Abstract: The fixation of nitrogen by electric arc process is made more efficient by this system which combines a low frequency electric discharge and a catalyst in such a way that an electric arc is formed entirely within a catalyst bed when the reactant gases to be reacted by the arc are admitted to the interior of the catalyst bed and form a cavity there as they expand outward, the bubble-like cavity formed within the mass of catalytic particles thereby providing a type of arc chamber from which plasma state gas particles immediately contact the catalyst particles as the plasma state, gas particles are thrust outwards from the arc zone. After the reactant gases react on catalyst particles, the outward pressure moves the product gases farther through the catalyst bed where the products are then shielded from destructive ultraviolet light from the arc.

Abstract: Mixtures of reactant gases containing nitrogen ar reacted by being raised to very high temperatures at the focal plane of a solar concentrator when radiant energy is absorbed by a metal screen or other porous material in contact with the reactants at the focal plane of a solar concentrator and the resulting products of combined nitrogen are rapidly cooled in a unique heat transfer unit which rapidly transfers the heat of the product gases to the reactant gases and the rapid cooling of the product fixes the high temperature equilibrium proportions to achieve larger proportions of product than would be possible by gradual cooling.

Abstract: In this invention the fixation of nitrogen by means of an electric plasma is made more energy efficient by the transfer of heat energy rapidly and directly from the product gases of the plasma to the reactant gases entering the plasma thereby rapidly cooling the combined nitrogen products and freezing the equilibrium proportions of the products found in the plasma while using the heat removed from the products to assist in heating the reactants to plasma temperature to thereby conserve a portion of the electric energy otherwise required for heating reactants, the rapid and direct transfer of heat from the product mixture leaving the plasma to the reactant mixture entering the plasma being accomplished by a gas flow through the plasma that repeatedly reverses direction anbd by multipurpose electrodes having large internal surface area and other heat transfer characteristics whereby each electrode alternately absorbs heat from drawn in plasma gas and then transfers heat to reactant gas which it subsequently dir

Abstract: The mechanisms and methods employed in the generation of electroluminescence are adapted to provide induced chemisorbtion and induced catalytic effects when electric fields and the passage of electric current through electroluminescent phosphors are used to raise phosphors and other phosphor-like grains into excited energy states from which the excited-state energy is transferred to reactant gases absorbed on the surface of the grains in order to provide energy of activation for those gases to thereby cause them to react chemically. According to the function of this invention certain compounds, having catalytic properties induced in them by absorbing energy, are capable of being stimulated electrically into a catalytically active state by the mechanisms that produce electroluminescence and these mechanisms are then employed with a variety of phosphors and phosphor-like grains to provide a chemical activation system.

Abstract: The reciprocating motion that is provided when long arrays of wires of shape memory metal alloys are made to repeatedly change in length by means of repeated temperature alternations is made to occur more efficiently and more rapidly by means of a system that contacts first heated then cooled liquid in repeated alternations to the wire array by means of a unique liquid flow pattern in which the contacting of the liquid to the wires is made to occur virtually simultaneously to all increments of the length of each wire with the flow pattern being provided by an alternating displacement from one then the other of two horizontal cylinders parallel to a cylinder containing the wire array with the displacement of the liquid from the cylinders taking place by means of air pressure over the liquid in such a manner that first hot liquid from one cylinder and then cooled liquid from another cylinder is displaced into the cylinder containing the wire array by means of multiple ducts along the lengths of the cylinders wh

Abstract: The mechanisms that operate in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy are applied to the art of magnetohydrodynamics in order to provide a system that can separate one or more chemical species from a mixture in that these NMR principles are employed to achieve a stronger magnetomotive force acting upon some components of a mixture than on other components when all of the components of a mixture are situated in a magnetohydrodynamic condition in which physical force being applied to move the components results from an high frequency magnetic field extending through the mixture in a direction perpendicular to a synchronous high frequency alternating electric field also extending through the mixture, the stronger magnetomotive force acting selectively on some components being the result of an induced resonance in those components which enables those components to absorb energy from the high frequency alternating magnetic field and to thereby interact more energetically with the perpendicular electric field for

