Abstract: Diverse methods for eliminating potentially harmful periodically varying electrical and magnetic fields which emanate from electric blankets, heating pads, and other electrical appliances intended for use proximate to the human body. One approach entails the use of a self-shielding coaxial cable as the heating element with core and sheath connected electrically in flux-cancelling fashion to minimize emanated magnetic and electrical fields. Another approach involves the use of heating elements, may otherwise be of currently conventional construction, powered with filtered dc to avoid potentially harmful alternating fields and produce harmless stationary fields instead. Ground integrity assurance means are also provided to avoid the emanation from the blanket or appliance of alternating electric fields which might otherwise result from connection to an improperly polarized alternating current source.

Abstract: Several phenomena which occur commonly in graphite composites, as well as other materials, and which affect the impedance of an eddy-current probe have been characterized on the complex impedance plane. An eddy-current method is disclosed by which a target material is stimulated at several frequencies, the impedance of the probe is measured and compared to the impedance of reference material, and the condition of the target material is determined. The method described is capable of finding the signatures of a number of conditions commonly found by eddy-currents, and can be programmed to find others, such as conductive and non-conductive plating thicknesses, and inclusions of material with relative ferrous materials. Because the method determines faults on the normalized impedance plane, it is capable of being used on other conductive materials in addition to graphite composites.