Abstract: An improved humidifier having a permanant motor housing mounted above a reservoir. A disposable aerosol generator is releasably attached to the motor housing and the reservoir is lined with a disposable liner. The aerosol generator and liner are replaceable.

Abstract: An improved paint cup for a suction feed hand held spray gun having a jar and a removable cap. A resilient unitary molded check valve either is positioned within or is positioned to cover a vent opening extending through the cap to allow exterior air to flow into the jar while inhibiting paint flow from the jar through the vent opening when the spray gun is tilted.

Abstract: A plasma plug for use with an ignition system with improved plasma jet emmision is disclosed. The plasma plug comprises a threaded shell for engagement with an internal combustion engine, an annular ground electrode structurally integral with the shell, an insulator mounted therein, and a center electrode seated within the insulator. The center electrode and the insulator both have firing ends, the former of which is short of the latter and in spark gap relationship with the ground electrode. The insulator has a stepped cavity extending from the firing end of the electrode through the firing end of the insulator and having a cavity of relatively large cross-section adjacent the former and a cavity of smaller cross-section extending through the latter. The ratio of the volume of the large cavity to that of the smaller is from about 100:1 to about 1:1 and the ratio of the length of the large cavity to that of the smaller is from about 1:3 to about 1:1.

Abstract: Apparatus for applying power to at least two heater filaments of two glow plugs in a diesel engine, or to a heater of one glow plug and a ballast load having substantially the same maximum rated voltage as the filament, is disclosed. The power source has a supply voltage greater than the maximum rated voltage of the filament and sufficiently high to cause an overheating temperature capable of burning out the filament under continuous operation. A switch is operable in a first position to prevent the application of the supply voltage to the apparatus, operable in a second position to apply the supply voltage to the apparatus, and operable in a third position to maintain the condition of the second position and to apply the supply voltage to the apparatus and to a starter for the engine.

Abstract: A ceramic insulator and a method for the production thereof are disclosed. The method comprises the steps of pressing ceramic batch around a contoured arbor having at least two longitudinally extending fins to form an outer piece having a bore with grooves therein corresponding to the fins, removing the arbor from and contouring the piece to a desired external shape, pressing ceramic batch to form an inner piece, and contouring the inner piece to fit within the bore of the outer piece. The inner piece is then positioned within the bore of the outer piece and both pieces are fired whereby the insulator is produced in which the contoured surface of the inner piece closes the grooves in the bore of the outer piece to form slots extending longitudinally within the ceramic insulator. Also disclosed is a method which involves firing the inner piece, positioning the fired inner piece within the bore of the unfired outer piece, and then firing both pieces together.

Abstract: A glow plug for accelerating the ignition of fuel in a combustion chamber of a diesel engine is disclosed. The glow plug comprises a shell releasably engagable with a head of a combustion chamber of the diesel engine, and an electrically conducting, tubular heater carried by and electrically connected to the shell. The heater has an open end within the shell, and an opposed closed end extending longitudinally therefrom. The glow plug also comprises a heating filament disposed within the heater adjacent to the closed end and electrically insulated from the tubular body thereof. The heating filament has a first end electrically connected to the closed end of the heater and a second end; it is one which heats to a predetermined design temperature when a specified voltage is applied thereto. The glow plug also comprises an insulator carried by the shell, and a terminal assembly carried by the insulator.

Abstract: A spray nozzle is disclosed. The nozzle includes a central opening through which air and material issues. A pair of horns are located on a first center line plane extending through the opening. The outwardly projecting horns include converging air ramps which induce an air flow. The atomizing air openings of the nozzle are positioned outside of opposed sectors which define a predetermined angle and are symmetrical with respect to a center line plane perpendicular to the first diameter. The nozzle limits material deposits and clogging of air openings located in the horns.

Abstract: A connector apparatus comprising a hose having a resilient core with a resilient cover over the core. A passageway is defined in the center of the resilient core. At one end of the hose the core has a region of reduced thickness that produces an increased inside diameter in the passageway at the end of the hose. A connector is engageably positioned in the passageway in the hose at the end where the core has a reduced thickness. The connector has an enlarged diameter portion and the enlarged diameter portion has a diameter larger than the inside diameter of the passageway in the hose. Clamping means is positioned on the exterior of the hose at the end where the connector is positioned in the passageway of the hose. The clamping means sealingly secures the connector in the hose.

Abstract: Switch-controlled apparatus for actuating a power switch to enable application of power from an associated power supply to a heater filament of a glow plug in a diesel engine is disclosed. The filament is one which is heated to a predetermined design temperature when a specified voltage is applied thereto. The power source has a supply voltage greater than the specified voltage of the filament. A switch accessible to an operator of the engine is operable in a first position to prevent the application of the supply voltage to the apparatus, operable in a second position to apply the supply voltage through a first terminal of the apparatus, and operable in a third position to apply the supply voltage through the first terminal and through a second terminal of the apparatus and to a starter for the engine.

