Abstract: A broadcast cotton harvester header assembly containing two or more header units wherein each header unit includes (1) a paddle chain frame unit having a length and a width and operatively attached to a (2) stripper bar unit having an upper surface to harvest crops, and (3) a height sensing unit which senses and maintains the distance of the stripper bar unit relative to the ground. The broadcast cotton harvester header assembly unit includes two parallel frame members having a front and rear end. The rear end of the frame members have rotatably mounted thereon two drive sprockets. The front end of the frame members have mounted thereon two idler sprockets. The drive sprockets and idler sprockets have wrapped around them conveyor chains which rotate around the front and rear sprockets. The conveyor chains have attached to them, evenly spaced apart, two or more paddles, the paddles are attached to chain links by hinges.

Abstract: Hollow porous microspheres of uniform diameter and of uniform wall thickness are disclosed. The walls of the hollow microspheres comprise sintered together particles which define interconnecting voids within the walls and a single central cavity in the interior of the microspheres and inner and outer microsphere wall surfaces. The interconnecting voids are continuous and extend from the outer wall surface to the inner wall surface. The walls have uniform void content and the interconnecting voids are uniformly distributed in the walls of the hollow microspheres and the walls of the hollow microspheres are free of latent solid or liquid blowing gas materials and are substantially free of relatively thinned wall portions and bubbles. The hollow porous microspheres include microspheres in which the interconnecting voids have been closed and sealed.

Abstract: To purify smoke from a liquid fuel (in particular heavy fuel oil) boiler by eliminating unwanted components including acids, the smoke, before it is exhausted to the atmosphere, is caused to pass along a vertical path in a heat exchanger adapted to recover the latent heat of condensible components together with the substantive heat of the smoke. Water is sprayed at the top of the vertical path and collected at the bottom in the form of an effluent comprising the water, condensates and soot. A reserve water supply is provided. Water is fed from this reserve supply to the top of the heat exchanger where it is sprayed after adding to it an alkaline solution in sufficient quantity to neutralize acid components of the smoke. The effluent is recovered at the bottom of the heat exchanger. An effective dose of a floculating agent is added to it. The effluent is fed into a settling tank where is separates into a soot sludge and a clarified effluent which is fed to the reserve water supply.

Abstract: The tube, known as a straw, according to the invention, is conventional in its form, and is constituted by a rectilinear length of transparent tubular envelope. In the vicinity of a first end, the straw contains a sliding stopper with a quantity of powder gellable by hydration between two porous pads. The tubular envelope is extruded from an ionomer resin marketed under the brand name of Surlyn 8921. Ionomer resins have, above and below a transition zone extending from 45.degree. C. to 60.degree. C. approximately, states that are respectively thermofusible and crosslinked. Thus, the straw can be closed by fusion of the ends clamped by heated jaws, while presenting suitable properties of rigidity at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the ionomer resin used does not have an embrittlement temperature, so that it can be manipulated at cryogenic temperatures (77 K.) without the need for taking any particular precautions. The filling and sealing of the straws can be automated, to ensure the safety of the operators.

Abstract: Method for making hollow microspheres of substantially uniform diameter and of substantially uniform wall thickness is disclosed. The walls of the hollow microspheres comprise sintered together particles which define interconnecting voids within the walls and a single central cavity in the interior of the microspheres and inner and outer microsphere wall surfaces. The interconnecting voids are continuous and extend from the outer wall surface to the inner wall surface. The walls have substantially uniform void content and the interconnecting voids are substantially uniformly distributed in the walls of the hollow microspheres and the walls of the hollow microspheres are free of latent solid or liquid blowing gas materials and are substantially free of relatively thinned wall portions and bubbles. The method includes heating the microspheres for a sufficient period of time to close and seal the interconnecting void.

Abstract: A glue injector for injecting glue under high pressure is described that comprises a barrel (2), a plunger (3) that is received within the barrel and extends rearwardly through an aperture (19) in the body (4) of a handle which carries a pair of opposed finger grips (5, 6). The finger grips are located at the rear portion of the barrel and laterally of the barrel and are elongated so as to each accommodate two fingers. The plunger (3) comprises a shaft (12), a piston (13) at its front end and a head (14) at its back end. The piston includes a resilient disc, washer and bolt. The bolt is threadedly attached to the front end of the piston to provide with the resilient disc and washer a tight seal. The barrel has a tapered nozzle attached to its front end. The tapered nozzle is threadedly attached to the front end of the glue injector barrel.

Abstract: Hollow porous microspheres of substantially uniform diameter and of substantially uniform wall thickness are disclosed. The walls of the hollow microspheres comprise sintered together particles which define interconnecting voids within the walls and a single central cavity in the interior of the microspheres and inner and outer microsphere wall surfaces. The interconnecting voids are continuous and extend from the outer wall surface to the inner wall surface. The walls have substantially uniform void content and the interconnecting voids are substantially uniformly distributed in the walls of the hollow microspheres and the walls of the hollow microspheres are free of latent solid or liquid blowing gas materials and are substantially free of relatively thinned wall portions and bubbles.

