Abstract: A stationary contact of an electromagnetic contactor having an insulating contact mounting plate is part of a contact combination that includes a contact arm, a retainer and a fastening screw for electrically and mechanically securing the contact combination to a terminal of the contactor. The contact is mounted on the forward end of the arm and the retainer, constructed of spring sheet material, engages the rear of the arm. The front of the arm and the retainer cooperate to form a recess which receives and grips a formation of the mounting plate.

Abstract: A spring switch for mounting on a circuit board substrate includes a spring contact element formed from a strip of metal having spring-like characteristics and comprising a convex or curved portion with support legs at each end thereof. The convex spring portion is monostable in nature but capable of assuming two states, one state being stable and the other state being unstable. Upon application of pressure thereto the convex spring portion will deform from its stable state to its unstable state, and thereby make contact with an underlying second contact element. Upon removal of the pressure, the convex portion snaps or springs back to its original, stable convex position. A pair of spades are attached to the legs, to be insertable in and through holes in the circuit board substrate, to secure the spring element to the substrate. A key of insulating material rides normally above the convex portion to enable downward pressure to be applied to said convex portion to deform it to the contacting posture.

Abstract: A structural support system for the core of a nuclear reactor which achieves relatively restricted clearances at operating conditions and yet allows sufficient clearance between fuel assemblies at refueling temperatures. Axially displaced spacer pads having variable between pad spacing and a temperature compensated radial restraint system are utilized to maintain clearances between the fuel elements. The core support plates are constructed of metals specially chosen such that differential thermal expansion produces positive restraint at operating temperatures.

Abstract: An elongated tubular body constructed of conductive material is provided and includes open front and rear ends. A combined reflector and lens assembly is supported from the front end of the body and a bulb is removably supported from the reflector and lens assembly and includes center and base terminals with the base terminal electrically connected, by the reflector and the lens assembly, to the body and the center terminal supported out of electrical connection with the body. Battery structure is slidably disposed within the body and includes a forwardly facing forward terminal in electrical contact with the center terminal of the bulb and a rearwardly facing rear terminal. A thick walled sleeve is disposed and longitudinally slidable in the rear end of the body and is constructed of deformable, resilient dielectric material.

Abstract: A safety device for use in combination with a bicycle wheel having a hub, a rim and spokes connecting the hub to the rim is provided. The safety device comprises safety light means and means for powering the safety light. The safety light means comprises socket means for receiving an electric light bulb, a housing for containing the socket means and light bulb, the housing having light transmissive side walls, and means for clamping the housing to the spokes of the wheel with the light transmissive side walls facing laterally away from the wheel. The means for powering the safety light comprises a housing for receiving at least one dry cell battery, means for clamping the battery housing to the hub, respective electrically conductive means attached to the housing for contacting the respective poles of the battery and means for electrically connecting the battery in series with the socket means.

Abstract: A toggle switch having an insulating housing that completely encloses all metal parts enabling connection of "live" wires to the switch terminals safely. The housing includes a molded base and a molded snap-in cover. A toggle lever supporting bushing is clamped between the base and cover and is provided with a snap-in collar for snap-in mounting the switch in a hole in a mounting panel. The toggle lever actuates an over-center wire link that imparts shear and wiping motion and snap-action to butt contacts. The terminals have insulation shearing slots into which unstripped wires are forced to make electrical connections. An integrally molded plug overlies a hole in the cover and is connected to the cover by thin sections which break when the plug is depressed into such hole to force the wires into the connectors.

Abstract: Diffused light is projected onto a supported thin film in the form of a truncated sphere. The device has a light source disposed at the bottom end of a housing constructed of a light shielding material, and a diffuser plate at the top end of the housing to emit light into the truncated sphere. In one embodiment the plate carries a layer of liquid soap from which a bubble is blown. The housing may also carry a clear glass dome over its top end adjacent which the thin film is supported. Decorative interference patterns of luxuriant colors result.

Abstract: A reactor building has equipment rooms wherein a nuclear reactor, steam generators and circulating pumps are disposed, and has operating rooms separated from the equipment rooms by ceilings and walls largely formed of concrete and provided with relief openings for reducing differential pressures during a reactor accident, the relief openings being formed in a grid-shaped steel girder construction carrying a flat tight skin, the steel girder construction has gratings at the upper side thereof formed with a narrow mesh capable of being walked upon, and having said tight skin at the underside thereof in the form of a multiplicity of casette-shaped membranes suspended therefrom.

Abstract: The invention relates to a pocket lamp having an electric battery, a light bulb, a housing one of whose walls is made of a plastic material and supports the light bulb and forms a reflector and conductors forming with the light bulb and the battery an electric circuit closed by a switch. The switch has a knob sliding along the wall of the housing and which can be placed in two stable positions which are determined by a resilient appendage belonging to the aforementioned wall and co-operating with a protuberance formed in the knob. Application to pocket torches having a flat electric battery.

Abstract: A system to prevent supercriticality in nuclear power plants in the unlikely event of a core destructive accident terminating in the nuclear core meltdown. The system dilutes and poisons the molten core to maintain subcriticality, and is specially useful in mobile nuclear power plants, or in nuclear plants subject to seismic disturbances, where the orientation of the nuclear reactor after the accident is unknown. It is also applicable to alleviate the consequences of loss of coolant flow accidents from any cause. Aside from preventing supercriticality, the system serves the dual purpose of acting as a biological shield and/or structural member that reduces the deleterious effects of accidental core impaction, thus achieving its primary goal without compromising power plant weight and size constrants.A borated material, with a melting point greater than the fuel melting point, is inserted in the pressure vessel behind an inner wall.

