Abstract: A barrier for retarding fire comprises water-permeable fabric for covering a substantial area, the fabric having at least 9 pockets per square foot, each pocket having a volumetric capacity of between about 0.03 cubic inches and about 17 cubic inches, wherein substantially all of the pockets contain between about 0.01 and about 2 grams of superabsorbent polymer per cubic inch of volumetric capacity of the pockets.

Abstract: A relatively simple and inexpensive apparatus for testing at least the air brakes of trailers includes a portable air-brake governing or actuation system and a hand-held control pendent, operating off an independent compressed air supply. Without the coupling of, and connections with, a tractor, the air brakes of a trailer can be applied and released, and held in a charged mode for a period of time during which any loss of air pressure can be monitored. Using the apparatus a single person can conduct the entire air brake test process, including applying and releasing the brakes while simultaneously visually and manually inspecting the brakes.

Abstract: A testing device for conducting the Initial Terminal Inspection of the air brake system of a made-up train includes a first valve assembly for at least charging and applying the brakes through the test device operable from the location at which the device is coupled between the train brake pipe and a supply of compressed air, and it also includes a second valve assembly for releasing the brakes actuated by receipt of a remotely-transmitted signal. The Initial Terminal Inspection requires that the brakes of a train be inspected in both their applied and their released positions. A testing device is normally connected to the train brake pipe at the locomotive end. The inspection of the brakes in their applied position requires the inspector to walk the length of the train, usually from the locomotive end to the far end of the train. This can be a distance of a half mile or a mile or more.

Abstract: An in-line skate has an auxiliary wheel rotatably mounted in a raised position relative the primary wheels at the side of the longitudinal alignment of primary wheels. A conventional in-line skate can be retrofitted with an auxiliary-wheel assembly having an auxiliary wheel mounted for rotation on an axle journalled onto a mounting member, which assembly can be easily attached to a conventional in-line skate. Using such an in-line skate, a hockey stop can be readily performed in a method of in-line skating.

Abstract: A multi-depth deflectometer provides use and fabrication advantages. It is comprised of a head member that normally is disposed at the very mouth of a bore hole, an elongated tail member extending down through the bore hole. Displacement transducers are removably positioned within the head member which can be opened from the surface. The transducers can be easily placed in or removed by hand. The first trackings of subsurface deflections are done through mechanical deflection anchors located at desired measuring levels within the tail member. The deflection anchors have transverse-bite actuators and are each separately in vertical-actuation communication with one of the transducers. A method of implementing the MDD reflects the use and fabrication advantages also.

Abstract: Wind-rain induced vibrations of a cable-stayed bridge are damped using tuned mass damper(s) (“TMD”). A TMD-damped cable-stayed bridge is comprised of (a) a bridge having at least one span, at least one pylon, and at least one stay cable extending from a point on the pylon to a point on the span and (b) at least one tuned mass damper in damping communication with the stay cable. A TMD-damped stay cable is comprised of (a) a stay cable comprised of a core of at least one longitudinal element or strand within a tube and (b) a tuned mass damper in damping communication with the stay cable. The TMD can be mounted on the stay cable in a low-profile position relative the stay cable and/or at any desired position along the length of the cable. The TMD can be of annular configuration and comprised of a viscoelastic spring system and an outer mass. The outer mass can be formed of two mating sections.

Abstract: A treestand platform is strung in a manner at least similar to the stringing of a sports racket, such as a tennis racket, and a treestand having such a platform. The platform might comprise a peripheral frame supporting and delimiting a tension surface formed by a plurality of crossed string sections. The strung surface may be sufficiently resilient to yield very slightly under load, but is sufficiently tenacious that such slight yielding occurs without breakage or permanent deformation. The stringing provides a platform that is both strong and lightweight. The stringing also provides a platform that has a downward visibility comparable to transparency, and which is substantially noiseless during treestand transport, assembly, erection and use, and any other handling.

Abstract: A flash card management apparatus has a progression of compartments that govern or direct which cards are reviewed at a given drill session. When the progression is ordered by card capacities, a given card will come up for review possibly at each drill session for the first few sessions, and then come up for review with ever decreasing frequency thereafter. The use of the management apparatus will assure that each card will be not only periodically reviewed, but also reviewed a fixed number of times before it is put on the side.

Abstract: A fire-fighting hose nozzle or line nozzle, that is, a nozzle used to discharge fluid spray during fire-fighting operations, is accoutered for high water-pressure spraying of water or other fire fighting fluid by professional firefighters. Such a high-pressure can, for instance, put about 200 pounds (p.s.i.) or more pressure on a nozzle tip. The nozzle has a long, slender body member with a weighted and pointed tip, a discharge orifice at a position rearward of the pointed tip, and at least one transverse member, and in embodiments a plurality of transverse members. The transverse member most proximate to the proximal end of the body member functions both as a set of handles and as a stabilizing member. A second transverse member functions as a stabilizing member. The orifice is a slot angle-cut forward or backward from its mid-section which produces a wide and high fan-shaped spray in either the forward or backward direction.

