Abstract: A method of encoding data records comprised of null or variable length fields of data bytes such that the sortabilty of the resulting string of data is permitted via simple byte comparisons. The first field is examined to determine if it is a null field. A null field is a field containing no data. It should sort out before a field containing any data, even all zeros. If a null field is detected, it is represented in the encoded string of data by a null field indicator. If the field is not a null field, the bytes in the field are examined. Zero value bytes are encoded based on the number of consecutive zero value bytes while non-zero bytes remain unchanged. An end of field indicator designates the end of each field in the resulting string of encoded data.

Abstract: An electronic communication system monitor in one embodiment has sensors for sensing electrical and environmental conditions for communication system elements. Control relays connect the elements to a programmable controller. The programmable controller has a keyboard, display, printer and modem for remote communication of information; especially alarms providing notice of operating conditions outside acceptable parameters. A second embodiment provides a logic circuit connected to selected sensors which determines when a combination of conditions exist to cause alarm and automatically activates a remedial device to alleviate a potential problem.

Abstract: An air control apparatus for a forced air central air conditioning system of the type having an air conditioning unit for conditioning air and a duct for conducting the conditioned air from the unit to a living area of a building. The air control apparatus includes a frame having a border and an air passage defined by the border, the border having a first surface for attachment to a first portion of the duct and an opposite second surface for attachment to a second portion of the duct, and an air seal slidably disposed in the frame between the first and second surfaces of the border, the air seal being movable in and out of the air passage to open and close the air passage and thereby regulate the flow of air therethrough. A handle is removably attached to the air seal and extends away from the frame for allowing the air passage to be manually opened and closed from within the living area of the building.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is provided for producing a woven biased fabric in which the structural fibers are skewed from the fabric centerline. The method and apparatus are particularly designed for producing a woven biased structural fabric in which the structural fibers are oriented about 45.degree. to the fabric centerline, where the flimsy, open-knit nature of the fabric makes handling extremely difficult. Broadly speaking, the apparatus includes a fabric feeding station, slitting station, and winding station. The feeding station holds a roll of conventional structural fabric (parallel and perpendicular structural fibers) woven in a tube configuration and flattened into the roll form. The feeding station rotates the roll in a vertical plane as the fabric unwinds in a horizontal direction. The slitting station includes a cutter and a pair of slatter rolls, the rolls moving the tube of fabric in the horizontal direction while rotating the tube of fabric.

Abstract: A pull type fastener including a tubular sleeve and an elongated pin having a disposable pull portion at one end thereof with the sleeve having an enlarged pin head and a shank, a helically splined portion on the pin shank having ridges and grooves and adapted to engage a preselected portion of the sleeve shank bore to move the sleeve material into the spline grooves. The degree of interference between the splines and the sleeve shank, and the relative hardness ratio of the pin to the sleeve being designed such that the sleeve materiall will flow into the spline grooves without radially expanding the sleeve into interference with the bore of the workpieces being fastened.The result being that until the moment of clamp up the sleeve will rotate relative to the pin along the helical splines at a minimum pull force, then at clamp up a momentary and substantially increased torsional force resulting from the sleeve rotation being arrested assists in severing the pin from the pull portion thereof.

Abstract: An electrically operated fluid control valve provides a controlled output pressure proportional to an electrical control signal. The valve housing has a pressure control chamber, an inlet passageway leading from an inlet port to the chamber, an outlet port connected to the chamber, and an outlet passageway leading from the chamber to an exhaust port. A supply diaphragm coupled with a supply valve at the inlet port regulates fluid pressure supplied to the chamber through the inlet passageway and another passageway communicates fluid pressure from the chamber to the supply diaphragm. An exhaust diaphragm at one end of the chamber coupled with an exhaust valve at the exhaust port regulates fluid pressure supplied to the exhaust port and the outlet passageway communicates fluid pressure between the chamber and the exhaust diaphragm.

