Abstract: 10. A method for use in controlling the travel of a vehicle comprising the steps of first deriving two narrow band noise signals of different frequencies, then delaying one of said signals by an amount which constitutes the information which will control the path of the vehicle, next adding the delayed and undelayed signals to form a composite signal, subsequently transmitting the composite signal to a receiver in the vehicle, then applying the composite signal to a non-linear device in said receiver along with a duplicate waveform of itself which has been delayed in time, subsequently deriving from the non-linear operation through the step of filtering a signal at the difference frequency between the two original noise signals, which signal is a function of the correlation between said composite signal and its delayed duplicate waveform, and lastly applying said difference frequency signal to a non-linear device to generate control signals which are proportional to said correlation.11.

Abstract: An inertial guidance system including a true space stable platform is provided while retaining a simple two-degree-of-freedom gimbal system. An added third degree of freedom is provided by motions of the support itself which maintains desired platform orientation. The output of a third axis instrument is used to maneuver the frame itself about the axis of the frame which most nearly will null any rotation about the platform roll or longitudinal axis. A rotational rate gyroscope is positioned on the space stable platform, and actuates the movement of the frame about the longitudinal or roll axis directly from the reading of the rotational movement along the roll axis of the platform.

Abstract: A method of welding tabs projecting outwardly from grip straps in a fuel assembly grid to a control rod guide thimble positioned in a cell in the grid including providing a weld guide having openings therein which receive dimples on the strap when the weld guide is placed in a cell adjacent to the cell containing the control rod guide thimble. THe weld guide includes an opening which falls into alignment with a tab so that when a welding gun electrode is placed through the opening and into contact with a tab, the other electrode is automatically centered on its tab thus permitting accurate spot welding of the parts. To make a second spot weld on the same tab but at a point outwardly from the first spot weld, a second weld guide having an opening therein displaced a greater distance from a reference point on the weld guide, is placed in the same cell and the welding process repeated.

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 fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor wherein the fuel element receiving and supporting grid is comprised of a first metal, the guide tubes which pass through the grid assembly are comprised of a second metal and the grid is supported on the guide tubes by means of expanded sleeves located intermediate the grid and guide tubes. The fuel assembly is fabricated by inserting the sleeves, of initial outer diameter commensurate with the guide tube outer diameters, through the holes in the grid assembly provided for the guide tubes and thereafter expanding the sleeves radially outwardly along their entire length such that the guide tubes can subsequently be passed through the sleeves. The step of radial expansion, as a result of windows provided in the sleeves having dimensions commensurate with the geometry of the grid, mechanically captures the grid and simultaneously preloads the sleeve against the grid whereby relative motion between the grid and guide tube will be precluded.

Abstract: For incorporation in normally oxidizable polymers, polymeric antioxidants characterized by repeating hindered bisphenolic units, the average number of said units per polymeric chain in said composition being from about 2 to 10, preferably about 2 to 7, most preferably about 2 to 4. The antioxidants are prepared by oxidative coupling of appropriate bisphenols, as by reaction with a ferricyanide coupling agent. Polymer-antioxidant combinations formed according to the invention have excellent high temperature oxidative stability, high resistance to polymer damage by massive doses of ionizing radiation and the antioxidant does not release significant amounts of condensable species when subjected simultaneously to conditions of high vacuum and elevated 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: Refuelling of a nuclear reactor and especially a PWR is carried out in the steps which consist in removing and storing the reactor closure head, in moving the control rods from a bottom position to the top position and securing the rods to the upper internal structure, in removing and storing the assembly constituted by the upper internal structure and the control rods, in replacing the spent fuel and in re-positioning the upper internal structure and the closure head.

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 proportional processing technique having a wide instantaneous dynamic range and providing a significant increase in instantaneous dynamic range over presently known proportional processing methods. These improvements are made possible by the use in accordance with this invention of a logarithmic amplifier in each channel of a pair of channels relatable to the same sensing plane. Each logarithmic amplifier is preferably arranged to operate substantially at the midpoint of its operating characteristic, and the pair of channels may be orthogonally related to another pair of channels, such that suitable guidance commands can be derived and furnished for example to a missile.

Abstract: Disclosed is improved sensor apparatus for guidance systems, and the sensor apparatus includes means for receiving light reflected from a target and for processing this light to provide steering signals to the missile guidance and control mechanism; more specifically, the sensor apparatus includes means for receiving a single pulse of light reflected from the target and for forming a two-dimensional image therefrom, quantizing the data from the image, and re-forming the quantized data into a straight-line image from which a time-dependent signal is generated to be input to the missile control mechanism.

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: The present invention relates to a device for moving lamps used in clinical situations.The moving device has rails and a support which is movable on these rails. The rails are buried in the ceiling and the lamp is suspended from the support. The lamp is movable across an opening provided in the bottom of the rails. A belt is stretched across the total area of said opening to completely seal the opening; the downward support for the lamp passes through this belt; and the belt is movable together with the movement of the lamp.

Abstract: A method of controlling a nuclear power generating station in the event of a malfunction of particular operating components which minimizes the number of hypothecated occurrences where tripping the reactor might become necessary. Upon identification of such a malfunction, preselected groups of control rods are fully inserted sequentially until a predetermined power level is approached. Additional control rods are then selectively inserted to quickly bring the reactor to a second given power level chosen to be compatible with safe operation of the system with the malfunctioning component. At the same time as the thermal power output of the reactor is being reduced, the turbine is operated at a rate consistent with the output of the reactor. Thus, in the event of a malfunction, the nuclear power generating system is operated in a turbine following reactor mode, with the reactor power rapidly reduced, in a controlled manner, to a safe level compatible with the type of malfunction experienced.

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: A torpedo has an acoustical system for detecting targets and directing the torpedo toward the target. An electric motor drives a cam that operates a switching arrangement that alternately changes the torpedo motor speed between fast and slow speeds. Upon sensing a target, the voltage applied to the motor driving the cam is increased to speed up the switching cycle and thereby shorten the duration of the slow and high speed intervals.

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.