Abstract: A shutter for a photographic instrument comprises a support on which more than two sectors are swingably mounted and a rectilineally shiftable actuating member connected to the sectors for swinging same from a position in which the sectors block an opening in the support into a position in which the opening is adapted to pass light.

Abstract: A loading device for the rounds or cartridges of a revolver comprises a generally circular array of pockets receiving the individual cartridges and a ring which can be grasped by a finger to draw the loading device away from the cartridges. The unitary device has a closed cartridge ring, which can be injection molded around the cartridges and has the finger ring disposed at one side, is provided with at least one weakened zone. The weakened zone enables the cartridge ring to readily spread open. The pockets for the cartridges preferably open inwardly toward the axis.

Abstract: A screw extruder of the type in which a pair of counter-rotating screws of progressively increasing diameter plasticize and extrude thermoplastic resins and in which an equal ratio of power conversion in shear and convective heating to throuput of material is obtained over the length of the screws.

Abstract: A projectile to be fired from a tubular or rail-shaped launcher has a warhead integral with a rearwardly extending tube of smaller diameter which contains a propulsive charge inserted between the warhead and a sabot carrying a frangible inertial mass. The rear end of the tube has a constricted opening which, upon detonation of the charge, retains the rearwardly moving sabot while giving passage to the disintegrating mass as the projectile is propelled forwardly. The propulsion gases evolving within the tube are temporarily retained by one or more heat-destructible plugs in the sabot and/or in the tube which melt, burn or char to allow the delayed escape of the gases whereby an in-flight thrust is imparted to the projectile.

Abstract: The present invention relates to key clips adapted for a key case and comprises a vertical section and extending from such vertical section a horizontal section. The vertical section is equipped with an indent or ridge which is disposed spaced apart from the lower end of the vertical section. The end of the horizontal section is bent into a first short straight line section, which, in turn, is further bent into a second short straight line section. The second short straight line section is bent downwardly at its end to form an inverted section which terminates spaced apart slightly above the indent or ridge to operate flexiby in connection with the ridge. The key clips are designed to suspend on the horizontal section two or more keys which can be disposed parallel to each other, thereby, due to the effect of the vertical section combined with the horizontal section, avoiding the drawbacks inherent in the conventional "tear-drop" design.

Abstract: A vessel designed for deep-sea diving or for outer-space exploration has a hull divided into a multiplicity of concentric spherical shells separated by clearances in which air or some other fluid is maintained at a pressure constituting a fraction of the overall pressure differential between the interior of the vessel and the surrounding body of water or empty space. The fractional pressures, whose sum equals the overall differential, can be maintained by valves closing whenever the predetermined fractional differential of the respective clearance is reached; alternatively, a controller responsive to signals from individual pressure sensors in the several clearances can control a pressure pump with separate outlets to these clearances.

Abstract: A string holder for a string instrument comprises a support which is secured for the string instrument and formed with a plurality of generally parallel longitudinal guides in each of which a respective support block can be displaced through a relatively long longitudinal distance. This block can be locked at any location along the respective guide. Each of the blocks carries a two-arm lever one of whose arms is secured to the respective string and the other of whose arms is acted on by a screw for displacement of the one arm through a relatively short distance for fine tuning of the distance between bridge and anchor point for the respective string.

Abstract: An automotive transmission with three forward speeds and three reverse speeds is automatically upshifted or downshifted under the control of a speed sensor coacting with an output shaft of that transmission. The engine is automatically decelerated and accelerated during upshifting and downshifting, respectively, for a smooth transition from one speed ratio to the next. A changeover from forward driving to reverse, or vice versa, with the aid of a manual mode selector is possible only at relatively low shaft speeds. Another manual selector is settable to limit the operation of the system to one or two speed ratios in either the forward or the reverse mode.

Abstract: In order to correct errors in the reading of a graduated scale, especially on a compass card driven by a damped gyroscopic system, the scale is juxtaposed with a block having slits simultaneously alignable with different scale graduations and illuminable by respective light sources within the block. The light sources can be selectively energized by a rotary switch whose bank contacts are connectable via a changeover switch to either of two groups of light sources for positive or negative deviations from a reference position; the slit so illuminated serves as a pointer by coacting with a confronting scale graduation.

Abstract: A pancratic camera objective of varifocal ratio close to 5:1, and with a relative aperture varying between 1:1.2 in a wide-angle position and 1:1.5 in a telephoto position, has a pair of axially shiftable negative components bracketed by a pair of substantially fixed positive components. Its negative third component is more widely separated from its positive fourth component in the wide-angle position than in the telephoto position.

Abstract: A slicing and measuring apparatus for sausage and the like has a table which supports the foodstuff to be sliced and is displaceable back and forth adjacent a blade which is continuously rotated by an electric motor. The motor speed or current consumption is monitored to ascertain when the blade engages the foodstuff being sliced, and similarly the position of the table is monitored by means of a potentiometer. Thus it is possible to determine the diameter of the slice being produced, to square it and multiply it by an appropriate .pi. containing factor and by the known thickness of the slice to determine the volume thereof. Thereafter this volume is mulitplied by the density of the foodstuff to determine the weight of the slice and the weight of successive slices can be added to determine the total weight sliced.