Abstract: A handgrip for a torque tool, such as a screwdriver, provides enhanced tool torque capabilities and improved driving capabilities. The handgrip has a top or free-end segment available for low-torque twirling action using the fingertips, and a bottom or working-end segment that together with the top segment is grasped in one's hand for high torque application. The handgrip has the configuration approaching that of a three-sided bell that provides finger holds, bearing surfaces, and outlying lobes which alone or in combination improve torque capabilities and/or driving capabilities for the effort applied.

Abstract: An attachment element for mounting or otherwise securing an ancillary device to the vicinity of a machine tool or the like provides quick locking/release on a dovetail element. The attachment member has a base member and a pair of spaced arms forming an open-mouthed way that slides over such a dovetail member. At a locking angle relative to the dovetail, the edges of the arms bear against the dovetail sides, and the edges of the distal ends of the arms bear against the surface from which the dovetail extends. That locking angle is less than 90° angle between the plane of the attachment element and the surface from which the dovetail extends. The attachment element is translatable from its locked orientation to a release orientation by a brief application of manual pressure on it.

Abstract: There is provided an adhesive system comprised of a pressure-sensitive adhesive matrix having dispersed therein organic particulate solids having a particle size no greater than 300 microns, and generally no greater than 225 microns, which matrix may have at least one, and generally two, sides coated with an unfilled pressure-sensitive adhesive material, which adhesive materials generally may be acrylic materials. Such adhesive system is one generally provided as a sheet, including elongated tapes, having a thickness of from about 25 to 60 mils.

Abstract: An aqueous scale inhibitor product is corrosive to the elongated feed lines of a geothermal well due to the length of such feed lines, extended residence time of the product therein, and/or the elevated internal temperatures reached therein, and such corrosivity of aqueous scale inhibitor products is reduced when the scale inhibitor actives are no more than about 10 weight percent of the aqueous solution, when the pH of such aqueous solution is raised to the range of from about 5.5, or 8, to about 12, when carbohydrazide is added to such product, and by combinations of such factors.

Abstract: There is provided an adhesive system comprised of a pressure-sensitive adhesive matrix having dispersed. therein organic particulate solids having a particle size no greater than 300 microns, and generally no greater than 225 microns, which matrix may have at least one, and generally two, sides coated with an unfilled pressure-sensitive adhesive material, which adhesive materials generally may be acrylic materials. Such adhesive system is one generally provided as a sheet, including elongated tapes, having a thickness of from about 25 to 60 mils.

Abstract: A fortified pressure sensitive adhesive is comprised of a polymerization product of, or a polymeric composition derived from a formulation comprising at least one non-tertiary acrylic acid alkyl ester formed from a primary or secondary alcohol, an organofunctional silane, wherein said organofunctional silane is present in said formulation in an amount sufficient to increase the adhesive characteristics of the pressure sensitive adhesive, and an ethylenically-unsaturated dimer, wherein the ethylenically-unsaturated dimer is present in the formulation in an amount sufficient to increase the adhesive characteristics of the pressure sensitive adhesive.

Abstract: A composition suitable as an additive in down-hole fluid for inhibiting clay swelling in a down-hole formation is comprised of an aqueous solution of a quaternary amine-based cationic polyelectrolyte and salt(s). The cation of the salt(s) may be a divalent salt cation, a choline cation, are certain N-substituted quaternary ammonium salt cations. The salt(s) anion may be a monovalent inorganic anion or an anion derived from an organic acid having from 2 to 6 carbons.

Abstract: An adhesive composition for a insect-control agent, such as gypsy moth pheromone beads, provides retention and water insolubility to such pesticide upon deposit of an aqueous mixture of such adhesive composition and insect-control agent. The adhesive composition concentrate comprises a salt such as sodium sulfate, an ethoxylated alkylphenol, a polymeric adhesive material, and a high molecular weight acrylate polymer.

Abstract: Leakage of water from a boiler water system wherein steam is generated in a boiler from feedwater fed to the boiler, and the concentration of impurities in the boiler water within the boiler is reduced by withdrawing fractions thereof as blowdown while admitting additional feedwater as boiler-water makeup, is determined. The boiler has a concentration cycle value, the concentration cycle value being the average value of the concentration of an inert component in the blowdown at steady state (C.sub.F) divided by the concentration of the inert component in the feedwater (C.sub.I). The concentration of the inert component in the boiler at steady state varies from a high concentration C.sub.H, having a value that is higher than C.sub.F, to a low concentration C.sub.L, having a value between the (C.sub.I) and the (C.sub.F), within a time period.

Abstract: Leakage is detected between a process fluid and a temperature-conditioning fluid, or from a process fluid to a temperature-conditioning fluid, in an industrial process. The industrial process includes an A and a B fluid, and one of the A and B fluids receives heat from or transfer heat to the other of the A and the B fluids by an indirect contact method, and one but not both of the A and the B fluids is an industrial process fluid. At least one specie of tracer chemical is maintained in the A fluid, and that specie of tracer chemical is not a normal component of the B fluid. At least one of the A and the B fluids is subjected to at least one analysis at least one site. Such analysis at least detects the presence of the specie of tracer chemical when the fluid subjected to the analysis is the B fluid, and such analysis at least determines the concentration of the specie of tracer chemical when the fluid subjected to the analysis is the A fluid.