Abstract: A light-weight cargo-protecting and air-flow-drag-reducing wind-deflector is made quickly and easily attachable to the roofs of automobiles or truck cabs by suction cups and conventional gutter-anchorable straps. The wind-deflector is formed of a curved fiber-reinforced plastic sheet and is made adjustable about a transverse horizontal axis close to the vehicle roof at a fore-aft location selected for optimal effectiveness. The slip-stream-modifying angle adjustability is provided simply by a pair of arms medially divided and slightly overlapped, which arms laterally connect the rear portions of a rectangular base frame to the upper side portions of the plastic sheet. The arms are made effectively length-adjustable by changing the angle defined at the interconnections between their divided sections. The overlapped mating faces of the divided arms are preferably radially die-grooved about bearing apertures which co-axially receive the ends of a single axle-rod.

Abstract: A portable self-powered electrically conductively isolated device converts alphanumeric electric signals transmitted from a Touch-Tone telephone at a sending station to visual signals at a receiving telephone station. A magnetic pickup is attached to the activated receiving telephone, as by a suction cup, and feeds two-frequency Touch-Tone signals to tuned detectors which energize two overlapped parallel-busbar grids interconnected at their crossover points by panel-displayed light-emitting diodes. By code the touch-sent signals are converted to visually received signals; for example, on pushbutton 5 one touch means "J", two touches "K" and three touches"L".

Abstract: A suds-making device is attachable to the air-discharge port of an upright vacuum sweeper. A shampooing unit is easily attachable to the front of the vacuum sweeper in place of its easily removed suction-nozzle and rotating-brush unit. The shampooing unit has its own rotatable brush, similarly belt-driven by the sweeper motor, and also has a forwardly positioned transversely elongated tray to receive the applied and then scraper-blade-removed suds. The suds-making device and the shampooing unit (both of known construction) are interconnected by a detachable flexible hose. Importantly, the sudser end of the hose has attachable thereto, or molded thereon, a friction-held slip-on cap for closing the outlet port of the sudser, to stop suds flow.

Abstract: A fuel-burning forced-air-circulating heating system having a thermostatically controlled heavy-duty blower, and a constantly operating or thermostatically controlled relatively low-powered supplemental air-circulating attachment for forcing air from the cold-air-return plenum to the hot-air-feed plenum of a conventional hot-air furnace. The supplemental attachment bypasses the furnace so that the air-flow resistance of the air filter of the furnace minimizes reverses air-flow through the furnace, resulting in a gentle temperature-equalizing (anti-stratification) circulation of air through the rooms being heated. Preferably, a thermostatic switch located close to a floor energizes the supplemental blower when needed to reduce temperature stratification in the heated space. Alternatively, or in addition, an outdoor thermostat can energize the supplemental blower in colder weather (when its operation is most needed).

Abstract: The disclosure is a system for increasing the reliability of systems for keeping auxiliary liquid-holding tanks filled and reliably functional. A float-operated switch cycles an electric pump to maintain the liquid level between full and nearly full, and a back-flow-preventing check valve is employed and modified (apertured and/or bypassed) to permit slow back leakage to "exercise" the system. The pump, its input to the tank, and the check valve are all located below the pump-turn-on level so that they never lose their prime. One arrangement for testing liquid-level control has a float on a lever arm that operates both the pump-motor-cycling switch and also a low-level switch to energize an alarm. The lever arm also rotates a shaft carrying an indicator dial and/or pointer. The shaft has a manually engageable knob or lever for submerging the float to test the operability of the pump, the alarm, and other parts.

Abstract: A non-rotating axially-paying-out ski-rope bobbin comprises a molded-plastic body shaped to define a vertical-axis circumferentially-open annular space for receiving a ski-rope manually wound therein. A plurality of suction cups are fixed to the under face of the body for quickly and easily detachably fastening the bobbin to the rear deck of a motor boat. A bail-shaped element is swingable from a storage position in a plane close to and parallel to the plane of the suction cups, to an upright use position in which its crest overlies the bobbin adjacent its axis. A ski-rope guide is fixed to, or formed in, the crest of the bail-shaped element to change the vertical-conical over-edge rope-paying-out to a horizontal rearward paying-out. The guide is vertically open so that the rope, whose boat end is to be tied to the boat transom, will pull free from the bobbin when fully unwound therefrom.

