Abstract: An apparatus for separating solids from liquids including an endless rotatably mounted band of collecting arms for collecting screened solid material, each of the collecting arms having a leading collecting face and two opposite sides adjacent the leading collecting face, and being mounted on support rods which are arranged in spaced relationship around the band, link pieces rigidly attached to the collecting arms for linking one support rod to the next, such that the link pieces form continuous chains around the band, and separate the collecting arms one from the other to form slots between the link pieces, said link pieces being rotatable on the support rods to which they are attached, and a rotatable set of discharging teeth arranged to cooperate with said movable band by entering the slots as the band rotates to move along the leading collecting faces of the collecting arms, thereby to remove collected material gathered at the slots and from said leading collecting faces of the collecting arms.

Abstract: A weighing scale in which the weighing platform rests on elongate elastic elements such as leaf springs suspended between fixed supports such that an imposed load anywhere on the platform produces a resultant displacement of the platform at an invariant position and corresponding to the magnitude of the imposed load. The invention does away with the complicated mechanism presently used in weighing scales to ensure the parallel descent of the platform in the interest of accuracy of measurement.

Abstract: A rotary screening device for separating unwanted solid matter such as sewage, weeds, tar globules and fish from water which is to be used for special purposes such as water cooling or other plant processes. The device comprises a rotating hollow stack of closely spaced coaxially mounted annular discs, each of which is provided with peripheral teeth upon which unwanted solid matter may be caught and carried away to a collection zone and by scraper elements engaging annular tracking surfaces between the teeth on adjacent discs. The tracking surfaces have apertures or slits to permit passage of cleaned water to the interior of the hollow stack to which may be connected stationary ducting means for conveying the cleaned water therefrom.

Abstract: Apparatus for collecting and discharging waste material comprises peripheral rows of teeth arranged on rotatable cylindrical shafts. The teeth on each shaft intercalate so that an entrapment zone for waste material is formed thereat during contra-wise rotation of the shafts. The teeth in each row pass through respective slits formed between the blade edges of rectilinear scaper blades placed between the rows and resting on the shaft. The scraper blades remove waste material from and between the teeth for discharge from the machine.

Abstract: Scavenging apparatus is disclosed in which a toothed structure has its teeth moved in a prescribed closed path to engage material being scavenged. The apparatus has particular application to removing oil from slicks at the surface of the sea in which case the teeth at least have oleophilic surfaces. In one form a plurality of spaced toothed discs are rotated partially immersed in the sea, and oil accreted to the toothed discs is removed by a scraper device for discharge in a vessel which may be the vessel carrying the discs. Another structure is an endless chain of teeth, which may also be used as a lifting pump, and a preferred structure is an endless belt or conveyor carrying lateral rows of teeth longitudinally aligned that is immersed in the sea at one lower end and has the oil removed therefrom at the other end by a scraper arrangement.