Abstract: A material spreader includes a hopper having an opening in its bottom through which material flows to a rotatable fan, which is driven from one of a pair of support wheels for the hopper during pushing or pulling of the spreader across the ground, for spreading the material. A gate, which is pivotal about the same axis as the axis about which the fan rotates, has an opening, which is smaller than the opening in the hopper, to control the portion of the opening in the hopper through which the material flows to control the spread pattern produced by rotation of the fan. A shutter, which is disposed beneath the gate, has an opening, which is smaller than the opening in the gate, cooperating with the opening in the gate to control the rate of flow from the hopper. The gate has a first arcuate slot therein within which is disposed a bolt supported by the hopper to limit pivoting of the gate. A wing nut cooperates with the bolt to lock the gate in the desired position without affecting movement of the shutter.

Abstract: An article is clamped in a predetermined position on a support, which is movable along a reciprocating path by a stepping motor. This movement of the support positions selected and spaced portions of the article at a fixed location at which a fastener element is attached to an edge of the article. The movement of the stepping motor is controlled by a computer program whereby the selected and spaced portions of the article are spaced from each other as desired.

Abstract: An umbrella support includes a planar support having upper and lower pockets thereon to receive a curved or straight handle of a short or long umbrella shaft, respectively, of an umbrella to be supported. The support is mounted on the front or back of a user's body. When mounted on the back, the angle of the planar support to the user's body can be varied by a pivotally mounted plate at the bottom of the planar support engaging the user's body at various angles. The upper end of the planar support has guide passages to receive a portion of the umbrella shaft and retain it therein. Leather straps secure the umbrella shaft to the planar support between the upper or lower pocket in which the handle end of the shaft is supported and the passages in the guides. The upper end of the planar support has a pivotally mounted plate with slots therein to receive the umbrella shaft when the plate is in a horizontal position.

Abstract: A modular drainage apparatus has a plurality of preformed plastic bodies supported by a header. One of the bodies includes a collection chamber connected to the pleural cavity of a patient and connected to a first passage formed in the header. A second body includes a U-shaped liquid seal chamber having one end connected to the first passage and its other end connected to a second passage formed in the header. The second passage is connected to a vacuum pump, which creates a suction within the collection chamber through the liquid seal chamber. A third body includes a U-shaped chamber to regulate the negative pressure produced by the vacuum pump to a desired negative pressure. The second body also includes a second U-shaped chamber having one end connected to the atmosphere and its other end connected to the liquid seal chamber adjacent its connection to the first passage.

Abstract: A belt, which passes around a pulley on a shaft of an element movable about a pivotal connection to tighten the belt, is tightened by a tool including a body, which rests on the pivotal element, and a handle pivotally mounted to the body. A flexible band has one end attached to the body and is passed around the pivotal element and through guides on the body prior to being releasably connected to the handle. When the handle is pivoted relative to the body with the flexible band tight around the pivotal element, the pivotal element is moved about its pivotal connection to tighten the belt.

Abstract: A pivoting rocking actuator has a first bottom surface, which comprises two spaced portions, resting on an upper surface of a membrane contact switch assembly when the actuator is in its rest position. The actuator has one end of a buckling spring, which is initially buckled in a selected direction, acting against its upper surface with the other end of the spring acting against a key, which is slidably mounted on a frame, of a keyboard. When the key is depressed, the spring catastrophically buckles in the selected direction to cause initial pivoting of the actuator about a forward edge of each of the spaced portions. This causes a curved bottom surface of the actuator to rotate about a pivot point on the bottom curved surface to close a contact switch of the membrane contact switch assembly.

Abstract: A support beam is formed of two wooden members held in spaced relation to each other by spaced blocks to provide openings to receive tobacco sticks with tobacco stalks thereon. Each end of the support beam has a longitudinal slot extending therethrough to enable a cable, which is attached to a rafter in the upper end of the barn, to extend therethrough. The lower end of each cable has a loop for attachment to a drum of a hoist mechanism, which has a portion bearing against the bottom surface of the support beam. The support beam has a depending projection spaced inwardly from each end to limit the outward movement of each of the hoist mechanisms. The drum of each of the hoist mechanisms is rotated separately to enable the support beam to be raised upwardly into the barn at an angle to clear rail supports on which the support beam is supported.