Abstract: The electric fixation of nitrogen from air is enhanced and made more efficient by the simultaneous multiple use of the electric discharge for both reacting nitrogen and oxygen to nitric oxide and for generating other specific oxidizing agents for the further oxidation of nitric oxide to higher oxides in that this special cell thereby rapidly effects not only the oxidation of nitrogen to nitric oxide but also rapidly oxidizes that nitric oxide to higher oxides of nitrogen products and thereby provides a means for the rapid absorption of the fixed nitrogen products from the electric discharge zone where the discharge would otherwise destroy much of the same product nitrogen which it is generating. The rapidly soluble higher oxides of nitrogen are rapidly absorbed by and held in an aqueous solution of these products flowing within the cell and they are converted directly to nitric acid in the solution as it flows from the cell.

Abstract: A solar heated convection column in the form of a long rectangular black box collector with its length disposed vertically is used to produce a draft of air entering at the bottom and exiting at the top and the low pressure draft at the bottom of the column is used to draw hot air heated by a second solar black box heater through a heat exchanging tube passing through water in a water tank, the novelty and utility of this system being derived from its ability to enable the use of convection energy for moving fluids in those cases in which the heat source is significantly higher than the object to be heated. Hot air is here drawn horizontally and even downward to heat water at or below the level of a solar heat source.

Abstract: The motion produced by a temperature change in a bimetallic element is used as a source of mechanical work energy in a way similar to the way that the bimetallic strip operates in a thermostat but in this thermal engine an array of massive bimetallic strips is repeatedly, alternately heated and cooled by a draft of air which draws first heated air and then cooled air over the bimetallic elements to thereby provide a continuous reciprocating action. In the principal embodiment the required draft is provided by a solar heated convection column which by means of valving draws air first from a solar collector and then from a cooling duct.

Abstract: This pump operates by repeatedly forcing water alternately first through a heater and later through a cooler in such a way that a stream of heated water arrives at a pressurization chamber in the form of steam during one time period and a succeeding stream of cooled water arrives at the chamber in an alternate time period, thereby producing alternate pressurizations and depressurizations within the chamber, and the pressure alternations are transmitted to an adjacent pumping chamber by means of a diaphragm separating the two chambers. During the low pressure period in the pumping chamber, water is drawn in through an inlet check valve and during the high pressure period it is expelled through an exit check valve, and the energy to drive the alternating water streams is derived from the pressurizing steam forcing water into an air chamber compressing air so that in a subsequent period the compressed air forces water through the heater and then the cooler.

Abstract: A solar powered food dryer that may be used indoors is provided when a solar heated convection column is used to produce a draft of air and by means of this draft to draw air from a solar collector through a food drying chamber in such a way that the hot air from the collector is drawn over the food in the drying chamber and hot air ducting of the airstream provides a means of remoting the drying chamber to a sanitary and convenient place while leaving both the air heater and the draft generating convection column in a place exposed to solar radiation.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus is disclosed in which solar heated air is drawn down a hole in the earth by a draft from a solar heated convection column located above the surface of the earth, the hot air being initially drawn downwards to a depth at which damp, moist earth is encountered with the hot air thereby evaporating water from the damp earth and producing water vapor and increasing the moisture content of the heated air and as this damp air is subsequently drawn back to the surface by the draft from the same solar heated convection column, it is allowed to contact cooled plates near the surface, the water vapor thereby condensing on the plates from which it is collected for irrigation or other purposes. In various embodiments either vertical or horizontal porous tubes in the ground contact the moist earth to bring the moisture of the earth into contact with the heated air flowing through the tube.

Abstract: The art of vertical horticulture is improved when plants growing outward from the sides of tall vertical columns are provided with a system that enhances root growth by causing some of the early formed branches to be converted to roots and then by having these newly formed roots grow in a nutrient aerosol environment which applies both liquid chemical nourishment as well as ample aeration to these roots, the required conversion of some branches into the plant's principal root system being accomplished by a vertical shield positioned around early formed branches both to prevent light from reaching the branches after a period of initial branch growth as well as to contain the moisture of the nutrient spray. Outer segments of the branches extend through perforations in the shield and thereby grow into the plant's system of branches and leaves.