Abstract: A scribing tool for marking wall panels for cutting them to fit the contour of a wall corner. The tool body has either a flat face or a rotating roller for engaging the corner wall surface that is perpendicular to the wall being paneled. The tool body carries a scribing element or pencil. In one species the scribing element is axially adjustable in a selected one of intersecting V-grooves in the top surface of the tool body, and a flat face is perpendicularly movable relatively to the tool body by being on the vertical face of an L-shaped strap whose medially slotted lower reach underlies the tool body. In a second species the scribing tool is axially adjustable in a V-groove in the upper surface of a disc rotatably mounted on the top surface of the tool body. In both flat-faced species, a rod passing vertically through the tool body clamps the scribing element and the adjustable body part in their adjusted positions by means of a nut on its threaded lower end.

Abstract: A device for forming demonstration cleaning-test bags and for attaching them to vacuum cleaners comprises basically a cylindrical tube adapted for placement over the air-discharge port of a sweeper, and a co-operating plunger for pushing the central area of a flexible filter cloth or sheet into the tube. The end of the plunger has fixed thereto a hook-type VELCRO disc for engagement with a co-operating loop-type VELCRO disc cemented or stitched centrally of the filter sheet. Thus the inserted sheet can be turned inside-out to form a bag but after the sheet margin has been anchored to the outer lip surface of the cylindrical tube by a contracting coil-spring band which is rolled thereover from an annular plunger seat encircling said lip. For adjustment to different sizes of bag-forming sheets, the band-holding plunger-seat can be slidable along the plunger, or the plunger body can be length-adjustably formed from telescoping sections.

Abstract: An air scoop is positioned to receive and compress air in response to movement of a vehicle or its radiator-cooling fan. The compressed air is conducted to a whistle for producing sound at a frequency somewhat above human hearing range. The whistle is preferably provided with a dished reflector for forwardly beaming the sound. The reflector can optionally also be the air scoop.

Abstract: A combined trim ring and support plate for a single or a pair or set of contiguous vehicle head, tail, or other lights comprises an ornamental plate having one or more cut-out areas defining apertures of sizes to expose therein one or more (sealed-beam) headlights or equivalent units. The margins of the plate overlap the margins of an aperture in a vehicle-body shell member (such as a fender or a truck front or rear panel) and is fastened to the shell member by self-tapping screws (or bolts) passing through aligned holes in the plate and the shell member. The plate margin preferably has a narrow rearwardly turned flange whose edge is embraced by a rubber-like cushioning and water-excluding channel ring.

Abstract: An educational device having groups of cursively connected symbols forming words and fabricated by die-cutting-out areas of semi-rigid tough plastic sheets to form guides for scribing implements. The groups of cursively connected symbols, by forming words, meaningfully motivate mentally and/or physically handicapped persons to learn to write and read. Desirably, the cutout symbol portions are retained for use with the sheets, either unattached, or preferably fixed to the sheets above the cut-out areas, for re-inforcing learning, visually, or tactually especially for sight-deficient students.

Abstract: A neutralizable permanent-magnet base is shaped to engage the usual housing for the gear-supporting mandrel of known types of gear cutters. A U-shaped yoke fixed to the top of the base supports a pivot block on a transverse horizontal axis. The pivot block receives a sliding cylindrical arm for rotational and length adjustments. A probe head on the front end of the sliding arm carries a ball or other-shaped probe which can be swung downwardly between gear teeth before removal, then upwardly to permit gear removal for testing, again downwardly to accurately re-locate the gear if found defective but salvageable, and finally upwardly for the re-cutting of one, several or all of the teeth of the defective gear.

Abstract: A carrier and skin-protecting cover for disposable urine bags comprises one or more pouches and a waist-encircling support belt all made of permanent-press cotton fabric. The pouches are detachably fastened to the belt, and the belt is made adjustable by the use of "VELCRO" fasteners. The pouches desirably have iron-on patches for safety-pinning or otherwise fastening tubes in place, and have paired snaps for attaching the bags. The carrier requires no leg bands and has no skin-facing seams.

