Abstract: An inexpensive, yet beautiful retaining wall may be formed with architecturally pleasing, coordinating or matching materials such as marble, granite, stone, metal or the like. Architecturally pleasing, thin decorative facing panels are attached to plastic blocks which have hollow spaces to be filled with gravel or the like. The retaining wall is formed from several rows of such plastic blocks with the blocks in an upper row stacked upon the blocks in an adjacent lower row below the upper row and with the bottom edges of the upper row blocks being supported on adjacent lower row blocks. Decorative facing panels are provided which are substantially smaller in size than the plastic blocks and include a rear face attached to the front face of the plastic blocks to change the outward appearance of the front faces of the plastic blocks. Reinforcing ribs are formed in the walls of the hollow plastic blocks to add strength and rigidity while reducing the amount of plastic needed for the blocks.

Abstract: An inexpensive, yet beautiful retaining wall may be formed with architecturally pleasing, coordinating or matching materials such as marble, granite or the like. Architecturally pleasing, thin decorative facing panels are attached to masonry blocks. The retaining wall is formed from several rows of such masonry blocks with the blocks each including a top edge and a bottom edge and a front face having a masonry appearance extending between the top and bottom edges. The blocks in an upper row are stacked upon the blocks in an adjacent lower row below the upper row, with the bottom edges of the upper row blocks supported on adjacent lower row blocks. Decorative facing panels are provided which are substantially smaller in size than the masonry blocks and include a rear face attached to the front face of the masonry blocks to change the outward appearance of the front faces of the masonry blocks.

Abstract: A double wall twist tube is formed from at least two tubular blanks with a smaller tubular blank forming the inner wall and a larger tubular blank forming the outer wall. The smaller tubular blank is located within the larger tubular blank and the tubular blanks are each impressed with at least one indentation near one end. Sleeves are inserted into ends of the smaller tubular blank and a mandrel is inserted through the sleeves. Clamping chuck jaws or other clamping devices are provided on a longitudinally movably non-rotatable tail stock squeeze the indented end of the larger tubular blank, securing it to the indented end of the smaller tubular blank and simultaneously securing the tubular blanks to the tail stock. Clamping chuck jaws or other clamping devices are provided on a rotatable head stock squeeze the opposite end of the larger tubular blank, securing it to the opposite end of the smaller tubular blank and simultaneously securing the tubular blanks to the head stock.

Abstract: An improved heat exchanger tube is provided in which the tube has one or more paralleled integral spirals formed in the tube wall providing on the exterior surface one or more convoluted spiral recesses of selected pitch, and fin members affixed to the spiral tube providing a tube having greatly increased external surface area, per unit of length and a convoluted, laminar flow breaking, interior surface.

Abstract: A header and tube assembly for use in a shell-and-tube type heat exchanger formed of a header plate having a plurality of spaced apart openings therethrough, each opening having a large cross-sectional area in the portion adjacent the header outer surface than the cross-sectional area adjacent the inner surface, a tube received in each of the openings, each tube having an outer end extending at least even with the header outer surface, and a sealer filling each of the openings in the header and surrounding the tube in the openings to thereby secure each tube in a leak-proof arrangement. In one embodiment, each opening in the header is of conical cross-sectional configuration, and in another embodiment, each opening in the header has a smaller cross-sectional portion adjacent the header inner surface dimensioned to snugly receive the tube and a larger cross-sectional portion adjacent the header outer surface to receive the sealer therein.

Abstract: A heat pipe for providing enhanced thermal conductivity for transfering heat from a heat sink, such as the earth, to a separate medium, including an elongated, generally vertical, tube closed at each end and having a heat absorption portion adjacent the lower end and a heat dissipation portion adjacent the upper end, the wall of the tube having an integral spiraled groove therein forming internal spiraled valleys and ridges, a refrigerant within the tube having a liquid and a vapor phase wherein the refrigerant is converted to vapor in the heat absorption portion and the vapor is converted to liquid in the heat dissipation portion, the vapor being free to rise within the interior of the tube, the condensed liquid refrigerant flowing downwardly in the tube interior spiraled valleys.