Abstract: There are disclosed improvements for an electrical connector comprising a terminal for an insulative housing, electroconductive means disposed at least partly in such housing and having a portion connectable to a wire, a cap initially seatable in an up position on said housing, and adapted to be forcibly pushed down from said up position to a down position on said housing, and means permitting insertion of said lead into the space enclosed by such housing and cap and for effecting connection in said space of said inserted lead with said electroconductive means.

Abstract: An improvement is disclosed for a cabinet housing separate arrays of terminals connected to one end of leads in wire harnesses, the other end of such harness leads being connected through splices to insulated wire leads in field cables running to such cabinet and respective to such arrays. The leads in separate of such cables are electrically coupled by connections including such splices, harness leads and terminals and completed by jumper leads bridging terminals in separate of such arrays. The improvement constitutes providing on the back side of the cabinet a plurality of splice chambers each respective to one of the terminal arrays and one of the cables, placing in each splice chamber the splices of the harness leads for the corresponding terminal array and the wire leads of the corresponding cable, and filling such chamber with a body of material which encapsulates the assembly of such splices and adjacent lengths of such leads.

Abstract: The top of a lead-acid cell electric battery is closed by a plastic closure plate having hingedly coupled thereto a pivotable attachment angularly movable about a horizontal pivot axis through a range of angular position between upright and folded down positions at opposite ends of the range. The attachment consists primarily of a planar plastic board having a cut-out therein. When upright, the board is usable as a handle to lift the battery. When in folded-down position the board overlies the battery terminals, and sections of cable conductors connected to such terminals, to protect the overlain elements. Further, the board is received in a recess in the plate so that the board's upper surface is coplanar and horizontal with the plate's upper surface to the board's rear. Those two surfaces are adapted to share the load of an overlying battery.

Abstract: A microwave signal splitter/combiner device includes a primary coaxial connector mounted by a first hub and serving as an input/output for a composite signal to or from the device, secondary coaxial connectors radially spaced in a circle around the primary connector and serving as outputs/inputs for individual signals from and to the device, and rigid "first" coaxial line sections positionally fixed through such hub with the primary connector and extending from it to, respectively, the secondary connectors to hold them positionally fixed.

Abstract: Apparatus is disclosed in which a ring of microwave amplifiers are spaced around the top of a cavity closure structure containing upper and lower splitter and combiner cavities. The inputs and outputs of the amplifiers are connected by, respectively, input and output coaxial couplers to points in, respectively, the splitter and combiner cavities which are spaced radially outward of, and equiangularly around the centers of these cavities. In operation, input microwaves are distributed by the splitter cavity and input couplers to the amplifiers to be amplified by them in parallel, and the several microwave outputs of the amplifies are merged together by the output couplers and combiner cavity to provide a single amplified output. On the upper and lower sides of the splitter and combiner cavities are rigid metal plates with flat surfaces facing towards these cavities, and on the lower and upper sides of the splitter and combiner cavities are sheet metal dishes.

Abstract: A probe holder mounts a pair of spaced current probes, a pair of spaced primary voltage probes inward of such current probes and a pair of spaced secondary voltage probes outward of such current probes. Each of the secondary voltage probes and the nearer thereto of the primary voltage probes is on the same equipotential contour calculated by assuming that the current probes contact and pass current through a planar homogeneously resistive sheet with infinite boundaries and of infinitesimal thickness. Electroconductive bodies are evaluated for resistive anomalies therein by contacting the body of all the probes and passing current through the body between the current probes. The voltages V.sub.a, V.sub.b and V'.sub.a, V'.sub.b responsively sensed on the surface of such body by, respectively, such two primary probes and such two secondary probes are used to derive first and second signals as functions of the voltage differentials V.sub.a -V.sub.b and V'.sub.a -V'.sub.b respectively.

Abstract: A circuit card comprises a printed wiring board, a plastic faceplate therefor, and a resilient electroconductive sheet metal strip extending the length of such plate and fastened to its rear side. The strip at its opposite ends provides spring contacts electrically coupled by the strip's middle part. The card is adapted to be inserted in a holding bay with a rectangular front opening of greater width than height and bordered at its top and bottom by designation strips for the cards to be put in such bay. Metallic structural means adjacent the opening provides an a.c. circuit path extending around the opening in a closed loop. When the card is inserted in the bay, the spring contacts engage with metal-surfaced regions on the designation strips to provide an electrical shunt across such loop and, thereby, to reduce electromagnetic interference radiating through such opening from the bay's interior.

