Abstract: A valve includes a ball coupled to a stem which is turnable by an operator element. The ball is formed with a flow passage and the ball is sealed in a valve seat by means of seals. The stem includes bypass structure, which upon rotation of the stem, is alignable with an upstream diverging tube and with a downstream diverging tube to allow bypass fluid flow from the upstream diverging tube to the downstream diverging tube for balancing a difference in pressure between upstream and downstream portions of the valve.

Abstract: A tablet case with a cover, the tablet case comprising a housing having three upstanding walls, at least one of the three upstanding walls having a flange, the housing being adapted to receive and retain a tablet. The tablet case further comprises a cover having a substantially rectangular foldable planar member and an elongated member which extends from the cover into an indentation on the inside of the housing. A section of the elongated member is secured to the indentation to form a substantially planar surface arranged to abut the rear wall of a tablet. First and second magnetic means are provided on the housing and cover respectively to allow the cover to be folded into a stand and secured to the housing or to allow the cover to simply shield a tablet screen.

Abstract: The gas blast from a directed rocket motor transfers an impulse vector to a space target object thereby altering the target's orbit. Preceding the gas blast, a lower level of rocket exhaust may be directed to the target object for profile imaging that may include center of gravity determination using a pulse Doppler radar sighted along the exhaust stream. A deflector may be deployed to redirect a portion of the gas blast. In some cases, a special non-shrapnel nosecone warhead may be substituted for or used in conjunction with the rocket motor as a source of a gas blast.

Abstract: A vortex ring is used to produce a flow of fluid through a flexible tube, to remove surface deposits from a surface, and to transfer heat from a platen to a ring vortex. In pumping a fluid through a flexible conduit or tube, a vortex ring is launched along the tube so that the vortex ring encircles the tube. The vortex ring compresses and expands the flexible tube utilizing a high circumferential pressure formed at the bow of the vortex ring and a low pressure at the wake of the vortex ring. In removing deposits from a surface, a vortex ring launched along the surface mechanically abrades the surface and fractures the adhesion bonds of the surface deposits. In transferring heat from a heated surface to a vortex ring, the vortex ring removes the heat from the surface of the heated platen by forced convection.

Abstract: Several methods are presented for extracting useful work from a ring-vortex moving at high angular and axial velocities. The key components are a ring-vortex generator or launcher, a platen that penetrates the ring-vortex centroid along the axis of revolution, and a collector. Typical applications that utilize different parameters of a ring-vortex include a pump, filter, and heat exchanger.