Patents Represented by Attorney Middleton & Reutlinge
  • Patent number: 5908033
    Abstract: A high humidity drying apparatus for cut tobacco is shown. The apparatus has a furnace which heats circulated air within the apparatus. The air is forced through a first arcuate elbow which has a tobacco air inlet located thereon for inserting the cut tobacco into the airstream. The tobacco is then redirected into a vertically extending drying chamber. The air entrained tobacco is then forced through a second arcuate elbow which places the tobacco into a tangential separator for removing the tobacco from the heated air. The separator has dual air exhausts, each leading to a high efficiency cyclone for further removal of the tobacco dust form the circulated air. All of the air is then passed back to the furnace for heating and then recirculated through the drying apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 1, 1999
    Assignee: Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation
    Inventors: Kevin R. Korte, Sr., Stacey Claire Braxton, Kayyani Adiga
  • Patent number: 5853056
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for penetrating a well casing (12) and surrounding earth strata includes the insertion of a flexible shaft (24) having a ball cutter (22) on an end thereof into upset tubing (18) within a well casing. The upset tubing is provided with an elbow (20) at its lower extremity for receiving the ball cutter therein. The flexible shaft is then rotated and the ball cutter cuts a hole in the well casing and is then moved horizontally a distance, usually less than 12 inches (30.5 cm). The flexible shaft and ball cutter are then removed and a flexible tube (48) having a nozzle blaster (46) on an end thereof is then inserted into the upset tubing in the channel. A fluid of surfactant and water at high pressure is then pumped into the tube wherein the high pressure fluid passes through orifice in the spiral drill thereby cutting an extension into the previously cut channel. The tube is continually fed into the channel as the high pressure fluid continues to blast away the earth's strata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 29, 1998
    Inventor: Carl W. Landers
  • Patent number: 5636672
    Abstract: An improved automatic shaping device wherein the shaping device includes a frame, a table mounted onto the frame, a movable template mounted onto the table, the table, a power-driven workpiece carrying member mounted to the table and a feed device for feeding the workpiece to a shaper mounted above the table wherein the shaper is provided with a shaper. The improvement includes a shaper mounted above the table wherein the shapper is provided with a vertically extending rotatable shaft having an upper end and a lower end wherein the upper end is in communication with a motorized drive and a cutter or shaper is attached to the lower end of the rotatable shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1995
    Date of Patent: June 10, 1997
    Inventor: William J. Rhodes