Abstract: The invention is for an improvement in a payout tube for container-packaged coiled wire in which the tube in use is in the container which has in a wall thereof a hole comprising a circular main aperture and a pair of notches projecting from such aperture. The tube is secured to the container by passing an end of the tube through such aperture, and radial projecting tabs on the tube at that end through such notches, so as to locate such end and tabs on the wall's outside while radially projecting lugs on the tube remain on the tube's inside, and by then angularly turning the tube to insert sections of such wall bordering such hole between such tabs and such lugs. The improvement constitutes providing on the tube a pair of movable fingers and associated resilient hinges by which those fingers are hingedly coupled to the rest of the tube.

Abstract: A device for sealing passage of cable through an opening in a wall comprises (a) an elastomeric grommet having therein an axial bore and a radial slit extending to such bore from the grommet's outer surface, and (b) a clamp comprising a belt of which a segment forms a loop around the grommet, and a take-up adapted by adjustment to contract or expand such loop. In use, a portion of a cable is inserted through the slit into the bore, the grommet is positioned within the wall opening and the take-up is operated to contract the loop to pressurize the grommet material to thereby seal (c) the cable portion in the bore, (d) the slit and (e) the interface of the grommet and wall. Prior to such use, the bore contains a removable plug joined to the grommet by a ring of tearable material. The grommet has thereon first and second flanges adapted to, respectively, provide strain relief for the cable and aid in retaining the grommet in the wall opening.

Abstract: A circuit card comprises a printed wiring board, a plastic faceplate therefor, and a resilient electroconductive sheet metal strip extending the length of such plate and fastened to its rear side. The strip at its opposite ends provides spring contacts electrically coupled by the strip's middle part. The card is adapted to be inserted in a holding bay with a rectangular front opening of greater width than height and bordered at its top and bottom by designation strips for the cards to be put in such bay. Metallic structural means adjacent the opening provides an a.c. circuit path extending around the opening in a closed loop. When the card is inserted in the bay, the spring contacts engage with metal-surfaced regions on the designation strips to provide an electrical shunt across such loop and, thereby, to reduce electromagnetic interference radiating through such opening from the bay's interior.

Abstract: The invention is for improvements in a payout tube for a container-packaged coiled wire in which the tube in use is in the container along with the wire coil, a stub of the tube at its exit end protrudes through a hole in a container wall, and the tube is secured to that wall by having sections of the wall around the hole interposed between (a) a flange disposed on the tube on the inside of such wall in contact with such sections, and (b) locking tabs axially spaced on the tube from such flange and disposed on the outside of such wall in contact with such portions.

Abstract: A circuit card comprises a printed wiring board, a plastic faceplate therefor, and a resilient electroconductive sheet metal strip extending the length of such plate and fastened to its rear side. The strip at its opposite ends provides spring contacts electrically coupled by the strip's middle part. The card is adapted to be inserted in a holding bay with a rectangular front opening of greater width than height and bordered at its top and bottom by designation strips for the cards to be put in such bay. Metallic structural means adjacent the opening provides an a.c. circuit path extending around the opening in a closed loop. When the card is inserted in the bay, the spring contacts engage with metal-surfaced regions on the designation strips to provide an electrical shunt across such loop and, thereby, to reduce electromagnetic interference radiating through such opening from the bay's interior.

Abstract: Coaxial units are disclosed for coupling an r.f. amplifying microstrip to splitter and combiner wave guides, respectively, of a splitter-combiner apparatus. Each coaxial unit comprises an outer conductor sleeve and an inner conductor pin projecting forward of the sleeve, both the sleeve and pin having forward portions which are resiliently compressible radially inward, and the sleeve being radially enlarged at its front end. The coaxial unit is coupled at its front to its associated wave guide by having its sleeve and pin forward portions, respectively, received in, and radially inwardly compressed in, large and small bores respectively formed in the metallic plates on opposite sides of the dielectric chamber of the associated wave guide. Those forward portions make direct yieldable-pressure electrical contacts with metallic walls of these bores at locations adjacent to the openings of such bores into that chamber.

Abstract: In a facility for conveying PWBs in a path of travel, two stop/clamp devices are magnetically clamped along the path to be spaced in its length and to be within the path width occupied by the traveling board. Each of the devices has stop and clamp elements shiftable as a unit between out positions at which they are disposed in the path and in positions at which they and the rest of their device do not interfere with the travel in the path of the boards. When in the out position, the leading device is adapted to stop the travel of such a board, and both devices are then selectively operable to grip and then release the stopped board. Sensors on the leading device are used to detect the presence of a board near to and at such device. A computer is responsive to such sensors and is used to produce a desired sequence of operations of such two devices and of other units.

