Abstract: An apparatus to make water drinkable includes a tank (12) for the water to be made drinkable. A lower part (12a) of the tank contains the water to be made drinkable and an upper part (12b) is configured to accumulate the damp air. The tank also includes a hot air inlet (21) positioned in correspondence with the lower part (12a) and an exit pipe (19) for the damp air. The apparatus also includes a condensation unit (16) located in cooperation with the tank (12).

Abstract: A tone generator for a telecommunication--especially telephone--system operating in the PAM/TDM mode comprises two complementary transistors with interconnected emitters joined to a "hot" conductor of a two-wire transmission path forming part of a trunk line between two groups of subscribers, the collectors of these transistors being connected through respective series resistors to a positive and a negative terminal of a DC source. These collectors are further coupled via respective shunt condensers to the "cold" conductor of the transmission path which is grounded through a low-ohmic further resistor.

Abstract: To measure electrical characteristics of a line segment, a switch or some other circuit element of a time-sharing telecommunication network using pulse-amplitude modulation, a transmission path is established between two subscriber lines through the circuit element to be tested, these subscriber lines being respectively connected to a generator of a sinusoidal test signal and to a highly sensitive signal detector. The two subscriber lines are briefly closed during a single sampling interval, or during two consecutive sampling intervals separated by an intervening guard interval during which capacitively stored residual energy is dissipated, depending on the nature of the test.

Abstract: A plurality of binary counters, each consisting of a primary and a secondary counting chain, are stepped by respective trains of clock pulses of like cadence but indeterminate phase relationship. The several primary counting chains are provided on their input sides with respective correlation circuits and on their output sides with respective sync generators, either of which is used for a concurrent restarting of both chains upon the attainment of a full count. A selection signal establishes one of the primary counting chains as the master by unblocking its sync generator while blocking its correlation circuit, the opposite being the case in all the other counters which are controlled from the unblocked sync generator through their respective correlation circuits.

Abstract: Three or more oscillators to be locked in phase with one another are interconnected in a closed ring and have individual feedback loops including respective frequency dividers designed to keep them in step with a synchronizing frequency, equal to a fraction of their own operating frequency, fed in through an associated multiplexer. The multiplexer has a first input receiving the stepped-down feedback frequency of the immediately preceding oscillator, a second input connected to the output of the associated frequency divider, and a third input energizable with an external reference frequency such as a carrier of a PCM of FDM system. Each multiplexer, in the absence of an external switching command which holds it on its third input, stands on its first input unless a control circuit associated with the immediately preceding oscillator detects a disparity between the two frequencies fed to that preceding oscillator via the feedback loop and the multiplexer of the latter.

Abstract: A sampling gate of a TDM telephone system, designed to connect a subscriber station to a trunk line during an allocated time slot, comprises a pair of bucking transistors of the same conductivity type (NPN) inserted between a live wire from the station and a corresponding "hot" conductor of the trunk line whose "cold" conductor, tied to the reference wire of the subscriber line, is grounded through an elevated resistance. During the allocated time slot, the two bucking transistors are rendered conductive by a timing pulse applied across their base/emitter circuits via a transformer while a connection leading from their bases to negative biasing potential is temporarily severed by an interposed FET which is cut off by the timing pulse applied to its gate electrode via a differentiation circuit.

Abstract: A coaxial cable of the type comprising a litz wire with individually enameled strands as an inner conductor and a wire plait as an outer conductor is spliced to a coaxial connector by exposing a top of the inner conductor and stripping part of the insulation from the outer conductor to expose a portion thereof set back from the tip of the inner conductor. Before splicing, the stripped cable extremity is immersed in a solvent for the enamel such as sulfuric acid, then subjected to ultrasonic vibration in a bath containing alcohol or fluorinated hydrocarbons, and thereafter immersed in a solution of tin. After neutralization and drying, the conductor portions so treated are joined to corresponding conductors of the coaxial connector whereupon a sleeve is placed around the joint and crimped to secure the connector to the cable.