Abstract: A soft-sided carrying case or travel bag having individual business document and paraphenalia storage compartments, an umbrella storage retainer, and a compartment suitable for storing clothes is combinable with an improved garment bag which may be folded in half and retained in that position by a neck and collar configuration on the top of the bag. A strap structure on the garment bag is selectably attachable to the travel bag carrying handle, thus avoiding the need for any specialized hooks, rings, slips, buckles or the like on the carrying case.

Abstract: A container for a cream, gel, or the like, includes a bottle or jar, a top or primary cap, and a secondary or inner cover which is positioned over a top opening in the jar and compressed into sealing engagement therewith by the closure of the cap on the jar. The inner cover includes a resilient frusto-conical wall portion positioned between an outer rim a central hub. As the cap is threaded onto the jar, a top wall of the cap engages and depresses the hub of the inner cover, and flattens the frusto-conical wall which then exerts radially outward pressure on the rim to sealingly engage same with lip on the opening of the jar.

Abstract: Improvements in a handbag or the like are disclosed which include an additional umbrella compartment adjacent the bottom of the bag being accessible through an opening in the bottom surface of the bag. The additional, out-of-the-way compartment is formed inside the handbag in soft-sided fashion, i.e., without the need for a rigid tubular compartment being added to the bag. Access to the compartment is obtained through a selectively closable opening positioned longitudinally along the bottom surface of the handbag. The opening may further extend partly up one or more of the end surfaces of the bag.

Abstract: A card for displaying price or other graphic information is mountable on a price rail of a conventional store display shelf, stand, or the like, and includes a central information carrying portion, and opposed tabs extending therefrom which are adapted to be retained in a conventional price rail. One of the tabs includes a remote enlarged portion suitable for containing information thereon and connected to that tab by a rib or a bridging portion which extends from an edge of that tab which is not retained by the price rail when the card is mounted therein.

Abstract: In the treatment of articles with a sterilant gas such as an alkylene oxide, and the circulation of the gas throughout a treatment chamber containing the articles to be treated, a gas circulating system completely devoid of electrical contacts, switches, electrical motors and other potentially dangerous electrical components which could cause explosive ignition of the sterilant gas. The circulation system includes a fluid-driven turbine-like impeller completely isolated from the sterilant gas, and drivingly coupled to a fan blade which serves to force the gas through conduits and to circulate and recycle the sterilant gas throughout the treatment chamber. In a second embodiment of the invention a magnetically coupled drive is used to actuate the sterilant-circulating fan.

Abstract: A spool-like protective device facilitates the mounting of a plurality of razor-sharp broadhead blades on an arrowhead while protecting a user's hands from being cut by the blades. The body of the device includes a tapered central bore adapted to receive an arrowhead and an array of blade receiving slots extending radially from the central bore and aligned in conventional evenly arcuately spaced orientation for receiving three and four blade or more broadhead arrows. Further, at least one side wall of each slot includes a protuberance extending therefrom into the slot forming a surface for frictionally engaging a blade positioned in the slot to prevent undesired movement of a blade once it is substantially inserted therein. An outer generally cylindrical surface on the body is adapted for being grasped by a user to facilitate handling and rotation of the arrowhead when manipulating the blades thereof while maintaining the user's finger's a safe distance from the razor-sharp blade edges.

Abstract: A highly stable, double-junction, modular reference electrode for assay of low-level halide concentrations, sulfides, perchlorates, silver, mercury, and other heavy metals, and including upper and lower axially in-line, readily accessible and conveniently fillable compartments for retaining electrically conductive compositions, an intercoupling removable plug constituting fluid-tight means bridging axially between the compartments and carrying a conduit providing a fluid permeable electrically and ionically conductive path between the compartments, an external cable lead projecting through a sealing cap closing the upper compartment for establishing electrical contact with a conductive medium contained in the upper compartment, a removable sealing plug at a lower open end of the lower compartment, and a conduit extending axially through said plug and providing a flow-restrictive fluid permeable path between the lower compartment and a test system external of the electrode.

