Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention comprise devices, systems, and components for use with a survey pole positioning system. For example, embodiments of the invention provide a survey pole positioning system that efficiently, easily, and safely allows a surveyor to position a survey pole, and thus position a surveying device on a surface where a surveyor cannot directly stand. In one embodiment, a hinged member couples a survey pole to a positioning rod such that the positioning rod can rotate with respect to the survey pole. A surveyor can then use the positioning rod to position the survey pole on a surface where the surveyor cannot directly stand.

Abstract: A method of rocking a wheeled infant carrier (30) comprises using a rocking device (10) having a pair of discrete units (12,14). Each unit has a ground-engaging base (18a,b) and a platform (16a,b) supported thereon through bearings for movement relative to the base in a first direction. A drive one (12) of the units has a motor in a housing (20) arranged to drive the platform (16a) of the drive unit relative to its base back and forth in said first direction. A first wheel (34) of the carrier (30) is placed on the drive unit and a second wheel (32) on the second, slave unit (14), with the axes of rotation of the wheels being arranged parallel said first direction. The motor is operated to rock that end of the carrier that is supported by those wheels from side to side.

Abstract: A masonry block wall system is disclosed comprising a plurality of piers positioned at predetermined intervals with a pilaster mounted on each of the piers. The pilasters are formed by vertically stacked masonry blocks that are attached to the pier by a reinforcing rod extending upwardly from the pier through a vertical mortarless void in the blocks. A plurality of courses of masonry blocks form block wall panels, each of the blocks in the panels having horizontal mortarless voids therein, the horizontal and vertical joints between adjacent courses being interlocking and mortarless. Selected courses of masonry blocks have a horizontal reinforcing rod attached to each block in the course without mortar or grout.

Abstract: A finite-state machine (30), which receives its input on INPUT lines (32) and generates its output on OUTPUT lines (34), is implemented with a content-addressable memory (46), whose output is the address of the location containing the data word presented to the content-addressable memory as its input. The content-addressable memory's input data word is the concatenation of the finite-state-machine input and the content-addressable-memory output, while the content-addressable-memory output is the output of the finite-state machine.

Abstract: A circuit board is aligned with the housing so that a mounting pin may be inserted through a circuit board mounting hole and into a housing mounting bore. The pin is heated when inserted into the bore so that solder at the bottom tip is in a melted state. After the pin is in the bore, the solder fuses and secures the pin in the bore. Accordingly, the pin head secures the electrical circuit board to the housing.

Abstract: A compressive receiver (10) includes a modulation circuit (14) that modulates the receiver input signal with compensation values equal to the ratio of the transfer function of an ideal linear dispersive delay line to that of the main compressive-receiver linear dispersive delay line (22). An auxiliary linear dispersive delay line (16) dispersively delays the results modulated signal at the reciprocal of the compressive receiver's chirp rate, and the resultant signal is progressively translated in frequency by a frequency translator (18) at the compressive-receiver chirp rate. As a consequence, each point in a signal-frequency component of the input signal is translated to the frequency at which the compensation function was evaluated in modulating the component at that point in time, so the departure of the main dispersive delay line (22) from linearity is compensated for, and increased dynamic range results.

Abstract: A digital data processor executes fixed-length instructions containing either a direct literal or part of an address specifying an indirect literal stored in memory. The balance of the address of the indirect literal preferably is provided by the value of the program counter. A direct-indirect control bit contained in the instruction indicates whether a direct literal or indirect literal is specified by the literal field. In processing an instruction, the processor preferably treats the literal field contents as though it contained both direct literal bits and address bits for specifying an indirect literal. The processor uses the direct/indirect literal control bit to determine whether to pass the literal field contents or the fetched entry from the memory for further processing. In this way, the processor can obtain, for instance, either short direct literals or long indirect literals in an expeditious manner in the same number of cycles.

