Abstract: The present invention relates to improvements in centrifugal separators of the cyclone type, in which the liquid or gaseous fluid to be purified passes through an inlet blading which is shaped so as to cause the fluid to whirl rapidly in so-called irrotational flow with uniform longitudinal lamellar components, around a high voltage electrode. An outlet device firstly comprises a convergent portion which partly converts the energy of whirling into energy of longitudinal translation, then a blading which completes the conversion, and finally a divergent portion in which the excess of dynamic energy of flow is converted into static pressure in order to recover as much as possible of the whirling energy applied to the fluid upstream of the inlet of the cyclone device. The separated particles are evacuated through a tangential outlet. The invention is more particularly applicable to the purification of fluids.

Abstract: In a sailing craft, in which the foot of a sail is attached to a yard pivoted on a boom, itself pivoted on the mast, this sail, provided to be of single or double-thickness, preferably comprising a sectioned front edge, restraints are provided for selectively blocking either the yard with respect to the boom, or the boom with respect to the hull of the craft, so that the sail may pivot either on itself or about the mast, as desired.