Abstract: An improved commercial cube/crushed ice making machine includes a refrigeration unit having a water-to-refrigerant heat exchange condenser operatively connectible to an external water supply for heating water therein. The condenser provides for improved efficiency in the refrigeration unit over a conventional air-cooled condenser. Also, the water heating capability of the ice-making machine preferably functions as a secondary heat source for the external water supply, thus providing savings in energy costs for the primary water heating source. Further, the heat exchange relation between the refrigeration unit and the external water supply is determined by an improved control system which is responsive to both a refrigerant pressure at the condenser refrigerant outlet, and the water temperature at the condenser water outlet for controlling water flow through the condenser while maintaining a pre-determined refrigerant pressure in the heat exchange means.

Abstract: An improved surfactant system comprising a mixture of a non-ionic detergent, a tertiary amine oxide or amphoteric detergent, and a quaternary ammonium halide. The surfactant system of the invention is combined with other ingredients to yield 14 different commercially useful cleaners. Each of these cleaners has improved detergent properties compared with prior art cleaners.

Abstract: A food supplement concentrate of an ingestible agent such as a seasoning, flavoring, oleoresin, essential oil, vitamin, mineral, and mixtures thereof encapsulated, enveloped or otherwise encased as a dispersed microphase within but recoverable from a matrix of encapsulating medium such as a starch, protein, flour, modified starch, gum, and mixtures thereof. The concentrate is prepared by mixing the edible agent and the encapsulating medium with a limited quantity of water adequate to permit conversion of the mixture, under applied extrusion pressure and controlled heat, to provide a dense, essentially unexpanded glassy extrudate with said ingestible agent dispersed therethrough in microform.

Abstract: A method for effectively encasing an active agent such as a chemical compound, a seasoning, a flavoring, or a nutrient such as vitamins and minerals, including liquids, as a time-stable but releasable dispersion in a homogeneous polymeric encapsulating matrix of a modified starch, a gum or a protein material such as gelatin and casein to provide a concentrate of the active agent. The method is characterized in that the agent to be encased is mixed with the encapsulating material under conditions of rigorous and intimate mechanical working with applied high shearing stress but without phase-separating mechanical compression and compaction forces and in the presence of a limited quantity of water and sufficient heat to ensure the formation of a viscous, semi-solid, homogeneous paste constituting a mobile mass or plastic melt.

Abstract: A fluid-flow-regulating contact applicator consisting of a plug or sleeve secured as a closure for a liquid dispensing bottle or similar container. The applicator is formed with a plurality of liquid-permeable ducts extending through a top wall thereof to provide fluid flow communication between the interior of the container and the ambient system. The ducts are physically dimensioned so as effectively to invoke surface tension molecular forces including capillary forces to preclude free flow of liquid through the ducts in response to gravitation alone, but to allow through flow of liquid when an outer face of the applicator is presented to and establishes contact between liquid contained in the duct and a surface to which the liquid is to be applied, thereby overcoming flow-inhibiting surface tension forces.

Abstract: A roll-on type applicator assembly including a ball-type plastic fitment secured to the collar of a liquid dispensing container, and a closure therefor. The fitment includes an integrally formed sealing ring which constitutes a sharp rim formed at the intersection of a pair of angled annular faces. The applicator ball is supported in the fitment by means of an annular array of spring plates which bias the applicator ball upwardly of and out of contact with the sealing ring when the cap is removed from the container.

Abstract: A roll-on applicator including a fluid container surmounted by a fitment of a plastic composition and retaining an applicator ball. A closure cap, detachably secured, constitutes a cover for the fitment. With the cap removed and the applicator assembly in a functional, liquid-dispensing attitude, the applicator ball is biased upwardly by a pair of coplanar, horizontally extending, parallel spring bars integrally formed with and spanning the ball-holding fixture, the bars bridging the fixture and supporting the ball to establish an annular fluid flow communicating passage between the applicator surface of the ball and the interior of the dispensing container.