Abstract: A bus bar with three phase conductors and one neutral conductor is engageable by an adapter in the shape of an elongate plug designed to connect an external circuit across the neutral conductor and a selected phase conductor. The adapter housing contains two parallel shafts A, B each carrying a resilient contact blade, these blades being retracted into the housing in a disengagement position and being extendible by rotation of the respective shaft through 90.degree.. A locking slide between the two shafts prevents rotation of shaft B until shaft A has been rotated to engage its blade with the neutral conductor whereupon shaft B may be rotated, in one of two axial positions, to bring the other blade into contact with the selected phase conductor whereby shaft A is locked in its engagement position. Shaft A also carries tongue-shaped detents which in its engagement position enter grooves in the bus bar to prevent untimely withdrawal of the adapter.

Abstract: The eccentric disc pump has a series of stator discs defining a series of axially interconnected pump stages each having a rotor disc mounted eccentrically on a common shaft extending within central cavities of the stator discs and angularly offset relative to the rotor disc of a preceding pump stage, adjacent stator and rotor discs being angularly offset one relative to the other at given angles of displacement and coupling means, e.g. rods, wedges and grooves or studs and recesses, respectively engaging each stator disc with that of an adjacent pump stage and positively locating such adjacent stator discs in positions, offset by a second angle one half of the first mentioned angular displacement between corresponding adjacent rotor discs whereby in each pump stage the cavity of the stator disc forms an enveloping curve for the path of the rotor disc rotatable therein.

Abstract: Paper trim, removed from a freshly made paper web by a slitter, is drawn by a subatmospheric pressure through a duct into a separating tank in which a suction is induced by a fan, the movement of the paper trim being killed by the circulation of pulp into this vessel from a mixing tank to which the slurry is delivered by a pipe from the bottom of the vessel. The pipe terminates in means forming a liquid seal and the solvent for the slurry is sprayed into the vessel to scrub the gas before it reaches the fan.

Abstract: A nozzle of a dyestuff applicator has a cylindrical valve housing formed with an orifice obstructable by the tip of an electromagnetically displaceable needle which controls the outflow of dyestuff from a chamber in that housing. The chamber is sealed by a rubber diaphragm which is penetrated by the needle whose shaft is engaged by a pair of parallel membranes of spring steel peripherally clamped in an extension of the housing. Each membrane comprises a narrow outer ring with an inwardly projecting tongue split into two diverging branches which are interconnected at their free ends, near the diametrically opposite side of the outer ring, by a re-entrant web extending radially between these branches and terminating in an inner, needle-supporting ring concentric with the outer ring.

Abstract: A motion-picture camera switchable to long-term exposure, in the presence of insufficient illumination for normal filming, has a photodetector which in the long-term mode controls a timing circuit measuring the length of an exposure period during which the camera shutter is arrested in an unblocking position, that period varying inversely with the detected intensity of incident light. In order to provide a fade-out effect at the end of a scene taken in this manner, the exposure period is progressively shortened--or the diaphragm aperture is progressively reduced--in discrete steps during successive shutter cycles to substantially complete cutoff. For fade-in at the beginning of a scene filmed with long-term exposure, the opposite procedure is followed.

Abstract: A broad textile web, on its way to a processing station such as a rotary-screen printer, passes around a set of closely juxtaposed but independently rotatable feed rollers that are individually driven via respective differential gear trains each having a first input connected to a common drive shaft and a second input connected to an ancillary stepping motor. Each feed roller engages a strip zone of the web which is scanned by an associated sensor upstream of the roller, the latter detecting the leading and trailing edges of recurrent transverse web sections--e.g. of pile fabric--mechanically, electrically or optically distinguishable from intervening sections. Unequal longitudinal tensions in the several strip zones actuate the sensor-controlled stepping motors for different time periods so as to cancel any relative deformation.

Abstract: An apparatus for the packaging of comestibles and other materials in individual cup-shaped containers has a cup-discharge station at the end of a conveyor at which the filled cups are removed from respective receptacles in the conveyor. Individual lifting plates below the conveyor raise the cups into an array of grippers which are relatively displaceable in two mutually perpendicular directions so that, when the array is displaced from alignment with the lifter plates, the inter-cup spacing can be reduced.

Abstract: A tank mortar having a magazine receiving a plurality of fin-stabilized projectiles which can be selectively aligned with the barrel. The barrel is movable relative to the magazine to enable sealing engagement of the barrel with the selected magazine chamber. The weapon frame which rotatably receives the magazine has an upper portion in which the bottom of the barrel is axially shiftable, e.g. by a bayonet arrangement, and a lower portion which sealingly engages the bottom of the munition chamber which is aligned with the barrel includes the firing element which triggers the displacement of the projective from the round chamber through the barrel. The base of the weapon frame is also provided with a ball received in a socket which is shiftable to traverse the weapon.

Abstract: A cine camera for taking talking pictures comprises a film-feeding mechanism which includes a driven capstan and a pinch roller normally spaced therefrom to facilitate insertion of a section of film therebetween when the camera casing is loaded with a sound-film cassette. A sensor, upon detecting the presence of such cassette in a receiving chamber of the casing, causes the pinch roller to move closer to the capstan, either via a mechanical linkage or by deactivating a detent normally blocking a displacement of the pinch roller under spring pressure. This displacement under the control of the sensor may establish a standby position, with the pinch roller still separated from the capstan by a clearance wider than the film thickness, that clearance being subsequently reduced by the operation of a trigger, a mode-selector switch or the like to clamp the film between pinch roller and capstan.