Abstract: A casing 10 provides a handle whereby an item can be carried. Within the casing 10 is a spool 11 on which is wound a strap 13. The strap 13 can be passed around an item to be carried and attached at its free end to the handle. The strap is then tightened around the item to be carried using the thumb wheel 19. To release the strap from the item ratchet wheels 12 on opposite sides of the spool 11 are disengaged by a plate 18 enabling more of the strap to be drawn off the spool. The tab at the free end of the strap and the slots in the handle in which it engages are shaped so that when the tab extends away from the handle (load bearing position) it cannot emerge from the slots.

Abstract: A faecal filter assembly comprises two open-mouthed receptacles adapted to be joined by a hollow stopper. A tubular filter extends centrally from the stopper so that the latter provides a shoulder at the open end of the receptacle where debris and the like will collect. The arrangement is such that when the assembly is placed in a centrifuge, centrifugal forces will not force debris through the filter but instead will collect it on the shoulder. Preferably the filter is a lattice of oppositely-extending ribs defining between them pores.

Abstract: A generator mounted within the tread portion of a pedal of a bicycle or the like is driven via pulleys of unequal diameter and a gear box so that the speed of rotation of the rotor of the generator is a multiple of the speed of relative rotation between the spindle of the pedal and the tread portion when the latter is held horizontal by a foot resting on it and the crank from which the spindle extends is rotated to propel the bicycle. The gearing up of the generator enables sufficient output voltage to illuminate an array of LEDs and charge a capacitor which will keep them illuminated while the pedal is temporarily stationary.