Abstract: A hand-held personal defense apparatus for protecting a user against an attacker includes a hollow housing defining an elongate handgrip. An aerosol canister of a defense fluid, such as tear gas, MACE.RTM. or (cayenne) pepper gas, and a battery-powered siren are positioned within the housing. The apparatus further includes a strike bar connected to the housing and extending forwardly in spaced relation from the handgrip so that the hand of the user may surroundingly grip the handgrip with the strike bar exposed on the outside of the hand. The strike bar serves as a visible deterrent to an attacker may be used as a defensive weapon against the attacker. The apparatus further includes a movable actuator button for selectively activating the alarm or the alarm and the canister of defense fluid.

Abstract: The cleaning and disinfection machine for medical devices with narrow channels particularly endoscopes, has a pressure chamber (1) in which the objects to be cleaned are inserted. A circulating pump of the machine supplies the pressure chamber with pressurized cleaning fluid. Arranged inside the pressure chamber (1) is a pressure-increase unit (2) that consists of a two-stage piston-cylinder arrangement (3, 5, 8; 4, 6, 9). The two pistons (5, 6) have different diameters and thus different effective cross-sections. The inlet side of the larger piston is fed with pressurized cleaning fluid. The outlet side (9) contains cleaning fluid that is supplied to the channel to be cleaned. The second piston has a smaller diameter so that the pressure is greater on the outlet side (chamber 9). When the circulating pump is switched off, the pistons (5, 6) are forced back into a starting position by a spring (13).

Abstract: An annular heat exchanger for incompatible fluids, such as reactive compounds, particularly for the aeronautics industry, in which a sealed bottle is fixed interior of a hollow body, with integral heat dissipators and novel fluid passageway orientation, whereby no leak can occur which would commingle the incompatible fluids.

Abstract: A junction ball for connecting two passageways in a modular playground at any desired angle utilizing two rotatably interlocking hollow half spheres having one access port each. The halves are adapted to be fitted together, rotated to produce the proper angle, and locked into place. A single half may be used for terminating a passageway in conjunction with a viewing dome. The modular half spheres are preferably molded in one piece from plastic. The spherical view port is preferably constructed from polycarbonate. These components are supported by and mounted into a standard pipe structure consisting of pipe and assorted clamps.

Abstract: An articulation used in automobile seats, comprising: a mobile flange having a mobile flange inner toothing; a double satellite; a fixed flange having a fixed flange inner toothing for cooperating with said double satellite, the toothings of which mesh on one side with the fixed flange inner toothing of the fixed flange, and on another side with the mobile flange inner toothing of the mobile flange; an eccentric acting on the double satellite; a driving axis of the eccentric provided with at least one snug, the eccentric being made of two discs angularly mobile with respect to one another, each disc having an arched window; and a resilient element, said discs being connected to one another by said resilient element housed in said arched windows, while a central portion of each of said discs is formed with at least one circular recess, extended by a hollow housing adapted for receiving one of said snugs, and wherein each disc is noncircular and housed inside a bore of the double satellite; the two discs, when

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing direct reduced iron from iron oxide fines. The iron oxide raw material is conducted through a series of circulating fluidizable beds in which the fluidizing gas is a strong reducing gas mixture, which allows intimate contact between the fines and the reducing gas to facilitate the direct reduction of the iron oxide fines to metallized iron.

Abstract: Security (e.g., theft-disincentive) for portable electronic appliances is provided by integrating a decoder into the power supply of an electronic appliance which prevents the electronic appliance from being powered up in the absence of a unique code impressed by an emitter on the power lines feeding power to the electronic appliance, and permits the electronic appliance having a decoder to be powered up (i.e., power-uppable) only in the presence of the unique code. Electronic appliances having the detector incorporated (e.g., integrated) therein are termed "protected equipment". The emitter may be "fixed" by hard-wiring same to the power lines in a household (e.g., behind a switch or receptacle face plate), or may be "portable") so that the user can transport and use (e.g., power up) the protected equipment at an other location simply by plugging the emitter into a receptacle at the other location and located in a safe place.

Abstract: A system for confirming the identity of an individual presenting an identification card includes a card reader, an associated central processing unit, a preselected feature template library associated with the central processing unit, a scanner for scanning preselected portions of an epidermis, such as a fingerprint, RAM storage means operatively associated with the central processing unit and the scanner, a communication interface such as a modem communicating with a remote site, and an output display indicating the identifier correlation. This invention provides an improved method of verifying that a card holder is the card owner by matching the image of the card holder's fingerprint to the unique code which has been assigned to the card owner and encoded on the card's magnetic strip, which requires only a relatively small amount of data to perform identification, making it possible to use low cost, low density encoding methods including bar code and magnetic strip.

Abstract: Lacquer films sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) and/or electron beam radiation re applied to substrates as masking layers by a process known as the "spin on process". This invention is a new method of applying a lacquer film sensitive to UV and/or electron beam radiation. A vinyl-containing substance and a linear or cyclic siloxane are vaporized and then deposited onto the substrate to be masked. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the substances utilized are octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and trivinylmethylsilane.

Abstract: The stratal filter material includes a base layer made from highly porous honeycomb nickel-based material with pore sizes of 0.3 to 2.0 mm and a thickness selected from the ratio h:d=20 to 110, where:h is the layer thickness, mm;d is the porous nickel pore size, mm;a working layer made from porous permeable material 0.35 to 2.5 mm thick, formed on the surface of base layer, and an intermediate layer of a combination of the base and working layer materials formed therebetween with a thickness of 0.3 d to 5 d.

Abstract: A PLL circuit modulatable by a modulation signal having a direct current component has a voltage-controlled main oscillator, a loop divider, a phase comparator and a loop filter. The reference frequency signal for the phase comparator is derived from the modulation signal by a first compensation filter, a voltage-controlled reference oscillator and a reference divider being connected downstream of said first compensation filter. The voltage-controlled main oscillator is controlled by the modulation signal via a second compensation filter followed by a downstream data lowpass.

Abstract: A process for the production of electroluminescent silicon structures, including: placing a silicon wafer in an acid bath; anodizing the silicon wafer in the acid bath using the apparatus of FIG. 2; illuminating the anode side of the silicon wafer during at least part of the time the silicon wafer is being placed in the acid bath and is being anodized; causing at least some areas of the monocrystalline silicon of the silicon wafer to be converted into a microporous silicon layer; and forming two contacts by means of which a voltage can be applied to the microporous silicon layer.

Abstract: An improved charging circuit apparatus for charging both "rechargeable" and "non-rechargeable" batteries from an AC power source utilizing capacitors and two diodes. The anode of the first diode is connected to a first output terminal and a first input terminal; the first diode's cathode being connected to the anode of the second diode, the cathode of the second diode being connected to a second output terminal. The capacitors are connected to the second input terminal. One capacitor is further connected to the cathode of the first diode and therefore anode of the second. A second capacitor is further connected to the second output terminal. A current limiting circuit is also provided which is connected to the charging circuit to provide protection against overcharging of the batteries.