Abstract: A valve arrangement for amplifying the effect of the application or removal of atmospheric pressure upon a fluid pressure responsive actuator element such as a pneumatic cylinder or bellows comprising superposed chambers one connected to the atmosphere and the other to a source of vacuum and intermediately of them a chamber connected to the fluid pressure responsive actuator element and forming actually the beginning of a conduit leading to the actuator element. The middle chamber may selectively be set to communicate with one or the other of the two outer chambers through aligned openings in the walls that separate these chambers from the middle chamber and that may alternately be closed by a common stopper which can be moved to close one or the other of the openings so that either atmospheric air or a vacuum is applied through this middle chamber to the actuator element.

Abstract: A compact adjustable bridge and string-anchoring structure for stringed musical instruments in the form of a bar whose top surface carries in juxtaposition bridge sections, one for each string, which are mounted for movement in a direction longitudinally of the strings and are equipped with means operable to vary their positions individually. Arranged in the front edge area of the bar are open anchoring recesses provided with small funnel-shaped apertures in their rear walls for the strings to pass through and emerge at the rear edge area of the bar while the beaded ends of the strings are retained and sheltered in the recesses. This rear edge area is smoothly rounded for the strings to be folded upwardly over said area into engagement with the individual bridge sections on the top surface of the bar.

Abstract: A coin roll so constructed that its jacket may easily be broken up and ready access be had to all the coins contained therein. The areas of the jacket adjacent the coin retaining crimps at the upper and lower ends of the roll are each provided with a row of staggered, parallel, outwardly tilted slits that make it possible to unwrap and remove the central area of the jacket in the manner of a circumferential tear strip so that most of the coins in the stack are released. At the same time the crimps at the ends of the jacket that formerly retained a small number of coins stubbornly, and made it difficult to dislodge them therefrom, have now lost their ability to retain these coins due to the fact that the outer end portions of the slits extend into the crimped areas of the jacket. As an additional aid in unwrapping the center area of the jacket, lines of perforations in the form of aligned, longitudinally extending slits may be provided in the wrapper adjacent the inner ends of the tilted slits.

Abstract: A drain clearance device comprising a length of flexible hose having at one of its ends means for connecting it to a source of water under pressure and at the other end a nozzle of elliptic contour longitudinally thereof and of a size to fit into a drain pipe. Said nozzle has four circumferentially spaced, slot-shaped orifices in the flanks of its rounded front end that are adapted to emit flat jets of water under increased pressure forwardly at an oblique angle against the inner surface of the drain pipe to dislodge and flush away any foreign matter that may have accumulated on the wall of the pipe and impede the free flow of water through the pipe. Intermediately of its ends the hose carries slidably mounted thereon means that may be manipulated to close the space around the hose to block back flow of water to the entrance opening of the drain during operation of the device.

Abstract: An actuating mechanism for moving an indicator, an operational tool or a structual component with a high degree of precision over precisely predeterminable distances to desired points of operation, which comprise a shaft, slidably mounted upon said shaft in end to end relation a sequence of interconnected actuating components of selectively variable length axially of said shaft each having limit stop means for positively and precisely predetermining its conditions of minimum and maximum length and thus its possible increment in length, said increments being arranged to differ for the individual components, means at one end of the sequence of components on said shaft for positively blocking movement of said sequence of components in one direction while leaving the opposite end free to move on said shaft in response to increases in the axial length of any one of said components, means selectively operable to actuate said components individually so that they assume either their condition of minimum length or the

Abstract: A device for converting a conventional Spanish guitar into an instrument which can be played like a Hawaiian guitar. The device comprises a spacer member in the form of a rod of substantial thickness that is slipped underneath the strings of the guitar to raise them above the frets in the upper surface of the guitar neck, and rigidly attached to said spacer member is a pressure member likewise in the form of a rod provided with a cover of a resiliently yieldable material that is to engage the strings of the guitar from above to hold them against the spacer member; and detachable means are provided to secure the pressure member to the neck of the guitar. The same device may also be used as a capotasto on Hawaiian type guitars.