Abstract: A basketball practice system comprising a backboard made of a rigid or semi-rigid material and having a generally a planar configuration is disclosed. A frame structure is secured to the backboard and helps to support a guiding net configured and dimensioned to guide a basketball into a narrow port defined by the guiding net. Cross braces are secured between the frame structure and the backboard in order to give rigidity to the frame. Side deflection structure deflects balls which are moving to the left or right, away from the system and guiding them into the guiding net. This deflecting structure may comprise nets. A basketball net is positioned above the narrow port and a bendable tubular guiding member, which comprises a bendable tubular member has a spiral backbone and a skin secured to the spiral backbone, is coupled to the narrow port and configured to receive a ball and guide it toward a player using the inventive basketball practice system is disclosed.

Abstract: A bird-deterring device comprising a plurality of comb-like members each having comb teeth, brackets for holding said comb-like members spaced above an upwardly facing horizontal surface with the comb-like members oriented with their teeth facing away from each other, and a line having knots near its ends and passable between adjacent teeth of the comb-like members and back and forth from one comb-like member to the other, with the knots holding the line in place.

Abstract: A laser employing a dispenser cathode is provided with a tubular enclosure surrounding that cathode. The tubular enclosure serves as a support for the bore and the optical chamber on either side of the dispenser cathode and is insulated from ambient temperature conditions by a ballast reservoir housed in a jacket encircling the tubular enclosure. The jacket has peripheral sidewalls spaced apart from the tubular enclosure. Lateral end walls connect the opposite extremities of the peripheral sidewalls in a sealing engagement to the exterior of the tubular enclosure. Communication between the interior of the jacket and the interior of the tubular support is afforded through an aperture formed in the tubular support at a location remote from the dispenser cathode. Leads for the dispenser cathode are disposed in a sealing engagement through the end walls of the jacket and enter the interior of the tubular support through the aperture formed therethrough.

Abstract: An improved optical delivery assembly for an argon-ion or similar medical laser attaches to a wobble plate for thermal tracking and supports in a single integral subassembly an adjustable focusing lens, a beam splitter and associated light detector enabling selective display of power at both proximal and distal ends of the fiber, scattering and blocking shutters, a scattering shutter position sensor, shutter control solenoids, an optical plug position sensor and an optical plug mounting block adapted to interchangeably receive any of several types of optical fiber connecting plugs.

Abstract: A set of identical connectors are secured to a plurality of rectangular panels to form a tubular or box-like storage unit with the connectors forming parallel longitudinal edges thereof. The connectors each have a longitudinal T-shaped rib and a T-shaped, longitudinal recess, capable of slideably receiving the rib of an adjacent storage unit, so that a plurality of units may be arranged and stacked to form a self sustaining structure from which one or more storage units may be slideably removed without disturbance to the remaining structure and units. In one embodiment a connector and a panel are formed integrally as a one-piece unit.

Abstract: An apparatus for supporting a wall panel or the like including a first member operable for connection to a lower portion of a wall panel and a second member for stably engaging a ground surface. The first and second members are adjustably interconnected at juxtaposed flat surface portions wherein one of the surfaces is fashioned with a vertical slot and the other of the surfaces is provided with an arcuate slot. A pair of threaded fasteners extend through the slots and serve to clamp the surfaces in a selected vertical and angular adjustment posture so as to permit stable support for a vertical wall panel resting upon an uneven ground surface.

Abstract: An apparatus for attaching slotted plate terminals or the like to individual wires such as the wires of a stator coil in an induction motor is disclosed. A rotatable arbor positions the stator in alignment with an insertion track and ram. A terminal is inserted by moving it along the tracks and into a cavity in an insulating housing mounted on the stator. A guide track along which an insertion ram moves a terminal also acts as a depth control for accurate positioning of the terminal.

Abstract: An apparatus for attaching slotted plate terminals or the like to individual wires such as the wires of a stator coil in an induction motor is disclosed. A rotatable arbor positions the stator in alignment with an insertion track and ram. A terminal is inserted by moving it along the tracks and into a cavity in an insulating housing mounted on the stator. A guide track along which an insertion ram moves a terminal also acts as a depth control for accurate positioning of the terminal.