Abstract: A box lubricator formed from an extruded U-shape having bolt receiving U-shaped channels for mounting a top cover, and bolt or anchor receiving T-shaped channels along a bottom side for alternatively mounting the box to a horizontal or vertical structure, and having support rails extending on an inside surface of the bottom for holding along their length selectively positioned cam supports within the lubricator box. The lubricator box also provides along its length and arranged on an inside surface, screw receiving C-shaped channels for mounting end covers to the U-shaped housing. By providing the T-shaped rails and the C-shaped rails, the U-shaped housing can be cut to any length and retains its ability for mounting top covers, end covers, and mounting the box to external structure.

Abstract: A toilet bowl illuminating device having a unitary body which can be fastened anywhere about the front or sides of the toilet bowl by clamping to the upper rim of the toilet bowl. A lamp on the end of a segment of the device extends downwardly into the toilet bowl for illumination of the toilet bowl. The device is activated by a momentary, normally closed, push-button switch located on the upper part of the device so that the device is activated by raising the toilet seat.

Abstract: A louver/lens assembly for placement in the light-emitting opening of a fluorescent light luminaire has a louver assembly mounted in the light-emitting opening of the luminaire. On top of the louver assembly, and between it and the fluorescent tubes, a prism lens, typically formed from a sheet of extruded transparent acrylic material, is placed. The lens sheet is flat on the surface facing the fluorescent tubes in the fixture, and has parallel longitudinal prisms formed in the surface overlying the louver assembly. The prisms are selected to direct light rays passing through the lens assembly downwardly through the openings between the longitudinal and transverse louvers of the louver assembly.

Abstract: A method is provided for extracting heat from a hot liquid containing scaling material whose solubility is proportional to the temperature of the liquid. The method includes providing a pond containing a liquid, and locating in said pond a vertical tube having an upper end that is substantially closed, and an open lower end immersed in the liquid in the pond and spaced from the bottom thereof for establishing a trapped region above a column of liquid in the tube. Hot liquid is supplied to the trapped region, and the pond and the tube are constructed and arranged so that the liquid in the pond and the liquid in the column are in substantial hydrostatic equilibrium. As a consequence, the trapped region is maintained at a pressure such that some of the liquid supplied to said trapped region flashes into a vapor thereby concentrating the liquid in the column.

Abstract: Acidic vapors from hot flue gases are condensed and collected. The waste heat therefrom is recovered and used to produce additional electrical power.

Abstract: A shade panel assembly comprises an opaque flexible shade panel having opposite surfaces and made of a material which can be easily cut into different shapes. Non-glare, low reflection markings are provided on both surfaces to guide the cutting of the panel into a plurality of rounded leaves for providing guides to produce custom-shaped leaves.

Abstract: A crib light is provided having front and rear housing portions which cooperate to clamp the light to a horizontal rail of a crib. The rear housing portion may be removed to permit the front housing portion to be mounted flush to a vertical wall surface. In addition, a lens cover is provided adjacent to a light emitting aperture of the front housing portion for controlling the brightness of light emitted and a control circuit is further provided for automatically shutting the light off after a predetermined interval of time.

Abstract: An improved technique for balancing inertia forces and rocking couples of a Ross-type Stirling machine (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,138,897; 4,532,819 and 4,738,105). Two counter-rotating balance masses are used, one on the crankshaft and one on a separate balance shaft. These balance masses lead the throw of the crankshaft by more than 180 degrees of rotation. The axis of the balance shaft is positioned so that a line connecting it and the axis of the crankshaft is inclined with respect to the cylinder axes toward the heavier piston of the machine. The new technique is also applicable to other machines having separate parallel cylinders in which pistons of unequal mass reciprocate out of phase.

Abstract: A machine which combines an Alpha-type Stirling cycle thermal machine and a magnetoelectric resonanace mechanism adaptable to be useful both as an electric generator and an electric heat pump, such a Stirling cycle resonance machine has a simplified mechanical arrangement with a minimum number of moving parts within a hermetically sealed and permanently lubricated housing, is fully automatic, self-starting, and self-regulating in operation in that the mechanical motion of the pistons is maintained in appropriate phase relationship by an electronic quadrature phase-locking circuit. It can readily use multiple fuels as an electric generator and multiple electric power sources (DC or AC) as an electric heat pump.

Abstract: A ceramic-metal friction welded member includes a ceramic member formed with an annular notch in an outer circumference of its surface and a metal member joined onto the annular notch of the ceramic member by friction welding. A ceramic cast-in bonded piston includes a crown made of a ceramic material having an annular notch formed in an outer circumference of its surface, a metal annular member joined onto the annular notch of the crown by friction welding, and a piston main body made of an aluminum alloy surrounding the crown by cast-in bonding. A ceramic cast-in bonded piston includes a crown made of a ceramic material, a piston main body made of an aluminum alloy surrounding the crown by cast-in bonding, and an annular member made of a metal different from aluminum and joined by friction welding to an outer circumference of a surface of the crown in contact with the piston main body.

Abstract: A recessed light fixture has an outer housing adapted to be fixedly mounted in a hole in a wall or ceiling and centered on an axis, an inner lamp holder provided with a socket for a light bulb and centered on an axis, and a pair of stiff links of different lengths each having an inner end pivoted on the housing and an outer end pivoted on the holder for movement of the holder between an inner position recessed in the housing with the holder and housing axes generally coaxial and an outer position outside the housing with the axis inclined to each other and through intermediate positions such that as the holder moves outward the angle its axis forms with the housing axis increases and as it moves inward the angle its axis forms with the housing axis decreases.