Abstract: An electric power monitor system for radio communication (trunking and paging repeater base station) systems includes a plurality of input switches, power sensors, a power monitor having a display, keyboard, and microprocessor, a printer port, and communications port. The input switches facilitate alarm inputs, for example, unauthorized entry, flooding, fire, and temperature of the antenna site. The power sensors include bidirectional and unidirectional sensors connected to a communication system having tunable components for producing analog signals indicative of system component performance. The power monitor measures, determines, and reports locally and/or remotely the power output and standing wave ratio of transmitters and antennas, insertion loss of combiners and power to and SWR of antennas and alarms.

Abstract: A low-flow pump-off control device for deactivating a motor for a pump during conditions when a rate of supply of a source of fluid to be pumped by the pump is insufficient includes: a pipe section having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet being connectable to the source of fluid to be pumped through the pipe section; a plurality of plates disposed substantially perpendicularly in the pipe section, each of the plates defining at least one orifice through which the fluid is caused to pass; a differential pressure switch for sensing a differential pressure between a pressure upstream of a first one of the plates and a pressure downstream of a last one of the plates that is at or below a set point indicative of a predetermined low flow rate of the liquid; a first timer in communication with the switch for accumulating periods of time at which the switch senses the differential pressure; a motor activation and deactivation relay in communication with the timer for deactivating the motor when the accumulated period

Abstract: A beehive lifting device (10) lifts beehives (106) by engaging handholds (124). As the beehive (106) is lifted by the lifting device (10), the relationship between the load lifting point (51) and the center of gravity (110) of the beehive (106) causes the beehive lifting device (10) to tilt backward, and causes the beehive (106) to tilt backward toward, or against the folding frame (12) of the beehive lifting device (10). The beehive lifting device (10) is foldable either into a flat package that is disposed parallel to a fourth plane (94) or into a compact bundle that is disposed substantially around an axis (98).

Abstract: A component inspection apparatus includes a component holder mounted on a compound slide structure. Two arrays of gauging elements are provided on a mutually perpendicularly movable slide. These arrays can be adjusted on the slide and each array includes a plurality of separate gauge elements movable by contact with the work and at least one linear transducer connected to each gauge element. In use, the slides are moved to a plurality of predetermined positions in a sequence. The displacements of the probe elements at each position are noted and compared with displacements obtained when the same sequence of positions is followed while a master componet is in the holder.

Abstract: The subject invention is a dual access newspaper receptacle which is based, in general, on a longitudinal box member with a internal hollow chamber, wherein such chambered box has two entry accesses to the hollow chamber in box. One entranceway has a hinged door for insertion of newspapers or the like from the front of the box, with a second access door on either the sides, back, or front of mailbox for removing the contents from such box as appropriate.

Abstract: A fastener for securing workpieces having aligned bores and including a tubular sleeve and a pin with the sleeve having an elongated sleeve shank and a through bore and the pin having an enlarged pin head and an elongated pin shank, the pin shank having a locking groove, a resilient retaining clip located in the locking groove and being axially captured therein, the retaining clip being of a split construction and having a relaxed outside diameter greater than that of the workpiece bores and being adapted to be located in at least one of the bores with an interference fit to thereby axially retain the pin to the workpieces in a pre-assembly, the retaining clip and pin lock groove defining a lock cavity, the sleeve shank having its free end adapted to be radially deformed into the lock cavity, the sleeve shank being adapted to buckle radially after the sleeve free end is deformed into the lock cavity whereby the fastener can accommodate workpieces varying in total thickness.

Abstract: The subject invention is a multiple access newspaper receptacle, which comprises, in general, a longitudinally extending housing with a correspondingly internally disposed hollow chamber, having a dual entry access to said hollow chamber. First, there is a hinged door for entrance from the front of the box, with a second access door on either the sides, back, or front of said mailbox.

