Abstract: A device for permanent installation of exterior Christmas lighting. The device includes an elongated channel having top and bottom walls joined by a rear wall, and a front wall that depends from the top wall, and a flexible, rectangular screen cover for insertion and retention between the front wall and the bottom wall. The device, in conjunction with one or more additional devices, can be custom fit and mounted by fasteners to a building exterior, such as along principal architectural features--e.g., attached to the eaves or outlining a pitched roof. With the cover screen removed, a string of decorative Christmas lights can be positioned within and stretched from one end of the channel to an opposite end thereof, electrically connected to similar strings within additional such devices, and connected to a source of electrical power.

Abstract: A converter capable of accurately and rapidly converting an input signal whose frequency varies as a function of a parameter being metered into a bit parallel number for manipulation by a digital computer. The incoming signal, before being applied to the converter, is shaped to produce a continuous train of square wave periods, each beginning with a leading edge. A measurement is made during a time interval which need not be synchronized with the input signal and is independent of its frequency, the interval having a fixed duration which is a predetermined multiple of a given unit of time.

Abstract: A transmission system for a vortex-shedding flowmeter adapted to measure the flow rate of fluid passing through a flow tube by generating fluidic oscillations whose frequency varies with flow rate. These oscillations are detected by a sensor/resonator included in the frequency-determining circuit of a carrier oscillator having a predetermined center frequency. The carrier frequency is caused to deviate from the center frequency at a rate depending on the frequency of the fluidic oscillations and to an extent depending on the amplitude of these oscillations to produce an F-M carrier signal which is mixed with a local oscillator signal to produce a negative beat signal having a relatively low frequency. Though the deviation in the carrier frequency produced as a function of fluid flow rate represents a small percentage change, this same deviation as reflected in the beat signal represents a greatly multiplied percentage change and hence gives rise to a significant increase in sensitivity.

Abstract: A two-wire transmitter operating in conjunction with a meter whose output signal varies in frequency as a function of the metered variable. The meter signal is changed into an analog voltage that is converted by the transmitter into a corresponding output current and conveyed to a receiving station over a two-wire line which also supplies operating voltage to the transmitter. In the transmitter, the analog voltage is applied to a differential amplifier which converts the voltage into an output current via a transistor acting as a variable impedance across the line to make up the difference between the operating current drawn by the transmitter and the output current. This make-up current is stored to provide an energy source for operating a totalizing counter coupled to the meter to determine the total amount of the variable passing through the meter.