Abstract: An improvement is provided for a conveyer tape comprising an underlying flexible belt, a stock of parts disposed in a row along such belt, adhesive deposited on the belt in two bands flanking such row, and a cover tape extending in the length of the row over the parts to hold them on the belt, the tape being adhered on laterally opposite sides of the row to the belt by adhesive in such bands. The improvement involves providing two sets of perforations formed in the tape to demarcate therein two tear lines extending in the length of the tape and disposed on opposite lateral sides of the row of parts, laterally inwards of the adhesive bands. The perforations reduce the shearing strength of the tape along the tear lines to promote peeling at the front end of the tape away from the belt of a central strip of the tape lying between the tear lines and between border portions of the tape on either side of that strip and remaining adhered to the belt.

Abstract: There is disclosed a connector for two terminal plugs having bores in which are recieved respective optical fibers having free ends terminating at the front ends of such plugs. The connector comprises a longitudinal sleeve of sheet metal having a bottom, back and top and a longitudinal opening at its front. The sleeve contains a guide disposed alongside a longitudinal passage through the sleeve for receiving the two plugs end-to-end. The sleeve top is divided by lateral slits into two central resilient fingers and two resilient tabs at the sleeve ends. The fingers exert forces to press the end-to-end plugs against the guide to align them, while the tabs exert greater forces on the guide to maintain it clamped with the sleeve. The slits extend part way down the back of the sleeve, the guide has beveled edges, and the mentioned opening is bordered by top and bottom lips adapted to be pried apart by a pliers tool.

Abstract: A terminal board has a base plate and rows and columns of terminals upstanding from such plate. Each terminal comprises (a) an insulative hollow post (b) a metallic terminal strip in the post and having a pair of tangs separated by a contact gap and projecting above part of the post, and (c) a hollow cap fitted on such post to enclose such tangs and gap and shiftable on such post between up and down detained positions. The cap on opposite sides has entrance and exit holes aligned diagonal to such rows and columns, with the entrance hole having an inwardly downward slant and the exit hole being horizontal. With the cap in up position, an insulated lead is fed into the entrance hole and then passed partly or fully through the exit hole which initially impedes full passage through it of the lead.The cap is then pushed on the post to down position to cause the lead to be driven against the tangs and into the contact gap such that the lead's insulation is cut and the metallic core of the lead contacts the tangs.

Abstract: A device for screening unwanted telephone calls is connectable at a station etween a telephone set and a wall outlet plug. In response to ringing current received at the station and signaling an incoming call, the device delays audible ringing at the station for a 2.5 second period. During such period, the call's sender transmits to the station a # dial signal only if the call is in a special category as, say one undertaken to try to make a sale. If such # signal is received during such period, the device transmits back to the sender a return signal acknowledging that the call has been received and rejected at the station, and the device then hangs up call at the station without any audible ringing taking place there. If no such # signal is so received, audible ringing occurs at the line upon expiration of such period, and the call continues in its normal sequence.

Abstract: A line switch for a telephone set comprises a lever rockably mounted in the tand for the set and having as a rear part a plunger fin received in a slot passing through the stand to a handset cradle on its top. The lever has at its front a head carrying on its underside a pair of metal leaf springs of which front portions form spring contacts disposed over corresponding electroconductive pads on a printed wiring board mounted within the stand. The lever is biased by a torque spring to yieldably hold the upper part of the fin in the cradle. Removal and replacement of a handset from and to the cradle actuates the lever to produce engagement and disengagement, respectively, of the spring contacts with their corresponding pads. Such spring contacts and pads form, electrically speaking, a line switch adapted upon such engagement and disengagement, respectively, to produce a "short" and an "open" of terminations at the set of the tip and ring leads therefor.

Abstract: A tape, with holes therein adjacent an edge of the tape, an adhesive surface and a succession of discs on such surface, is moved step by step to advance each disc in turn to a work station having pins outward of that edge. At the station, wire is wound around the disc and the pins to form (a) a wire coil surrounding the disc and adhered to such surface, and (b) wire segments extending from such disc to such pins so that each segment spans one of such holes. The segments are pressed against the surface so that each is adhered thereto on opposite sides of the hole spanned by that segment. The segments are severed at such edge to detach them from the pins, and a piece of the tape bearing the coil and adhered severed segments is severed from the rest of the tape and removed from the station. The assemblage comprising such tape piece and the coil and segments thereon constitutes a useful article of manufacture.