Abstract: The subject invention is a multiple access mailbox and parcel receptacle, which comprises, in general, a longitudinally extending housing with a correspondingly internally disposed hollow chamber. Said hollow chamber conforms, in general, to the external shape of the mailbox, and there is dual entry access to this hollow chamber. First, there is a hinged door for entrance from what is considered to be front of the box, with a second access door on either the sides, back, or front of said mailbox. A spring-loaded hinge member is integrally interconnected with said second door whereby said second access door automatically swings shut after opening, and there is a one-way locking device by which arrangement such second door cannot be pushed open from the inside.

Abstract: In high speed imaging systems wherein document images are lifted and stored, it is desirable to reduce the amount of information to be stored. A video format unit utilizing video information from a data lift enhances the video information and then compresses the enhanced video data by coding the data in a repetitive run length type code. The coded data is then stored in an on-line system to permit the immediate recall of stored images.

Abstract: Electronic circuitry monitors the electrical energy consumption of a system and displays the current cost of the energy usage. The projected monthly billing cost is calculated at the current rate of consumption, and an alarm signal and control output are generated if the projected cost is higher than a budget amount. Energy consumption is sensed optically at the electric meter and a proportional number of high frequency pulses are added to the household electrical network. These pulses are remotely sensed at any point within the household electrical network and are fed to a microprocessor for counting and conversion to cost parameters. Clock pulses are also directed to the microprocessor for calculating the billing period and for displaying time parameters. A keyboard enables initializing and modifying the cost and time parameters in the microprocessor.

Abstract: A rotary cutter blade for use in an unfluted constant diameter bowl of a motor driven food processor with a rotatable hub mounted on a vertically oriented drive shaft where the blade comprises a pair of generally parallel straight razor blade-type cutters secured to and extending oppositely away from the hub and terminating closely adjacent the bowl inner surface. A pair of similarly directed generally parallel straight integral support arms are vertically spaced on and extend oppositely away from the hub. Support arms having an average width greater than the cutters for adequate support.

Abstract: A door hinge and hold-open apparatus incorporates a torsion bar structure, having detent and torsional portions, carried by a first hinge member. A striker is carried by a second hinge member in alignment with the detent portion of the torsion bar structure for engaging the detent portion upon movement of the second hinge member, relative to the first hinge member, through a predetermined positional range. A torsional section of the torsion bar structure extends along an elongated body of one of the hinge members, and load carrying portions of the torsion bar structure which bear against the elongated hinge body are spaced from a mid-section of the hinge body at which the body is attached to a door or support structure. The apparatus is particularly adapted for use in a hinge having body portions of nonmetallic, composite construction having reinforcing fibers extending longitudinally of the hinge body.

Abstract: Electronic circuitry monitors the electrical energy consumption of a system and displays the current cost of the energy usage. The projected monthly billing cost is calculated at the current rate of consumption, and an alarm signal is generated if the projected cost is higher than a budget amount. The current flow is sensed and digital pulses are fed to a microprocessor for counting and conversion to cost parameters. Clock pulses are also directed to the microprocessor for calculating the billing period and for displaying time parameters. A keyboard enables initializing and modifying the cost and time parameters in the microprocessor.

Abstract: An electronic monitoring circuit measures the amount of energy consumed by a system and displays the corresponding cost of the energy. An alarm circuit is triggered if the cost exceeds a predetermined amount over a given period of time. The monitoring circuit includes an electromagnetic coil which senses the magnitude of the input current and generates a d-c voltage having an amplitude corresponding to the current magnitude. The d-c voltage drives a voltage-controlled oscillator to generate an a-c signal having a frequency corresponding to the d-c voltage amplitude. The oscillator has been preset so that the generated a-c signal has a frequency representing a unit of cost of electrical power corresponding to the sensed current magnitude. A multivibrator generates a pulsed digital signal corresponding to the a-c signal frequency, each pulse indicating a unit of cost for the electrical power consumed.