Abstract: A security hand band is formed of a strip of bright colored, waterproof cloth. The strip has a first opening adjacent one end thereof to receive a user's thumb. After the user inserts the thumb in the first opening, the strip is passed around the back of the hand and then wrapped around the palm of the hand so that a second opening in the strip also receives the thumb of the user. The strip has attaching elements on its end beyond the second opening for cooperation with attaching elements on the portion of the strip passed over the back of the hand initially so as to retain the strip on the hand. The two openings are large enough to enable various size hands to use the security hand band. The portion of the strip in the palm of the hand of the user has a Velcro material to attach a canister of tear gas, for example, thereto through the canister having Velcro material for attaching to the Velcro material on the strip. The strip also has reflectors on its end beyond the second opening to reflect light at night.

Abstract: A tine tiller has a frame mounted on traction wheels for movement in either direction. The frame has tines rotatably mounted on each side thereof and driven in either direction irrespective of the direction of movement of the frame by rotation of the traction wheels. The speed of rotation of the traction wheels can be changed without stopping movement of the frame.

Abstract: A modular drainage apparatus has a plurality of preformed plastic bodies supported by a header. One of the bodies includes a collection chamber connected to the pleural cavity of a patient and connected to a first passage formed in the header. A second body includes a U-shaped liquid seal chamber having one end connected to the first passage and its other end connected to a second passage formed in the header. The second passage is connected to a vacuum pump, which creates a suction within the collection chamber through the liquid seal chamber. A third body includes a U-shaped chamber to regulate the negative pressure produced by the vacuum pump to a desired negative pressure. The second body also includes a second U-shaped chamber having one end connected to the atmosphere and its other end connected to the liquid seal chamber adjacent its connection to the first passage.

Abstract: A vertically fed strip of material is cut into segments of selected lengths by a movable cutting knife cooperating with a fixed knife in which both of the knives are mounted in a frame for rotation between first and second cutting positions. When the knives are in the first cutting position, a segment is cut from the strip of material at a first angle other than orthogonal to the feed path. Rotation of the frame positions the cutting plane of the knives at a second angle to the first angle and other than orthogonal to the feed path to cut the segment, which is held prior to being cut at the first angle, to produce a pointed end.

Abstract: A drainage apparatus has a collection chamber connected to the pleural cavity of a patient with a vacuum pump connected through a water seal chamber to the collection chamber. A pressure regulating chamber maintains the negative pressure created by the vacuum pump in the water seal chamber at a desired negative pressure. When there is an increase in negative pressure within the pleural cavity of the patient, atmospheric pressure is transmitted through a liquid at a selected level in an excess negativity chamber to the collection chamber to reduce the negative pressure in the collection chamber and the pleural cavity of the patient connected thereto to a selected maximum above the negative pressure maintained in the collection chamber by the vacuum pump and regulated by the pressure regulating chamber.

Abstract: An electron beam, which is applied along an axis from a source to a target, is aligned along the axis by deflecting the beam off the axis to a reference location. At the reference location, the source image of the electron beam is centered on a sensing plate through shifting the beam by an alignment yoke until the sensed current is a maximum through correction signals that are supplied to the alignment yoke. These correction signals are continuously applied to the alignment yoke when the electron beam is returned from the reference location to the position in which it is applied to the target.

Abstract: A two-stage reciprocating compressor has its low pressure stage inlet connected to a source of gas generating a varying volume of gas. When the supply of gas generated is reduced to an extent that the pressure at the low pressure stage inlet decreases below a predetermined pressure, the compressor is unloaded at either the discharge outlet of its low pressure stage or the discharge output of its high pressure stage through opening a valve in a line connecting the discharge outlet of the low pressure or high pressure stage with the inlet of the low pressure stage.

