Abstract: Formation and liquid-filling of plastic bags is performed in a continuous high speed and low cost process. Plastic film is extruded in tubular form and inflated with air or another gas. The tube is transported along a path of work stations at which the tube is successively: sealed to define a series of inflated sections; filled with liquid, while inflated, by a large size hypodermic-type needle configured to puncture and displace entrapped gas with fill liquid, the displaced gas escaping around the needle; seamed to seal off the needle-hole from the liquid-filled portion of the bag; and cut to separate the individual bags, if desired.

Abstract: An intermodulation distortion analyzer generates two pairs of sinusoidal test tones to serve as a test signal for the channel under test. The two pairs of tones simulate two respective noise band test signals but eliminate the long time averaging required for measurements when noise bands are used. A highly linear AGC circuit employs sampling at an output-controlled duty cycle to maintain a constant reference level for the analyzer. This reference level permits automatic distortion measurements to be read out directly in db below the test signal. An RMS detector circuit for second order intermodulation products employs feedback control to maintain the input signal to a squaring circuit constant. Squaring of the constant level sinusoids produces RMS DC components which can be separated for direct measurement. A distortion circuit provides known levels of second and third order intermodulation in the test signal to permit accurate check out of the analyzer.

Abstract: In a phase lock loop, the bandwidth of the phase error signal, when used for phase measurement outside the loop, is increased by summing the error signal with an integrated version of the VCO control signal derived from the loop filter circuit. The combined effect on the error signal of both the loop filter circuit and the integration provides a boost effect at low frequencies, which when summed with the unprocessed error signal results in a broadband measurement signal with a low frequency cut-off below the low-frequency cut-off of the loop itself. This technique permits extending the bandwidth of the measurement signal without affecting loop operation.

Abstract: A frequency converter circuit includes an input voltage-to-current converter which delivers signal current to a tuned IF circuit via a current steering circuit controlled by a local oscillator. In a preferred embodiment voltage-to-current conversion is effected without introducing unwanted harmonics by a double-gate MOSFET. Current steering is performed by a pair of push-pull connected transistors alternately driven into saturation by the local oscillator so that they alternately deliver signal current to the tank circuit in opposite senses. A current-limited diode clamps the output signal level in response to high input current levels to prevent over-driving an output filter.

Abstract: In a shaft angle encoder, an optical system translates the shaft angular displacement into a difference of two optical path lengths and that difference is measured by interferometry. Light from a monochromatic source is split and both the transmitted and reflected beams are passed along separate paths through an optical component that moves angularly with the shaft and varies the lengths of the separate paths differentially according to the shaft angular displacement. The transmitted and reflected beams are then recombined and the interference fringes in the recombined beam sensed by a detector.

Abstract: A printing head provides an array of stylii and stylii drivers for forming characters in accordance with a desired matrix of dots. Each driver comprises a flat piezoelectric ceramic wafer and a levered beam having a stylus secured to one end and providing at the stylus end a multiplication of the movement of the wafer of approximately 4 to 1 to 7 to 1. The wafers and supporting structure are circular and structured to nest preferably coaxially, with each levered beam lying at a small angle relative to its adjacent beams so that the printing ends of the stylii may be constrained to lie along a straight line perpendicular to the direction of movement of the head.

Abstract: In a ship's roll damping tank, means are provided that are operative to extract substantial wave velocity energy from the liquid in the tank. Perforated pipes are laid in spaced parallel relationship across the bottom of the tank, i.e. in the fore and aft direction of the ship, to create, by injection from the pipes into the tank liquid, upflows of fluid that interfere with the normal orbital movement of the tank liquid wave particles.Wave velocity energy can likewise be extracted by means of an apertured false bottom, upward protuberances on the tank floor, and perforated or unperforated horizontal end baffles.

Abstract: A vending system includes a central station at which various information stored on master recordings can be selectively accessed by purchasers from any of multiple remote vending machines, the accessed information being reproduced on cartridge-type storage media at that vending machine. The cartridge, upon receiving all of the selected information, is ejected from the vending machine for the permanent use of the purchaser. In a preferred embodiment the master recording medium comprises a plurality of rack-mounted endless master tapes continuously driven by a common capstan. The endless tapes are contained in a cartridge which includes a tape transport and playback head and is readily removable from the rack. The vending machine includes a storage magazine in which blank tapes receive recorded information and are then automatically ejected.

Abstract: Continuous production of a molded three-dimensional product employs an indexing rotatable drum having along its periphery a plurality of mold cavities into which molten thermoplastic material is introduced, and a web of material permeable to the molten thermoplastic material and which is guided along the drum periphery. In one embodiment the thermoplastic material enters the cavities through the web to which the thermoplastic is subsequently bonded. The thermoplastic material in the cavities is then shaped and cooled before it is removed from the cavities by dissociating the web from the drum periphery. In a second embodiment the molten thermoplastic material is introduced into the cavities before the web is associated onto the drum periphery. After cooling the thermoplastic to bond it to the web, the web is dissociated from the drum and removes the molded thermoplastic from the cavities.