Abstract: The draft from a solar heated convection column or series of convection columns is used to alternately draw first heated air from a black body solar collector and then to draw cooled air from a heat sink over the walls of a heat exchanger so that the walls of a sealed cavity in the heat exchanger alternately contacting first the hot air draft and then the cool air draft are first heated and then cooled, thereby first heating the sealed gas or vapor within the cavity and then cooling the gas or vapor within the cavity, the consequent pressure changes in the cavity are converted to mechanical energy by action against the interior walls of a large bellows or on a piston in a cylinder the interior walls of which are part of the same sealed heated and cooled cavity.

Abstract: A system and a method of nitrogen fixation is disclosed in which nitrogen and other gases such as oxygen are electrically activated and reacted on a catalyst-like material to provide a fixed nitrogen product in such a way that the reactant gases are first placed into an excited state by a single electrode electric discharge acting on a gas stream and then by means of the stream the reactants are contacted on the catalyst-like material on which they are then combined and the product compounds which are thereby formed are shielded by the same catalytic material from ultra violet radiation generated by the electric excitation, said shielding being to prevent subsequent disassociation of the product compounds, and the gas stream emerging on the downstream side of the catalyst carries the products to an absorption bed on which they are absorbed and concentrated and then reacted with a periodic flow of hydrogen to provide ammonia.

Abstract: A convection column is used to produce a draft to draw alternately hot and then cool air over temperature variable capacitors on which a charge is placed, the capacitors being grouped in sets, and alternate sets of capacitors are each repeatedly heated and then cooled in such a way that while one set is being heated the other set is being cooled and part of the total charge that is shared by the combined sets is thereby made to cycle back and forth between the sets and to flow through a rectifier and a useful electric work load which are in series with these sets with the effect that useful electric power is extracted by means of the electric load.

Abstract: A boilerless steam displacement pump for pumping water is disclosed which uses steam not only to displace water from a chamber to pump the water but also uses the pressurized steam to charge and energize an internal water-to-steam delivery system in order to present water to the steam generating chamber without the use of any auxiliary pump. In this way steam being generated intermittently is used in one period of a cycle to supply water under pressure to the water-to-steam delivery system and then this system delivers the pressurized water to the steam generating chamber during an alternate period to produce the succeeding surge of steam.

Abstract: The expansions and contractions of a diaphragm into and out of a pumping chamber for the purpose of pumping fluid from the chamber are provided by pressurizations and depressurizations against the diaphragm, produced by alternate vaporization and condensation of a volatile liquid which is moved to a vaporization chamber through two separate feed lines, one line carrying cooled liquid for condensing expanded vapor and the other line carrying liquid that is vaporized by a heat source immediately before entry to the chamber. The liquid flow through one feed line alternates with the flow through the other to provide first vaporization and pressure and then condensation and depressurization, and the heat application to the one liquid flow produces vaporization and pressure from the liquid as it enters the chamber in order to remove the requirement of a boiler or pressure storage tank.

Abstract: The intermittent generation of steam by a solar heat source provides a reciprocating column of water when the steam pressure acts on the top of a water column and the column in turn causes a diaphram in a chamber first to expand into an adjacent chamber when the water in the column is placed under pressure and then secondly to contract when the pressure is relieved and thereby the expanding and contracting cavity experiences a pressure which expells water from the cavity through a check valve as the cavity contracts and subsequently as the pressure is relieved the vacuum formed in the cavity as it expands draws in water through another check valve for later expulsion.

Abstract: A unique hydroponic system for growing plants in nutrient aerosol spray is provided by a change in the growth cycle of plants when a secondary system of roots is produced after some initial plant development and, as the secondary system is developed from the plant's branches, the secondary roots are already suspended in an air environment and subsequently become an air-suspended root system and then the principal root system of the plant. Since the new roots are developed by a special type of air-layering which is a nutrient spray type of air-layering, this system improves former systems in that it removes the time consuming requirement of transplantation, the initial roots merely remaining in place while the air-layered roots developed from the branches become a very augmented root system and remain in the same position to continue to receive the nutrient spray. A perforated cover together with a nutrient spray are merely set in place over the plant at a stage in its growth in order to implement this system.