Abstract: Apparatus for conveying materials behaving substantially as fluids through ducts comprising a cable having a plurality of radially protruding spaced elements molded on it in such a way that each incorporates the protruding ends of a pin radially passing through the cable. The pins act, in cooperation with a swelling of the cable due to the penetration of the pin, to prevent the elements from sliding along the cable. The molded elements are also provided, with tapered extensions in the axial direction of the cable to avoid sharp variations in the rigidity of the cable.

Abstract: A travelling trolley-plus-container for distributing feed into a channel-shaped rectilinear trough, in a poultry farm, of the type cooperating with a stationary wire rope carrying interspaced disks (or other equivalent elements) to which can be applied removable, shutter-type sleeves so as to cause the controlled release, through a delivery mouth, of successive doses of feed at pre-set points in the poultry farm, wherein to the wire rope is coupled a toothed wheel solid with which is a rotor with radial vanes, between which vanes the feed arrives by free fall. The rotor is housed within a matching seat which is provided at the base of the container and which features the delivery mouth.

Abstract: A drive unit for distribution systems for materials of fluid behavior, such as livestock feed materials, in which a cable provided with spaced-apart conveying elements is caused to slide inside a tube, said drive unit being of the type comprising a geared motor, on the output shaft of which there is fixed a toothed wheel about which the cable winds. The geared motor is mounted on a supporting structure in a freely oscillating manner such that as the tension in the slack branch of the cable varies, the position of the axis of the toothed wheel varies by virtue of its rotation about an axis passing essentially through the point of tangency between the toothed wheel and the taut branch of the cable.

Abstract: A feed conveyor for loose materials of the kind in which a plurality of spaced apart radially protruding scraping flights are integrally molded on a flexible cable, the improvement being characterized by distributing the stress on the cable more evenly throughout the length thereof when the cable assumes a flexed position, resulting in a concomitant decrease in the frequency of cable failure.

Abstract: A watering trough for chickens and like fowl is disclosed, of the kind comprising a bell member having an annular gutter integral therewith in the bottom portion, a supporting upright loaded by a ballast and water feeding means internally of the bell, the improvement consisting in having the bell member limitedly tiltable about a horizontal axis placed at the bottom of the gutter and a spring at the top of the bell to counteract the tilting motion and to open and close the water feeding nozzle also situated at the top of the bell. The device is self-reloading and can be used both resting on the ground directly and hung by means of a suspension tab.

Abstract: In a fowl-feeding machine of the cable and spaced disk type, the improvement consisting in that pressing and positioning spacers urge from the top the disks as they travel on the trough bottom wall so as to maintain such disks in position. By so doing, no fodder build up can be experienced locally and it is possible to prevent fodder spillage.

Abstract: An improved cable terminal structure is disclosed which comprises the combination of a tapered bushing receiving the outside surface of the belled-out cable strands and a tapered screw placed centrally of the strand mass so as to engage the strands solidly with the bushing. When two such combined structures are coupled together with the aid of an appropriate ferrule, the problem of splicing two cable section can also be solved, that which cannot be made with the conventional cable terminals.