Abstract: A hand held sheet carrier for use with plywood and wallboard sheets has a pair of rigid plate components that are pivotally interconnected. One plate component has an upright working position, a foot portion on which a sheet being carried is supported and a channel for receiving the lower edge of a sheet being carried on the carrier. The second plate component is pivotally moveable between a retracted position and an extended position and has a handle. It also has a foot provider which is offset from the foot portion of the one plate component when the second plate component is in the retracted position and which serves with the foot portion to retain the one plate component in its upright position on a supporting surface for the carrier. The arrangement facilitates the loading of the carrier with a sheet to be carried by the carrier. Provision is also made for a locking device for locking the plate components in the retracted position.

Abstract: An improved foot piece for use with a surfboard type water craft that has a flat top surface which is equipped with a loop bearing surface component having a generally planar outwardly and upwardly facing surface portion with a multitude of small, closely spaced, flexible loop elements has one or more flat flexible surface components with an outwardly facing surface portion that is equipped with a multitude of small, stiff, closely spaced and outwardly projecting linear elements. The flexible surface components are fixed to the outside surface of the foot piece, preferably to both the bottom and side surface portions that underlie the sole and are at the instep side of a user's foot in the foot piece.

Abstract: A shopping cart disabling device features the use of pressurized gas from a container for actuating a piston in a cylinder therefor so as to provide a ground contacting probe that serves to disable the cart, the gas container being located in the piston cylinder and the gas being released by a magnetically actuated mechanism that includes a pin for penetrating a seal of the container and a spring loaded hammer mechanism which through a sear is operatively connected to a magnetic triggering assembly.

Abstract: A split ring opening hand tool is shown in the form of a modified pair of long nosed pliers. One jaw carries a support for a split ring while the other jaws carries a probe that passes between the convolutions of the split ring as the jaws are moved to their closed positions. The probe has a laterally facing inclined surface that converges on the tip end of the probe and the support has a groove which provides a laterally facing inclined surface that is encountered by the probe tip end after it passes through the convolutions. This causes relative lateral movement of the jaws as the convolutions are being spread apart by the relative movement of the probe support.

Abstract: An outboard boat motor utilizes a universal coupling between the upper section of a mounting device that is attached to the hull of a boat and the lower section of the mounting device to which the motor and impeller are secured. The coupling permits universal lateral pivotal movement of one section relative to the axis of the other section and thus permits the submerged motor assembly to yield with an underwater obstruction is encountered. The universal coupling is formed in part by a coiled tension spring which is connected to the upper and lower sections of the mounting device for the boat motor through the use of convoluted members that are fixed to the sections and arranged between adjacent convolutions and at opposite ends of the spring.

Abstract: The invention has to do with a wall dispenser for rolled plastic material that is internally self-supported and without the aid of a cylindrical core component. The dispenser has a pair of rollers on which the roll rests and which are so supported in end wall slots that they may be moved toward and away from each other and generally relative to a slot in the bottom wall of the dispenser and through which the web of plastic material is dispensed. Tension springs connected to the rollers continuously urge the rollers toward one another and this transpires automatically as the material is dispensed and the weight of the roll diminishes. Provisions are made for adjusting the spring tension in the form of threaded members that are connected to the springs and vertically adjustably mounted in end wall slots of the dispenser.

Abstract: An embroidering tool has an adjustable needle penetration capability and is formed from two interfitting components that are relatively rotatable about a common axis to provide the adjusting movement. One part has a cannulation needle assembly in accord with certain aspects of the invention and which at the proximal end of the needle thereof is encased in a plastic member which is a molded plastic product provided with an exterior flat screw thread. The other component is a unitary unmodified molded plastic structure with an interior wall that has a protuberance which is engaged by the thread of the outer part in the assembled structure of the tool. The two components snap together when they are assembled although modifications are contemplated to facilitate separate use of the needle carrying component from the other component.

Abstract: A painter's air hose guide has a flat web portion with oppositely facing surfaces and a rear side edge that is adapted to be wedged between the supporting surface for a vehicle wheel and its tire tread. A pair of flanges are symmetrically joined to the web portion so as to provide a contact surface for the air hose at the forefront of the guide structure and a ground contacting means for supporting the web in an inclined position regardless of which of the oppositely facing surfaces confronts the ground in a position assumed by the guide structure when it is dropped for insertion in its working position by foot movement of the worker.

Abstract: An eviscerating apparatus uses a belt conveyor for transporting preoriented shrimp through an uncurling mechanism, a cutting mechanism and a washing device for removing the digestive tract from the shrimp body parts. The curled body parts are preoriented through use of rotating rollers which are equipped with grooves that provide a ledge for flipping the shrimp onto their backs in a channel formed by the rollers. As thus oriented, the shrimp are successively fed to a trough formed by the belt of the conveyor. Shrimp are cradled on their backs in the trough and pass beneath a spring loaded shoe that straightens the curled shrimp body parts out against the belt of the conveyor.

Abstract: A basketball player's training device is designed to maintain the player's elbows in close proximity when making practice shots. It includes a pair of sleeves that are stretchable and snuggly fit over the forearms of the player adjacent to the elbows, and a stretchable member that interconnects the sleeves during use. At one end of the interconnecting member, the device is equipped with a releasable fastener of the hook and loop type for fastening the member to the sleeve and which can be easily manipulated when the sleeves are on the player's forearms.

