Abstract: Silver is removed from polymeric film chips such as photographic and X-ray film in a caustic treatment bath which dissolves or separates the saran and gelatin layer from the polymer, particularly polyester, layer. The silver is captured for recovery in a diatomaceous filter medium through which the treatment bath liquid is passed. Preferably liquid passed to the filter is silver-rich liquid skimmed from the top of the treatment bath. Chips and other debris are seived or screened from the liquid before filtering.

Abstract: An oil filler funnel and cap are adapted for permanent mounting upon an engine to connect to the usual oil filler passage. The oil filler funnel and cap replaces the normal filler cap, by means of a bar and a sealing gasket. A pipe, which can be routed to avoid other engine parts, extends generally gravitationally upwardly to an enlarged funnel form. The top of the funnel is closed by a sealing cap or lid. The funnel is enlarged in cross section, to allow a car owner to easily fill the engine with oil without spilling same and without the use of auxiliary devices.

Abstract: An automatic focus adjusting device for use with an optical instrument hag a focusable objective lens which is adjusted by optical and electronic components of the instrument, such components determining the distance of an object by comparing images of separate scanning and reference optical systems. The device of the present invention has a low-reduction filter screen placed across part of each light path of the two optical systems. The filters provide an overriding apparent contrast to low-contrast object fields to cause the system to adopt a pre-set focus distance, but do not interfere with normal automatic focusing where object field contrast is adequate for normal system operation. Manual adjustment of the filter spacing varies the pre-set, low-contrast focus to any desired object distance setting. Five to ten percent light reduction in the screened part of each filter is adequate.