the other of the two cups,(e) the support is provided in conjunction with the seal or near-seal, or by separate cooperating portions of the two cups,(f) and the restraint is provided by the seal or near-seal, or by separate cooperating portions of the two cups,The cup being distinguished by the features that:(g) the cup is of integral construction, of

Abstract: An apparatus for an envelope processing machine in which opened envelopes are serially presented by the machine to a work station in the machine for manual removal of the contents of each serially presented envelope. The apparatus comprises means operating responsive to the hand of a person being moved into and out of a contents removal attitude to a presented envelope to control the serial presentation of envelopes. In a preferred embodiment the apparatus comprises a light source and a photoelectric cell mounted in a spaced apart relationship to each other and to a presented envelope in the machine.

Abstract: A metal can lid with a push-in opening device for cans having pressurized contents in which the opening device is formed in the lid from the material of the lid and in which the opening device comprises a panel large enough to be pushed into a can to which the lid is applied by a person's finger pushing downwardly on the panel and in which the panel has a folded periphery which remains with the panel as a reinforcement for the panel against bending of the panel as it is pushed downwardly into the can. A portion of the folded periphery is separated by a line of fracture from the lid, and the lid and panel construction are made to avoid sharp exposed edges.

Abstract: A thin-walled cup including wall portions having internal and external surfaces so shaped that, when the cup is nested with an identical cup in an upright attitude, the said external surfaces of the upper cup cooperate with the said internal surfaces of the lower cup, so as to resist separation of the cups, provide a seal between the cups, and provide for cushioned relative movement of the cups towards each other, with a limit to such movement.

Abstract: A planting machine for inserting plants, such as seedlings which have been grown in a cartridge, to a substantial depth in the open ground and substantially absent of any plowing or rocking effect on the plant during the planting operation and while the machine is moving along the ground. In a preferred embodiment the machine comprises a frame which is supported for movement along the surface of the ground. The frame carries a planting mechanism, an operator and a supply of seedling cartridges. The planting mechanism is driven by a ground wheel and is so arranged that as a plant is inserted into the ground to a substantial depth while the machine is moving along the ground, the plant is free of any horizontally directed component of force which may tend to produce an elongated opening in the ground.

Abstract: A multiple container package for consumer direction with filled containers and for return direction with empty containers; the containers, such as cans or bottles, being of the type having a reduced generally cylindrical neck portion with an outward shoulder or bead formation below the neck opening; and including a resilient and deformable plastic carrier sheet positioning the containers in the packaged array by means of bands presenting apertures in the carrier sheet receiving the neck portions and with edges of the bands engaging beneath the shoulder or bead formations, and with tabs projecting laterally outwardly from opposite edges of the carrier sheet adjacent the apertures so that upon association of the neck portions with the band apertures, the tabs and carrier material along these outer edges will assume the curvature of the container neck portions with minimum stretching and tendency toward taking a set during storage and shelf life of the filled containers and with the tabs to deflect sharply downw