Abstract: A hydraulic fan control for controlling air ventilation in a building having a plurality of fans operated by associated hydraulic motors which are connected in parallel and driven by a single pump and electric motor unit through a hydraulic fluid circuit. The speed of the fans is proportional to the volume of fluid flowing through the associated hydraulic motors per unit time, i.e., the rate of fluid flow. The volume of fluid is regulated by a shunt flow divider valve included in the hydraulic circuit and connected in parallel with the hydraulic motors. The shunt flow divider valve is in turn controlled by an electrical drive circuit responsive to variations in the ambient temperature of the air in the building.

Abstract: An automated, tiered, egg collecting system and method for tiered confinement cage rows for poultry in which each row of confinement cages has a cage-row conveyor for delivering eggs to an end of the cage row. Under the teaching of the invention, a vertically movable, horizontally extended transport conveyor is oriented transversely of the cage row conveyors and adjacent the egg-delivery ends thereof for movement up and down to a plurality of pre-selected, egg-receiving positions. The vertically movable conveyor carries a hydraulically operated motor and drive shaft which provides driving power to each of the cage row conveyors only during the period of time when the vertically movable conveyor is in an egg-receiving position with respect to a tier of cage row conveyors. The drive motor is coupled with a drive shaft on a cage row conveyor through coacting mechanical means as a function of the position of the vertically movable conveyor relative to the delivery ends of a tier of row conveyors.

Abstract: The hydraulic power system includes a single electrical motor for driving a fluid pump which supplies fluid under pressure to a plurality of series connected fluid motors, with the first motor in the series directly to the pump outlet and the last motor in the series to a fluid reservoir that constitutes the fluid source for the pump. The electrical motor is operable in response to a call for the actuation of any one of said fluid motors, and requires a maximum power output relative to the pump fluid capacity so that the fluid pressure and flow characteristics delivered by the pump satisfy the full load operating requirements of the last fluid motor in the series of motors when all of the other fluid motors are under full load operation.

Abstract: Honeycombs are supplied to one end of an elongated wax melting tank having a heated bottom with the melted wax and honey mixture flowing from the other end of the melting tank into an upright settling tank having an upper melted wax drain and a lower honey drain and heating elements therein above the level of the mixture. The drained honey is passed into a clarifying unit maintained at a temperature less than a wax melting temperature wherein any wax particles entrained in the drained honey are removed.

Abstract: An assembly of pig confinement stalls that includes a first upstanding rectangularly shaped enclosure portion having an open end, and upstanding middle wall portion dividing the first enclosure portion into first and second stall portions, each of which has an open end, an upstanding V-shaped enclosure portion for each of the first stall portions having an apex end, and an open end connected to the open end of a corresponding first stall portion to form a pair of continuous pig retaining enclosures, and a second rectangularly shaped upstanding enclosure portion that has an open end connected to the apices of the V-shaped enclosure portions to form a third continuous pig retaining enclosure.

Abstract: A flow stoppage detector device for a particulate material supply line includes a housing that has a pivoted partition member for dividing the housing into first and second adjacent upright conduit sections. The partition member has a pair of leg members and is pivotally disposed in the housing for movement to a first position in which a first leg member forms a common wall for the conduit sections and the second leg member an obstruction to a material flow through the second conduit section. A switch means on the housing has a switch actuator extended into the second conduit section for movement from a first position to a second position in response to an overflow of material over the common wall from the first conduit section into the second conduit section.