Abstract: A closure latch mechanism has a slide component linearly movable between latched and unlatched positions, the component having a planar body portion with a flat, resiliently bendable member that is formed as an integral part of the body portion and normally located in the plane thereof. The bendable member carries a detent that is adapted and arranged for reception in a stop forming recess or aperture when the slide is at its latched position. The bendable member assumes an unstressed position in the plane of the body portion when the detent is in the recess and is in a stressed position when the slide is unlocked. The detent follows and slidably engages a surface arranged to retain the member in its stressed position as the slide component moves between its latched and unlatched positions so that the detent automatically enters the recess to lock the device when the slide returns to its locked position.

Abstract: A rural mailbox cover has a slat assembly which overlays the arcuate roof and opposite side walls formed by a center panel of the mailbox, the assembly having parallel slats of equal lengths which are arranged in a row and joined by elongated flexible and preferably resiliently extensible elements that extend transversely of the row of slats and are fixed to each slat at the interiorly facing side of the assembly. A center group of slats are beveled at their opposite side edges to facilitate a contiguous slat edge arrangement for the group as they overlay the arcuate roof of the mailbox and the opposite ends of each slat are beveled to accommodate the location of the door flange and a bead at the juncture of the center and rear wall panels of the mailbox. The opposite end panels of the mailbox are covered by components that have a plate with a decorative strip that forms a flange that projects inwardly to overlay the adjacent ends of the slats in the slat assembly.

Abstract: An automatic system for controlling a plurality of motors includes motor starting circuitry and motor stopping circuitry that serves to sequentially start and stop the motors in the same cyclic order. The starting circuitry has a sensing component for sensing the presence and absence of a condition that reflects the need for starting the motor and a master starting control component which develops two different states that are used in controlling the circuits of the starting circuitry. The control circuits include a plurality of motor starting circuits for starting the respective motors and a plurality of conditioning circuits that normally respond to one of the developed states for conditioning the starting circuits for response sequentially to the other of the developed states and in a cyclic order for starting the motors.

Abstract: A disposable blood drawing device has an evacuated container and holder therefor as well as a dual needle assembly which is connectable to the holder. The assembly has an elongated housing with opposite end openings in which hypodermic and tap needles are respectively mounted and internally interconnected by a resilient tube that is compressable against one of the opposite walls of the housing by means of a push button which is manipulated exterially to compress and thus limit the flow through the resilient tube. The push button has a lateral stop element that will pass through an opening for receiving the push button during the assembly of the assembly but which engages the internal surface of one wall of the housing to prevent withdrawal of the button. The mounting for the tap needle carries an adaptor for connecting the device with the holder.

Abstract: A spent solvent purification apparatus for treating spent acetone includes an evaporation unit, a condensing unit, and a housing for the units which has upper and lower sections and a panel section that divides the housing interior into separate compartments for the respective units. The evaporating unit is housed by the upper section and it includes a container with an interior wall that divides the interior into upper and lower chambers. The lower chamber has a heater for heating a heat exchange fluid that is contained therein and the upper chamber is for containing the spent solvent during the batch distillation procedure to which it is subjected. Both chambers have temperature sensors which are designed to break the control circuit when the temperature in either chamber exceeds a temperature that is predetermined and set for each sensor.

Abstract: An apparatus and process of treating a mixture of shellfish meat particles and shell halves is revealed and wherein the mixture is treated by elutriation in an elongated, narrow upright zone. At the upper end of the zone the meat particles are removed while at the lower end of the zone the shells are withdrawn. The shells gravitate through a region of the zone and where the water is agitated by a device for admitting air to the elutriation zone and which accelerates the shell movement toward the lower end of the treatment zone. The meat particles, on the other hand, pass through yet another region and which the passage is diminished by the admission of air so as to accelerate the upward movement of the particles toward a lateral meat discharge opening from the zone. Here the meat particles are assisted in their discharge through the opening by an appropriately positioned baffle.

Abstract: A new and distinct plant variety of the Cactaceae family is of the type known commercially as a "Christmas Cactus" has an erect growth habit and blooms with perianth tube forming tepals that have an axially oriented crease that extends proximally from the distal ends of the tepals and perianth tube laminating and forming tepals that in the marginal blade areas are dominated with colors that have a yellow hue.

Abstract: A new plant of the Spathiphyllum species is somewhat smaller in size than that of the `Mauna Loa` variety and has foliage with variegated leaf blades that have a basic chlorophyllous field containing streaks and blotches which in colors are lighter than those of the basic chlorophyllous field, and an inflorescence with a spathe that shortly after initial expansion is provided with variegated blades which have a basic achlorophyllous field that contains chlorophyllous streaks and blotches and merges distally in the spathe with a chlorophyllous tip area, spathe coloration changing as the spathe matures to provide variegated blades that have a basic chlorophyllous field which contains chlorophlyllous and nearly achlorophyllous streaks and blotches that are generally lighter in colors than those found in the basic chlorophyllous field of a mature spathe.

Abstract: A new and distinct plant variety of the Cactaceae family which is sterile and in comparison to the `Christmas Magic` variety is principally distinguished by a growth habit which includes a greater natural tendency for branching without the need for pruning, a greater resistance to nutrient deficiencies, a greater resistance to stem breakage, a slightly lesser resistance to bud abscission, a habit of producing more blooms on specimens of comparable age at an earlier date in the blooming season and with a slightly longer bloom life, and a habit of producing blooms with a fuller bodied appearance and enhanced color.

Abstract: A new and distinct variety of Pittosporum plant has many characteristics similar or like those of the `Wheelerii` variety but is distinguishable therefrom among other things by variegated leaf blade characteristics that provide a basic field on the adaxial side which is marked by spots and blotches that are absent from the field on the abaxial side and by a discontinuous border coloration that is mainly located along the margin of the distal half of the blade and on the abaxial side is a reverse replica of that at the adaxial side of the blade.