Abstract: Each word location (18-0, 18-1, 18-255) in a content-addressable memory has a tally circuit (24-0, 24-1, 24-255) associated with it. A data word on data lines (12) is compared simultaneously with the words in all of the word locations, and the tally circuit associated with each location counts the number of matches between the key word in that location and the data word represented by the signals on the data line. The tally circuits apply tally signals representing the number of matching bits in their respective word locations to comparison circuits (28-1, 28-255), each of which compares the tally output from its associated tally circuit with the output from a previous comparison circuit and forwards the higher of the two to the next comparison circuit. Each comparison circuit also applies to a priority encoder (32) an output that indicates whether the associated tally circuit has generated a tally signal representing a tally greater than that from all previious locations.

Abstract: A wide format thermal printhead is provided which comprises a baseplate; a first substrate with a border portion removed from a first edge thereof to form a second edge, the first substrate being mounted on the baseplate; and a second substrate with a border portion removed from a first edge thereof to form a second edge, the second substrate being mounted on the baseplate with the second edge of the second substrate abutting the second edge of the first substrate to form a print surface having an extended active print width. Also provided is a thermal recording device with wide format capabilities which comprises the wide format thermal printhead as described.

Abstract: An electromagnetic dispersive delay line (10) includes a dielectric strip (28) as well as a coupler (24, 34, 36, and 38) for launching surface electromagnetic waves into the dielectric strip. The upper surface of the dielectric strip (28) is left exposed to the air in order to provide an interface with a lower-permittivity medium of propagation. This permits a surface-electromagnetic-wave propagation mode. The thickness of the dielectric strip (28) is varied along its length so as to result in a linear relationship of delay to frequency throughout a predetermined frequency range. Preferably, a conductive strip (26) spaced from the dielectric strip extends along the surface-wave propagation path in the region occupied by the evanescent field external to the dielectric strip (28). This conductive strip (26) modifies the phase relationships between the electric and magnetic fields in the evanescent-field region so as to cause some of the power transmission to occur outside of the dielectric strip.

Abstract: A circuit board is aligned with the housing so that a mounting pin may be inserted through a circuit board mounting hole into a housing mounting bore. The pin is heated when inserted into the bore so that solder at the bottom tip is in a melted state. After the pin is in the bore, the solder fuses and secures the pin in the bore. Accordingly, the pin head secures the electrical circuit board to the housing.

Abstract: In a moving craft connected by a towline to an ejected and freely falling object, a brake control system determines when to engage a brake that accelerates the object to the moving craft's speed by retarding the deployment of the towline without exceeding its rated working load. The control system continually monitors the velocity and the total deployed distance of the ejected object. When a point in a velocity-distance state-space plane corresponding to the monitored velocity and the monitored total deployed distance of the ejected object has reached a switching curve (48), the control system actuates a brake (74). The switching curve (48) is the locus of intersection points (38, 40, 42, and 44) of a plurality of pairs of curves, each pair consisting of a free-fall trajectory (23, 24, 26, and 28) and a brake trajectory (30, 32, 34, and 36) and being associated with a different craft velocity.

Abstract: A phase detector circuit which compensates for unwanted variations induced in an input signal by the operation of a thresholding input circuit such as a frequency divider. The circuit monitors the level of a supply voltage used by the input circuit to provide a supply variation signal indicative of such unwanted variations. The supply variation signal is then used to correct the output of the input circuit. In one embodiment that compensates for noise in the output of a digital frequency divider used as an input circuit in a high frequency phase detector, a high-pass filter and amplifier detect the supply variations. The supply variation signal is then fed to a phase adjustment circuit which compensates for the variations in supply voltage by adjusting the conduction threshold of a differential transistor pair. A variable impedance can be arranged to optimally attenuate the supply variation signal, thereby obtaining maximum noise elimination at a given operation frequency.

Abstract: A protective material comprising a layer of vinylidene chloride or saran or polymer or copolymer of vinylidene chloride between two layers of polyethylene or other polyolefin to provide protection against both permeation and breakthrough. A cloth backing or inner layer can be added to this material for comfort. The material can be modified with a reinforcing material such as fiberglass or scrim cloth. Inclusion of an indicator substance between layers, or impregnated in a layer, provided further protection by warning the user of permeation and breakthrough. This material can be utilized in protection clothing such as gloves, as enclosures for instruments and equipment, as a container, and in other applications.

