Abstract: A device which protects water faucets and water pipes to which they are attached from freezing or breaking due to freezing of water contained therein. The device comprises a closed-ended nipple which is axially and/or radially expandable to accommodate freezing of water contained therein when the nipple is attached to the open end of a faucet or sillcock.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for supplying to marking means, character bit data from a two-dimensional matrix of rows and columns of storage elements wherein character selection is made by specifying the character storage cell and character width. Characters are symmetrically stored about the vertical axis of a preassigned matrix having an even number of columns and the binary width data are translated as starting and stopping addresses on opposite sides of the axis for readout of columns therebetween. The center storage of the character with clear margins enables the raw binary width data to be used as one edge address and its complement to be used as the other address in determining the width of the character to be retrieved and printed. Proportional spacing and justification are simply achieved by varying the width data as required.