Abstract: A tree-climbing kit comprises basically a piece of rope whose central portion has a plurality of closely spaced rings or loops fixed thereto or formed therein, and a pair of stirrups supported from hooks engageable alternately and sequentially in the rings or loops when the rope is double-hung from a tree limb and its ends are securely tied to the tree trunk. The kit also desirably includes a safety belt, and a spool-carried light-gauge pilot line with an end-attached weight for throwing and pulling over the tree limb over which the rope is to be pulled by the line.

Abstract: A full-season rain gauge for outdoor or partial outdoor installation comprises basically a weather-resistant vertically elongated panel, a season-height freeze-proof plastic tube fixed thereto, a shorter single-rain short-time-period plastic rain-gauge tube detachably mounted on the upper end of the season-height tube, and a one-season weather-resistant chart removably and replaceably positioned beside said tubes for recording thereon accumulated dated rainfall amounts and for subsequent side-by-side positioning to provide a successive-seasons profile graph. The shorter tube is removable after each rainfall or e.g. at weekly intervals. Its contents are then poured into the season-height tube, and the water height therein is marked and dated on the chart. The rain collector can be mounted at an elevated outdoor location and can be connected indoors to the rain gauge proper by a small flexible hose.

Abstract: The disclosure is a dual-role ski-rope retriever. In its vertical-axis position the reel is rotatable by a geared-down electric motor reversible for paying-out or winding-in the ski rope. The mounting structure also permits the spool to be swung into a horizontally and rearwardly pointed axis position which allows the paying-out of ski rope over and around the rear flange of the spool without its rotation. The rope can be wound-in manually when the spool is restored to its non-rotating detent-held vertical-axis position. The mounting structure is made easily and quickly removable (to discourage theft, vandalism and/or weather damage) by having laterally extending tabs on its flat sheet-metal base, which tabs are longitudinally slidably engageable under laterally positioned cleats fixed to the rear deck of a boat, and by an upwardly springable forwardly extending tongue centrally apertured to fit over a flat support-anchoring disc fixed to the deck.

Abstract: The disclosure is a learn-to-dress manual having a synthetic hard-board base lamina and a plurality of superposed pairs of panels simulating garment members to be interconnected in dressing operations. The paired panels are preferably made of tear-resistant cloth or tough plastic having easily cleanable surfaces, and are fastened to the base lamina by rigidly fixed arched-portion rods passing through eyelets in the outer lateral margins of each panel portion. The faces of the panels of each pair are of the same bright color, which differs markedly from the color of adjacent superposed pairs. The under side of each panel is of a non-distracting coloration. The training exercises progress generally in difficulty into and out of the manual, starting with buckles on belts holding paired hard-board panels protectively over the underlying paired panels, and progressing through buttons, snaps, hook-and-eye fasteners, etc., to finally a lace-closed shoe top on the base lamina.

Abstract: An upright-type vacuum sweeper has a motor-driven fan in a housing supported by a pair of front wheels on an axle which is vertically adjustable to vary the nozzle height relatively to a floor surface. A ratchet member having two parallel arcuate sets of teeth constitutes in part a lever for effecting the relative movement. A foot-depressible spring-returnable vertically disposed plunger carries a pawl-type escapement element which reciprocates between the sets of teeth to permit stepwise lowering by gravity of the housing and thus the sweeper nozzle. A foot-depressible ratchet-swinging lever provides one-stroke elevation of the housing. Novelly an adjustable screw is positioned to limit downward movement of the housing to provide a vernier adjustment in the low end of the nozzle-adjustment range to facilitate pushing the sweeper, especially over short-nap floor coverings which have been found to produce bothersome frictional resistance to sweeper movement.

Abstract: A vertically elongated anaerobic jar of polygonal horizontal cross-section is formed of transparent panels of a width somewhat greater than the diameter of a petri dish or plate. A (preferably removable) similarly shaped hollow body is co-axially disposed in the jar to define with facing transparent panels, radially shallow compartments to receive a plurality of petri dishes stacked on edge, so that their contents can be viewed through the transparent panels. The inner body may be provided with horizontal channel elements spaced to hold a petri dish on edge and bottomed against the panels of the inner body. The jar is conventionally provided with an air-tight cover, a clamp device and a container for catalyst pellets.