Abstract: An illusory time display system of clock hand or hands in a case too small in radial dimension to permit normal rotation of the hands around the case, provides nevertheless for normal rotation of the hands and accurate conventional display of time. The outer ends of the hands travel in a smoothly contoured channel along the case periphery and collapse axially into themselves by contact with the case as they are conventionally rotated by any conventional drive, to accomplish the apparently impossible non-jamming travel around the too-small case. Various versions of odd-shaped and/or non-concentric timepiece face, case, and hands that further the illusion are disclosed.

Abstract: A basic snowblower unit powered by an engine has a rectangular shroud housing a fan with a drive member associated with it. A considerable number of special units including lawnmower, vacuum-and-bagger, leaf picker, edger, rotary tiller, leaf blower, sprayer, electric generator, hydraulic pump, and air compressor, are individually attachable for support and powering by the basic snowblower unit, providing for all-year use of it, compact storage and economy in purchase and ownership.

Abstract: A folding table especially adapted for use with a central pole supporting it, as under a beach umbrella, has a central hub with provision for detachably mounting at any desired level on a pole and a radial array of spokes pivotally mounted on the hub and supporting as a table surface, a disk of flexible material. In use position the spokes are radially deployed and rest against an annular flange of the hub, where a nut on a threaded coaxial portion of the hub holds them. The hub can be mounted so that the spokes fold upward for storage, or the hub can be inverted so that the spokes fold downward for storage. In folded position the table can easily be carried separate from or with a pole. The table surface or disk of flexible material can be easily removed and replaced with the spokes in folded position.

Abstract: A system for discharging coal frozen in railroad gondola cars includes provision for passing current through the shell of a gondola to melt the icy interface between coal and gondola, and for dropping the frozen coal out of the gondola by inverting the gondola; an embodiment includes shaking the gondola while inverted, after which the coal may be mechanically broken; special articulated electrodes or high current bus bars with electromagnets for self-holding of the bus bars to the sides of a gondola are disclosed.

Abstract: A system for spray-washing salt and the like from the underside of a motor vehicle has a hollow handle for connection to a garden hose at a first end and to upward spray nozzles on wheels covered by a body or housing with anti-snag shape, at a second end. Steering the spray nozzles to spray in a desired direction within a wide arc requires only twisting the handle in the direction desired. A flexible portion of the handle or alternatively a flexible handle provides this advantage. A detergent or liquid soap container is fixed upright on the handle in position for preventing a user's hand from striking a vehicle being washed on the underside. The handle and the spray may be detached and used apart from the body for hand-held applications.

Abstract: A system for providing fire safety from burning ends of cigarettes includes a perforate tube with end caps, one of which has for receiving a cigarette there-through an aperture with a plurality of slits radiating from it; a cigarette so-received is held with burning end located in the perforate tube by a plurality of longitudinal ribs integrally protrusive along the perforate tube interior wall; the perforate tube perforations are arrayed in a plurality of circumferential rows; row to row spacing helps determine burning time of an unpuffed cigarette, which is extinguished after a short interval if unpuffed.

Abstract: A holder system for providing fire-safety of a cigarette being smoked and automatic extinguishment of it after a predetermined time includes a perforate tube with a spaced succession of internal rings that fit closely around a burning cigarette; in the absence of a puff on the cigarette within a predetermined time the burning end of the cigarette is extinguished as it reaches the nearest internal ring; the holder opens to receive a cigarette between identical halves separated along a longitudinal plane; an end cap and stud-in-hole structures provide for detachably securing the halves together.

Abstract: A combined tire and radio-controlled powered vehicle substantially concealed within the tire produce in combination the facility to roll across flat surfaces and to turn corners at considerable speed, leaning into the direction of turn. The vehicle has the following wheels: two rear drive wheels, one front steerable wheel, and two upright-axle wheels at the sides near the front steerable wheel enable the powered vehicle to swerve against either tire sidewall on command, and to some extent to climb it, steering the tire and driving it. The vehicle has a body curve in elevational view similar to the tire perimeter curvature.

Abstract: A holder permits a conventional nail clipper to be operated with only a downward press of one finger or one toe, with the hand or foot having the nail to be cut resting on a common surface with the holder; a toenail can be cut without need to sit or to bend over if such would help a sufferer with arthritis or would speed up the nail cutting process, the clipper butt end instantly slips into a socket in the block-like base of the holder, and is as quickly removed; a portion of the clipper with the jaws protrudes upwardly and forwardly beyond the holder and the socket has an incline downwardly toward the rear that tips the jaws upward for safe visibility and for increasing the securance of the clipper in the socket under pressure of nail cutting.

Abstract: A wire stripper provides for one-hand thermal-stripping of thermoplastic insulation from wire in a substantial range of wire sizes without need for adjustment or alternation in manipulation of the wire relative to the stripper or of the stripper relative to the wire. The stripping operation requires merely insertion of a free-end of thermoplastic-insulated wire in the larger end of a teardrop-shaped slot in a flat conductive strip tensioned between electrodes passing current through the strip, then withdrawing the free end of wire out of the slot in a direction wedging the insulation in the smaller end of the slot as the wire is withdrawn from it, either with or without a twist of the free end. A novel electrode mount both maintains tension on the flat conductive strip when it is heated and serves as closure of a box that holds the current transformer supplying the electrodes.

Abstract: A knife system with symmetrical "U"-section swing handles has a removable, integral accessory detachably force fitted to it to lock the handles together in blade-exposed or use-position, and to serve as a scraper, a pair of offset screwdrivers providing finger relief, and a grip improver. The force-fit may advantageously include three types of engagement between the lock and the handles for maximum security. The lock may be easily installed by tapping it with or against something; removal is difficult except by appropriately directed tapping.