Abstract: A paint spraying booth has a back wall over which a water curtain flows to collect sprayed paint, a tank to receive the water curtain, vertical entrainment ducts disposed above the rear part of the tank, means for generating a flow of air through said ducts to lift water from the tank for the formation of the water curtain, a vertically-disposed wall separating the front and rear parts of the tank and having one or more transfer openings below the water surface, and baffle plates in the front part of the tank causing paint-laden water from the curtain to flow to a remote zone before returning to the transfer opening in order to minimize the quantity of paint passing into the rear part of the tank. A surface-removal device, preferably with a venturi unit, is arranged in front of the transfer opening to remove floating paint and pass it back to the baffled region for further dispersal.

Abstract: A high-silica ceramic glaze, having a low coefficient of thermal expansion, suitable for application to alumina bodies, is disclosed. The glaze consists essentially, by weight percent, of 35 to 54 percent SiO.sub.2, from 7 to 11 percent Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, from 17 to 25 percent B.sub.2 O.sub.3, from 2 to 3 percent CaO, from 2 to 21/2 percent ZnO, from 41/4 to 5 percent Na.sub.2 O, from 81/2 to 21 percent SrO, and from 0.7 to 1 percent of a mixture of K.sub.2 O, Li.sub.2 O and MgO, and minor impurities.

Abstract: A safety device for an electrode-type steam vaporizer having an electrode assembly enclosed in a protective housing allows access to the electrodes for cleaning or adjustment only when a key, preferably the electric plug for the vaporizer, is inserted through an opening in the protective housing to release an interlock mechanism normally precluding removal of the protective housing from the electrode assembly. When the protective housing is removed, the key is automatically locked in the opening in the protective housing by a spring-biased lock pin and cannot be removed until the electrode assembly is again repositioned in the housing with the electrode assembly and housing properly assembled relative to each other. The safety device can be used in other electrical appliances, such as a toaster, that have electrical elements enclosed in a protective housing.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus is disclosed for sequentially electrostatic spraying different ones of a plurality of electrically conductive paints from a plurality of paint sources. Each paint source is connected through a separate electrically non-conductive first hose to a manifold and then through a single second hose to a spray gun. After spraying, at least the first hose which carries the sprayed paint is purged of paint and dried to electrically isolate the source of the first paint from the manifold when a second paint is sprayed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for operating a two-bed oxygen enrichment system is disclosed in which the efficiency of the system is increased by first evacuating and then purging a bed of adsorbed gas using a short period of flow of a high purity gas.

Abstract: A silicon-talc sealing material is disclosed. The sealing material is made up of about 15 to 30 percent by weight of silicon metal powder and about 85 to 70 percent by weight of talc. It has been found to be admirably suitable for sealing around the center wire of spark plugs in which the sealing material is subjected to temperatures of about 900.degree. F. or higher. In such applications, the sealing material is unexpectedly advantageous by comparison with previously known materials, because it has significantly higher holding power, because it allows significantly less gas leakage, or because it has both advantages.

Abstract: An improved method for producing a ceramic insulator is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of charging ceramic batch into a longitudinally extending die in which stepped arbors are supported by a plunger, forming a blank by pressing the batch between the arbor plunger and an opposing plunger, ejecting the blank and removing the arbors therefrom, contouring the blank to a desired shape, and firing the contoured blank. The insulator has a length-to-diameter ratio greater than 3:1 but not greater than 8:1; the improvement constitutes controlling the relative movements of the opposing plungers with respect to the longitudinal wall of the die during pressing of the blank so that at least 80 percent of the total plunger movement is in the direction of decreasing arbor diameter whereby variations in the end-to-end density of the insulator are minimized.

Abstract: An improved electric steam vaporizer having a container defining a liquid reservoir and a removable cover for the container. Two parallel electrodes depend into the liquid reservoir from a cap attached to the cover. The electrodes are attached to the cap by inserting into electrode-receiving openings formed in the cap, welding the conductor ends on a line cord to tabs which project through the cap, bending the tab to mechanically lock the electrodes to the cap and in one embodiment potting the tabs and line cord conductor ends with a sealing material. An electrode housing attached to the cap surrounds the electrodes to define an inner-boiling chamber, an outer water-filled insulating chamber, and a small volume annular surge chamber which surrounds the lower end of the boiling chamber.

Abstract: A method for producing a dense and impervious stabilized hafnium oxide ceramic having zero percent water absorption is disclosed. The hafnium oxide is stabilized in the sense that a solid solution with Y.sub.2 O.sub.3 is formed. The solid solution has a cubic crystal structure which, because of its similarity to the structure of the mineral fluorite, is sometimes called a "fluorite phase"; unlike hafnium oxide alone, which undergoes a destructive phase transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic during cooling, the cubic structure of the solid solution remains stable during cooling of a ceramic article.

Abstract: A spill preventing diaphragm attachment for a paint spray gun paint cup as shown. The diaphragm is engaged around the mouth of the paint cup and forms, with the undersurface of the paint cup lid, a chamber above the paint in the cup that is deeper at one side than the other. At the deep side, oriented 180.degree. away from the vent opening in the lid is a vent opening in the diaphragm. Any paint that might flow through the diaphragm vent opening as a result of tipping the spray gun drains back into the cup as soon as the gun is righted. The diaphragm is readily replaceable without tools.