Abstract: A system for controlling the environment of an enclosed area in nuclear reactor installations. The system permits the changing of the environment from nitrogen to air, or from air to nitrogen, without the release of any radioactivity or process gas to the outside atmosphere.In changing from a nitrogen to an air environment, oxygen is inserted into the enclosed area at the same rate which the nitrogen-oxygen gas mixture is removed from the enclosed area. The nitrogen-oxygen gas mixture removed from the enclosed area is mixed with hydrogen, the hydrogen recombining with the oxygen present in the gas to form water. The water is then removed from the system and, if it contains any radioactive products, can be utilized to form concrete, which can then be transferred to a licensed burial site. The process gas is purified further by stripping it of carbon dioxide and then distilling it to remove any xenon, krypton, and other fission or non-condensable gases.

Abstract: Electric switches work with an electric arc when they switch on or off. A bridge of ionized gas builds up in an air gap between the metal contacts. The larger and the more open to the outside this air gap is, the easier the arc will break up; an air draft raised by heat will lift the gas bridge from the contacts quickly, if the gap is not cased in. The present invention is a switch, offering an all-around escape for ionized, hot gases out of that air gap. At the same time, by a large lever movement a flying contact is being latched between lugs of counter contacts which form a wedge holder, thus forestalling a return of the lever. This switch is simpler to make than the conventional fulcrum metal lever, pushing with its lower end a coilspring aside and pressing contact to contact.

Abstract: The invention relates to an electric snap switch assembly which includes a stiff arm which is pivotal about a fixed axis abutment and is movable in a range between two operative positions. A sheet metal hinge member extends the length of the arm and is attached to the fixed axis abutment and to the arm. A sheet metal spacer member is attached to a movable abutment and a U-shaped bow spring straddling the movable abutment is maintained in a compressive state with one leg thereof attached to the free end of the hinge member and the other leg thereof attached to the movable abutment member. A pivotally mounted adjustment member carries the movable abutment.

Abstract: A string of outdoor decorative lights is connected to a facer board on a building cave. A stowable embodiment of the invention provides hinged attachment to the facer board and means for securing the string in a display position or in a hidden position. Snap-in tabs hold the string in either position.

Abstract: A marker or clearance light for semi trailers and the like which increases the life by a factor of from 3 to 10.

Abstract: An apparatus for decontaminating a radioactively contaminated coolant flowing through the core of a nuclear reactor wherein the coolant containing radioactively contaminated impurities is withdrawn from the core, precooled and cooled, and then the impurities are removed therefrom by ion exchange, before the coolant is returned to the core.

Abstract: A nuclear reactor plant has a fuel-element storage pit formed in a pit building and a pit adjacent thereto for safely lowering a fuel-element transporting cask therein, the adjacent pit being connected by a spur channel to the storage bit, a barrier separating the storage pit and the pit adjacent thereto, the barrier being at least one-half as high as the vertical length of the fuel-element transporting cask and being connected to the pit building in a manner as to be capable of withstanding at an upper edge thereof a lateral force equal to at least 10% of the maximum weight of the transporting cask.

Abstract: In a pressure tight steel container for housing a nuclear reactor of the type wherein the container is surrounded by a biological shield wall, the container is supported by a relatively flexible structure, and a protective wall is provided along the inner surface of the container for receiving the jet stream and the percussive forces of bodies flying about at high speeds in the container as a result of the existence of emergency conditions. The outer surface of the container is spaced from the biological shield wall by an annular space sufficient to permit ready access to the outer surface of the container.

Abstract: A flashlight in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention includes a housing enclosing an insulating battery retaining member formed with spring arms for retaining a pair of batteries in spaced-apart relationship. Further included is a light bulb having a pair of leads extending therefrom and carried at one end of the housing with the leads each connected to a battery. Adjacent the opposite end of the housing a conductive switch member is frictionally retained on the positive post of one battery and extends between the battery retaining member and a flexible wall of the housing. The other end of the switch member is located adjacent a cutout portion of the battery retaining member which exposes a conductive surface of the other of the batteries so that when the flexible wall of the housing is pressed the other end of the switch wire contacts the other of the batteries completing a circuit between the batteries and the light bulb.

Abstract: A snap-action overcenter contact mechanism utilizes a spring-loaded apexed plunger depressibly cammed within a rockable actuator block. The plunger rides in tracks in the block which ensure registered pivotal movement of the block and plunger, and also guides the plunger for depression within the block perpendicular to the pivotal axis thereof. A cam, which may be in the form of a roller mounted to a linearly sliding operator or a toggle lever operator, traverses the plunger to depress the plunger within the block against the bias of compression springs. When the cam translationally crosses the apex of the plunger, the stored energy of the springs is released, and the plunger and block pivot to an alternate position. A positive off feature is also disclosed wherein secondary cams formed on the operator strike the block to force it to pivot to an off position if the first cam has crossed the apex of the plunger and the block has not pivoted to the off position.