Abstract: A threshold level is automatically varied to follow variations in an input signal reference level. In the disclosed embodiment the reference level is that produced by photodiode-amplifiers in an OCR machine when viewing white or non-character portions of a page, the reference level varying as a function of the change in the length of the optical path during a scan across the page. The threshold level is compared to the input signal level to determine whether a character segment is viewed by the photodiode. Variation of the threshold level is achieved by low pass filtering individual output signals from some of the photodiode-amplifiers and then averaging the filtered signals to provide the adjusted threshold.

Abstract: A battery vehicle having a normal speed range for house to house deliveries and an extended speed range for lengthy journeys such as to and from delivery rounds. The extended speed range is engageable by operation of a manual range control. The manual range control is rendered inoperative on startup so that the extended speed range is not immediately available. After a delay, of predetermined period, or after a delay of predetermined period during which the speed has been held at, or above, a determined limit, or after the vehicle has covered a predetermined distance, the manual range change is enabled.

Abstract: An intermodulation distortion analyzer generates two pairs of sinusoidal test tones to serve as a test signal for the channel under test. The two pairs of tones simulate two respective noise band test signals but eliminate the long time averaging required for measurements when noise bands are used. A highly linear AGC circuit employs sampling at an output-controlled duty cycle to maintain a constant reference level for the analyzer. This reference level permits automatic distortion measurements to be read out directly in db below the test signal. An RMS detector circuit for second order intermodulation products employs feedback control to maintain the input signal to a squaring circuit constant. Squaring of the constant level sinusoids produces RMS DC components which can be separated for direct measurement. A distortion circuit provides known levels of second and third order intermodulation in the test signal to permit accurate check out of the analyzer.

Abstract: A contra-rotating propeller system, particularly adapted for high speed water craft, is characterized by a movable support for at least one of two nominally-aligned and independently driven contra-rotating propellers. In a particular embodiment a forward propeller is driven by a forward engine via a forward drive shaft extending aftward and through the keel. The aft propeller is supported behind the forward propeller by a strut which serves as a rudder and as the housing for the aft propeller gear box. The forward and aft engines are preferably in longitudinal alignment to minimize hull width. The aft propeller strut is pivotable under control of the helm to effect steering.

Abstract: In an aircraft with a multi-engine configuration at the aft end of the fuselage the engines lie on top and on either side with their air intakes so positioned that downward and sideways noise shielding is provided by the fuselage and the wings, the wings having rearwardly extendible flaps to substantially close at take off and landing, gaps in the noise shield that would otherwise exist between the intakes and the unextended wing trailing edges. The engines exhaust into a noise shielding duct the bottom and side walls of which are provided respectively by a fixed-incidence portion of the tail plane and a pair of fins and rudders upstanding from the tailplane. Upward and downward thrust reversal passages are obtained by rocking back an aft end portion of each engine housing and simultaneously tilting a hingedly mounted forward section of said fixed incidence tail plane portion.

Abstract: An optical scanning system has a dirigible head of generally spherical shape mounted on a support body for scanning through a substantially hemispherical field of view, and optical lenses, a scanner rotor and drive motor therefor, and a cryogenically-cooled detector element array are all mounted within the confines of the dirigible head. The head has a primary objective lens in its outer shell and further lenses are mounted within the head in an adjustable holder enabling different lenses to be brought into alignment with the objective lens. The scanner rotor is generally annular and rotates about an axis oblique to the optical axis of the objective lens; it comprises a multi-faceted reflector receiving the image beam from the lens system and reflecting it laterally on to the detector array.

Abstract: Reliable cycle selection is achieved with LORAN-C pulses received under low signal-to-noise conditions. A tracking pulse is generated at the LORAN-C pulse repetition rate and is intended to be time-coincident with the end of the third 100 KHz carrier cycle in each received pulse. Sampling pulses are generated one-quarter and three quarters of a cycle before and after the tracking pulse and are used to sample a hard-limited, envelope-derived version of the received signal in which a phase reversal occurs at the start of the fourth carrier cycle. If the tracking pulse is coincident with the end of the third carrier cycle, a unique pattern of binary levels is sampled by the four sampling pulses. If the tracking pulse is too early or too late, corresponding early (left) and later (right) sampled level patterns result. Left and right occurrences of the tracking pulse are individually counted for a predetermined number of received LORAN-C pulses after which the difference between left and right counts is examined.

Abstract: In a binary parallel complementing L.S.I. adder, a C-MOS transmission gate is provided in each stage with its input and output directly connected to the carry in and carry out leads of the stage. The gate is switched by complementary control bits derived by stage input logic operating on the bits to be summed, whereby very fast passage of a carry through the stages is achieved. The transmission gate consists of p- and n- channel MOS transistors with their sources connected in common to the input and their drain electrodes likewise connected in common to the output.