Abstract: A friction boiler system has a rotary member frictionally engaging a housing having adjustable fit to the rotary member. The rotary member has a gray iron cover fixed on it and rotating with it. The housing is in two halves split longitudinally, each half has fixed therein a hemi-cylindrical liner of gray iron for fitting the circumference of the rotary member. To adjust the fit, a wedge on each side, driven by a screw-actuated cam, sets the spacing between the housing halves, against spring bias urging the housing halves together. The screw actuated cam has a straight portion guided by guideways and an angled portion inclined to the direction of wedge motion and riding in a recess in the respective wedge. A heat-transfer circulation system carries fluid heated by the frictional boiler system to point of use, and return, if a closed system is used. An electric motor may be employed as one form of power. Kinetic energy of other origins can be directly and efficiently converted to thermal energy by the system.

Abstract: A wrench system provides for resiliently holding a nut periphery between opposed jaws and holding washer axially of the nut between arms at right angles to the jaws and with the jaws between the arms; adjustment of inter-jaw spacing is provided by a first sliding member carrying past an extended portion of each jaw at an inclined angle thereto respective provisions urging it inward toward the other jaw or outward away from it, depending on direction of sliding; convolutions in the extended portions of the jaws provided for step setting of jaw spacing; a second sliding member carries the washer holding arms into position for washer holding in alignment with a nut held by the wrench system, or away from that position to provide clear access for nut loading; a headed screw fixes the first and second sliding members in selected relation to the handle.

Abstract: A simple and economical vehicle accelerator setting control system for motor vehicles having pivotal brake and accelerator pedals includes knob-controlled provision for setting an angled portion of an elongate speed control rod assembly in position for holding an accelerator pedal down in a manner releasable by hand on the knob or by foot preserve on the brake pedal; the speed control rod assembly has a bottom portion angled to swivel over the accelerator pedal and hold it down by means of a catch acting on a rack on the speed control rod assembly; to release engagement of the rack, the knob is rotated manually to present a smooth, non-engageable surface to the rack, and the same thing is done by foot pressure on the vehicle brake pedal, which causes an arm adjustably mounted to the brake pedal to swing against and rotate the angled portion free of the accelerator pedal.

Abstract: A curved-end guide receives traction-feed paper, emerging from a printer or the like, through a slot adjacent the curved-end and re-folds and on a table portion re-stacks the paper in minimum space, with minimum complexity and cost, without delay, without any moving parts and without need to modify the printer, which it stands over on snap-in-place legs that quickly adapt it to fit most customary printers.

Abstract: A radio controlled vehicle within a sphere has two wheels touching the sphere at diametrically opposite points, with the mass of the body of the vehicle hanging underslung from the wheels; to preserve a constant length always fitting the sphere interior the wheel which steers has a steering axis substantially congruent with the sphere diameter on which the wheels touch the sphere; when confronted with an obstacle stopping roll of the sphere in a given direction, the vehicle climbs the interior wall of the sphere and either tumbles backwards or to the side, or may perform an Immelmann maneuver, depending on course taken within the sphere by the wheels which are free to travel in any part of the sphere interior.

Abstract: An improved detachable pocket assembly for carrying I.D. cards, photos, coins, keys, tickets and the like on apparel such as shoes includes a pocket formed between front and back faces of sheet material, one of which faces preferably has a transparent plastic window sealed over an opening in it. The pocket can be pivoted in order for the wearer to look into it when wearing it on a shoe. The pocket has at the upper end an opening for access to contents, covered by a first extension at the top of the front face, folds over in a rearward and downward direction for rain shedding and has provision for securing the pocket to apparel, in the form of a strap-like extension from the bottom of the pocket that wraps around the pocket and detachably secures by snaps intermediate the back of the pocket and on the front of the pocket.

Abstract: A note aid transposer for guitars and other instruments has a plurality of independent slides in a frame holding them parallel; each slide represents a separate string of an instrument; parallel with the slides but at the top of the frame a numbered fret array indication co-acts with equally spaced one-note measures therebeneath on a scale displaying the notes and below them the corresponding names of the notes; along the left side of the frame a slide retaining strip at a right angle to the fret array and overlying a portion of the slides in a position aligned with the left edge of the zero fret position has a separate open string notation for each slide; a similar strip lies to the right edge of the highest fret position but provides a different open string indication for the respective slides, which can project from either side of the frame for adjustment to the desired open string tuning position and thus indicate resultant note values at all fret locations.

Abstract: A system for automatic evacuation of sewage from a holding tank or tanks in a vacuum operated sewage system provides in preferred embodiment a spherical holding tank with laterally located port for sewage intake, bottom port for sewage discharge to a vacuum main and detachably-covered top port for installation, inspection and maintenance. A float covers the bottom port until sufficient sewage collects to buoy it up, uncovering the bottom port and permitting vacuum discharge of the sewage in the holding tank. Ballast orients the float at all times. Rings of grooves in the lower exterior of the float insure sufficient leakage past the float to maintain portage in the vacuum discharge line. Simple ballast adjustment is provided.

Abstract: A portable, battery-powered combination probe search test light, test lead, and continuity tester provides a selection of modes of use for illuminated and non-illuminated search and continuity indication, in a simple circuit; according to needs indicated by push-button switches, continuity of a circuit to be tested may be indicated by illumination; in a further mode continuity is indicated by illumination of a dimmer light; these modes provide for testing the lights individually; two flexible leads with clips and a novel housing-mounted pivotal probe in selective combination provide contacts for the versatile modes of testing and for charging the battery either, with or without, illumination indicating charging.