Abstract: In accordance with the present invention there is provided an erosion barrier, and revetments made therefrom, for reducing erosion of shoreline and building shoreline including a plurality of vehicle tires connected together by cables to form a mat or mesh which may be placed along a shoreline or the bottom of the marsh or sea.

Abstract: An improved oven (10) for maintaining the junctions of a plurality of reference thermocouples at a common and contant temperature. The oven (10) is characterized by a cylindrical body (12) defining a heat sink having an axially extended cylindrical cavity (14), a singularized heating element comprising a unitary cylindrical heating element consisting of a resistence heating coil (20) wound about the surface of a metallic spool (18) having an axial bore (22) defined therein and seated in the cavity, an annular array of radially extended bores (30) defined in the cylindrical body (12) and a plurality of reference thermocouple junctions (32) seated in the bores in uniformly spaced relation with the heating element, and a temperature sensing device (28) seated in the axial bore for detecting temperature changes as they occur in the spool and circuit (46) for applying a voltage across the coil in response to detected drops in temperatures of the spool.