Abstract: A small-sized closed cycle type heat engine capable of efficiently recovering the working medium gas. The closed cycle type heat engine comprises a shaft having one end on which a first reduction gear is mounted, a second reduction gear meshing with the first reduction gear and connected to a generator, a compressor mounted on the other end of the shaft, front, middle and rear gas turbines sequentially coaxially mounted on the shaft, first to fourth heat exchangers for communicating with the front, middle and rear gas turbines so that the working medium gas in the front, middle and rear gas turbines is subjected to the thermal expansion and pressure expansion, thereby improving the recovery of the working medium gas.

Abstract: Hydraulic air compressor and fuel fired turbine apparatus disposed in a vessel or ship includes a hydraulic compressor having an air intake disposed above the water intake for entraining air in falling water, and the output of the hydraulic compressor is used as a compressed air source for turbine apparatus. The turbine apparatus includes a regenerator for heating the incoming compressed air output from the hydraulic air compressor. The hydraulic air compressor includes, in one embodiment, pump elements for providing a flow of water for when the ship or vessel is not moving and a flow of air to be entrained and compressed.

Abstract: A retractable light fixture apparatus has a housing having sides and a bottom and having an open end covered by a cover and having a lamp and reflector attached to the cover. An electrically actuated lamp solenoid is attached inside the housing and has a solenoid arm attached to the cover and lamp for raising the lamp and cover from inside the housing when the solenoid is in an extended position and for lowering the lamp and cover back onto the housing when the lamp solenoid arm is lowered. An electrical conductor is connected from an electrical power source to the lamp solenoid and to the lamp for powering the lamp and solenoid. The solenoid has a casing having a coil attached therearound for at least a portion of the length of the casing for generating a magnetic field in the casing for driving a slidable piston having the extendable solenoid arm attached to one end thereof.

Abstract: A steam turbine system including a low pressure (LP) turbine has a plurality of moisture extraction points at which a steam-water mixture is extracted and passed through a respective one of a corresponding plurality of heat exchangers. Each exchanger passes the steam-water mixture in heat exchange relationship with feedwater in a feedwater conduit. A low pressure and low temperature final stage extraction point on the steam turbine is coupled to a condenser, and water collected at the condenser is directed into the feedwater conduit. The system separates at least some of the steam in the steam-water mixture from the final stage extraction point and passes this steam in heat exchange relationship with water in the feedwater conduit.

Abstract: A string of decorative lights (10) having a plurality of sockets (12) interconnected in a series by flexible lengths of power cord (14), the improvement is an apparatus for mounting the string of lights to a selected smooth surface (32) which comprises a socket mounting assembly (16) for each of selected ones of a plurality of sockets (12) which includes a socket mounting member (18) which comprises a socket engaging part (20) and a releasible fastener section (21) and a means for relatively attaching (22) socket engaging part (20) to socket (12). Further, this invention includes a surface mounting assembly (24) for each of the selected ones of the plurality of sockets (12) which includes a surface mount (26) having a mating fastener part (28) for relatively releasible connection with fastener section (21) of the socket mounting assembly (16) and a means for noninvasively attaching (30) the surface attachment part (28) to the selected smooth surface (32) without penetrating it.

Abstract: A spotlight apparatus includes a lamp and a support assembly coupled with the lamp. The support assembly includes support elements shiftable between a support position in which the lower ends of the elements are shifted outwardly to form a tripod, and a handle position in which the elements are shifted inwardly and the exterior surfaces thereof cooperatively form a continuous handle surface for grasping.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a lubrication system for an agricultural implement such as a cotton harvester having a plurality of harvesting units mounted thereon. Each harvesting unit of the cotton harvester includes a harvesting mechanism whose operation is facilitated by supplying lubricant thereto. The lubrication system preferably includes an on-board grease reservoir with a constant displacement pump assembly having an input connected to the reservoir and an output for providing lubricant under pressure to the harvesting mechanisms of each harvesting unit. The pump assembly is operated under the influence of a controller which operates the pump for a preselected period of time thereby causing preselected amounts of pressurized lubricant to be provided to the harvesting mechanism of each harvesting unit.

Abstract: A method for improving operational efficiency of a partial-arc steam turbine power plant during power output variations by dynamically adjusting valve point values during turbine operation. Impulse chamber pressure at each of a plurality of valve points is first determined during operation of the steam turbine at constant pressure. For each adjacent pair of valve points, an optimum constant pressure transition point pressure for transitioning from one to the other of the sliding pressure mode and constant pressure mode is then computed. The optimum constant pressure transition point pressure for each pair of valve points is converted to a corresponding percentage of the pressure difference between the adjacent pairs of valve points. The impulse chamber pressure at each valve point is then used to calculate a corresponding impulse chamber pressure for transitioning from the one mode to the other mode based upon the percentage pressure difference.

Abstract: A support for a biomedical implant device in which the support has a surface layer composed of a biocompatible calcium phosphate material such as sintered hydroxyapatite with a porosity of 50-60% and pore size of 0.5-500 micrometers. Preferably, the surface layer is formed with projections or recesses of a few hundred micrometers size.