Abstract: A separator tank has a pressurized separating medium of a selected specific gravity introduced through one of its two end walls adjacent the top of the level of the medium, which forms the bath, in the tank. The other end wall of the tank has weir discharge openings to enable the coal, which is separated from the waste of the raw coal through floating to the top of the medium while the waste falls to the bottom of the medium, to flow therethrough with the medium to a weir chute and to maintain a selected level of the medium within the tank. The tank has a paddle wheel assembly to pick up the waste on a semi-cylindrical bottom wall of the tank and remove it therefrom. The paddle wheel assembly has a plurality of equally angularly spaced arms with each including an outer arm, which is resiliently biased to pass over obstructions, having its tip ride along the bottom wall of the tank.

Abstract: A dielectrically isolated region of a monocrystalline substrate, which has a <100> orientation, has a drain region of a field effect transistor (FET) in a surface having a (100) crystal orientation with the drain region being of opposite conductivity to the conductivity of the substrate. A gate channel extends into the substrate from the drain region and is surrounded at its upper end by the drain region. An enlarged recess extends into the substrate beneath the gate channel and has its walls of opposite conductivity to the conductivity of the substrate to form a source region and a plate of a capacitor when the FET is part of a storage cell. The source region has its upper end surrounded by the gate channel.

Abstract: A conductor bit line for a dynamic random access memory (RAM) structure is formed of a material selected from the group consisting of polycrystalline silicon and a metal silicide, polycrystalline silicon and a conductive metal, and polycrystalline silicon, a metal silicide, and a conductive metal with the polycrystalline silicon contacting at least a portion of the drain region of the field effect transistor of each of a plurality of cells of the RAM structure via a self-aligned contact. When the selected material is polycrystalline silicon and a metal silicide, the conductor bit line is continuous.

Abstract: A body has a recess in one surface and within which is disposed a non-circular cutting element retained therein by an epoxy. The non-circular cutting element has its cutting edge formed by beveling its inner surface. The non-circular cutting element extends sufficiently beyond the one surface of the body to be able to penetrate into a face plate, which is utilized with a stoma and in which the non-circular opening is to be cut for use with the stoma of the same shape. A circular template of a clear plastic is removably mounted on the one surface of the body and has a plurality of circles of varying diameters thereon to center the non-circular cutting element relative to a face plate adhesive blank of one of the varying diameters to enable cutting of the same non-circular opening in the adhesive blank. The template has a pair of parallel lines along its circumference to align with a tab on the adhesive blank.

Abstract: A crutch gauge has an adjustable extension leg movable vertically in either direction relative to a pair of side members, which are the same length as the side members of a standard crutch, to enable determination of the length of an adjustable extension leg that is to extend beyond the side members of the crutch for a person being fitted. The crutch gauge includes a locking arrangement that enables the person, who is being fitted, to be supported by the crutch gauge while walking. The movement of the adjustable extension leg of the crutch gauge in either direction is accomplished without a person, who is fitting the person, having to bend over. The crutch gauge includes an adjustably positioned handle, which is disposed in one of five positions in accordance with the person being fitted.

Abstract: Raw coal, which contains coal and waste, is introduced into a sizing box having vertically spaced screens inclined rearwardly with the screens being vibrated to separate particles below a selected size from the raw coal. Raw coal is introduced into a washer box, which has a medium therein of a selected specific gravity to cause coal below a specific gravity to float to the top of the medium so as to be separated from the waste with the waste, which is of heavier specific gravity, falling to the bottom of the washer box. The medium and the separated coal therein flow along an inclined trough to a vibrating shaker, which has a plurality of vertically spaced screens inclined rearwardly. When flowing along the trough, at least half of the medium returns to a sump from which it is supplied by a pump to the washer box to maintain a desired level of the medium so that the medium will continuously flow from the washer box along the trough to the shaker.