Abstract: A pack for slow administration to a patient of extremely accurate volumes of sterile, for example pharmaceutical, nutrient or energy-source liquid, comprises in combination at least three systems adapted to be interconnected. The first system is a flowrate regulator. The second system is, for each sterile liquid administered, a sterile bag with a mobile, flexible and continuous wall which delimits an internal cavity in which is at least one opening enabling it to communicate selectively with the exterior. The third system is a solid or fluid piston operating on the interior or exterior side of the wall of said bag to vary its volume, and, in the case of a fluid piston, at least one alarm means indicating any leak in the wall or one of the walls of the bag, adapted by its existence or its properties to convert non-perceptible leakage into a perceptible phenomenon.

Abstract: The tube, known as a straw, according to the invention, is conventional in its form, and is constituted by a rectilinear length of transparent tubular envelope. In the vicinity of a first end, the straw contains a sliding stopper with a quantity of powder gellable by hydration between two porous pads. The tubular envelope is extruded from an ionomer resin marketed under the brand name of Surlyn 8921. Ionomer resins have, above and below a transition zone extending from 45.degree. C. to 60.degree. C. approximately, states that are respectively thermofusible and crosslinked. Thus, the straw can be closed by fusion of the ends clamped by heated jaws, while presenting suitable properties of rigidity at ambient temperature. Furthermore, the ionomer resin used does not have an embrittlement temperature, so that it can be manipulated at cryogenic temperatures (77 K) without the need for taking any particular precautions. The filling and sealing of the straws can be automated, to ensure the safety of the operators.

Abstract: A sealed transmission device for controlling a valve including a casing containing a transfer member coupled to a control shaft and to a receiver shaft. A bellows surrounds the receiver shaft and is fixed and sealed at its upper end to the transfer member and is fixed and sealed at its lower end to the casing. The transfer member is operably connected to a tilting member, which tilting member is adapted to protect the bellows from the effects of torsion due to rotation of the control shaft.

Abstract: An ink jet printing machine for elongate cylindrical articles such as tubes or straws for biological fluids, includes an automatically controlled ink-jet printing station. The printing station includes a printing head, handling apparatus for the straws or tubes comprising an admission passage for receiving, guiding and feeding straws or tubes, a wall panel, a suction port disposed in the wall panel at a downstream end of the admission passage and connected to a source of vacuum, a transfer plunger mounted for reciprocating along the wall panel between the suction port and a conveyor, the leading straw or tubes being transferred from the suction port to the conveyor by displacement of the transfer plunger toward the conveyor.

Abstract: A process for incinerating domestic refuse is implemented in a boiler comprising a fluidized bed furnace over which is a post-combustion chamber. The smoke passes through alternately upward and downward paths in which it is cooled in contact with walls provided with water tubes. Limestone is injected into the bed to fix the sulfur oxides and halogenated compounds and a jet of powdered lime is injected at the start of the third path to neutralize the remaining halogenated compounds; the flying particles deposited are recycled into the furnace. The temperature of the bed is held between 800.degree. C. and 900.degree. C. and the injection of secondary air is adjusted to obtain an oxygen concentration in the smoke between 5.5% and 7.5% to minimize the formation of nitrogen oxides, dioxins and furans.

Abstract: A conductive cutaneous coating for application to an area of a person's skin for use in applying electric currents for therepeutic or beauty treatment comprises a gel polymerizable when brought into contact with air of a terniary mixture of polyvinyl alcohol, ethanol and water, and a plastifier physiologically acceptable for topical application. A generator lead has two conductors each connected to a conductive plate disposed at electrically insulated ends of a head clip, the conductive plates bearing against the mask through porous pads soaked with a saline solution at a location at the rear of the cheekbones at ear level.

Abstract: A contact unit for applying current to a person's skin through an electrically conductive casting composition spread over an area of skin to be treated for therapeutical or beauty purposes. The contact unit electrically interconnects an electric current generator lead and the casting composition and comprises a flexible conductive plate made of an elastomer containing a conductive powder and in contact with the conductive core of the lead. An insulating liner overlies a first face of the plate and extends along the edge thereof and terminates flush with the second or uncovered face of the plate. The insulating liner bears against a first layer of the casting composition in contact with the person's skin. A second layer of the casting composition overlies the first layer and the second or uncovered face of the plate. Thus the electric current from the contact unit cannot flow directly through the first layer to the subjacent skin area so as to avoid burning the skin.

Abstract: A golf course simulator comprises a track running between a driving area and a target. The track incorporates a plurality of selectively openable and closable holes. The target marks the boundary between the virtual space in which an objective hole is situated in a first phase of the game, when the strokes played are swings, and a real space in which the objective hole is materialized by opening one hole, once the player has come close enough to the objective hole. The simulator is controlled by an appropriately programmed computer. For swings the driving area incorporates a ball sensor and the target incorporates an impact detector matrix. Measuring the time between the departure of the ball and the impact on the target, at a known distance, and location of the point of impact on the target supply initial speed, lift and drift information to determine the point of arrival of the ball in the virtual space and to deduce therefrom objective parameters.