Abstract: A successive detection logarithmic amplifier consists of multiple stages, with each stage containing a field-effect transistor (FET) which functions as both an amplifier and a detector. The FET, having an external gate biasing terminal, is biased to operate in its linear region as an amplifier. The gate-source junction of the FET, which is a diode, functions as the detector. When a signal exceeding a predetermined threshold is applied to the FET, the gate-source junction conducts current in the forward direction during the positive half-cycles of the input signal. During the negative half-cycles of the input signal, very little current flows through the gate-source diode junction. The time average of the forward current peaks produces a voltage across a resistor connected between the external gate bias terminal and ground.

Abstract: An energy-absorbing towline (14) comprises an elastomeric core (16) having a set of internal polymeric strands (18) helically wound around the outer surface (20) of the core in a first direction and a set of external polymeric strands (22) helically wound around the outer surface (24) of the internal strands in a direction opposite to the first direction. There may be more internal strands than external strands in order to maintain torque balance as the cable elongates. Each of the internal and external strands consists of a plurality of filaments (30), and each external strand (22) may have fewer strand filaments than each internal strand (18) so as to aid in torque balancing. Electrical conductors (26) may be helically disposed between turns of the external or the internal strands. When the towline experiences tension, the elastomeric core elongates, as do the helixes. But the diameters of the helixes contract, so the strands themselves do not elongate.

Abstract: Method for protecting intermediate layers of a multi-layer printed circuit board from chemical or other damage from processing of a layer or layers to which previously fabricated layers of the printed circuit board are attached prior to such additional processing. A thin layer of protective material is selectively attached to intermediate or inner layers of a multi-layer printed circuit board after fabrication of such layers, when the outer or subsequent layers are attached. Inner or intermediate layer(s) of a multi-layer printed circuit board are fabricated. When outer layer(s) of the resulting printed circuit board are attached to the inner or intermediate layer(s), a layer of protective material such as a thin sheet of chemical-resistive plastic is disposed between the inner or intermediate layer(s) and the outer layer(s) and is selectively or completely attached or bonded thereto such as with a layer of acrylic adhesive.

Abstract: This invention is a multiple segment flextensional transducer shell that is easily and quickly manufactured and modified. The shell may comprise two adjustable, flexible plates and two buttress bars or two J-shaped adjustable, flexible plates. When the buttress bars and plates or the J-shaped members are connected together at or near the nodal points of the transducer, the assembled shell will have the same shape as the flextensional transducer shells used in the prior art. The open ends of the assembled transducer shell are covered with flanges and a boot is placed over the shell and flanges to make the interior of the shell air tight.

Abstract: A protective material comprising a layer of vinylidene chloride or saran or copolymer of vinylidene chloride between two layers of polyethylene to provide protection against both permeation and breakthrough. A cloth backing or inner layer can be added to this material for comfort. The material can be modified with a reinforcing material such as fiberglass or scrim cloth. Inclusion of an indicator substance between layers, or impregnated in a layer, provides further protection by warning the user of permeation and breakthrough. This material can be utilized in protective clothing such as gloves, as enclosures for instruments and equipment, as a container, and in other applications.

Abstract: An electrical circuit interconnect system employs an electrically conductive enclosure (57) and cover (64) which completely encompasses, hermetically seals (54) and electrically isolates from the outside environment a component (18) mounted on first surface of an insulating substrate (16) of a microwave circiut (56). A plurality of conductors (12) mounted on the first surface of the insulating substrate (16) electrically connect the component (18) to the outside electrical circuitry by passing under a corresponding plurality of pass-through bores (58) within the base of the enclosure (57). Specifically, within each respective passthrough bore (58), a corresponding glass encased conductor (60 and 62) electrically connects each conductor (12) within the enclosure to a conductor outside of the enclosure (57).