Abstract: A planter has a reservoir for water which is connected with the space below the reservoir in the planter housing by a valve seat cooperating with a valve plate on a stem rising from the float vertically displaceable in the space below the reservoir. The stem extends through the reservoir and up through the planter wall to have an upper end whose position signals the liquid level in the planter. A clamp on a sleeve carrying the valve plate can be released to permit axial displacement of the stem relative to the sleeve and adjustment of the spacing of the float from the valve plate to vary the level maintained in the planter.

Abstract: A waste receptacle comprises an upwardly open fire-resistant vessel having an upper rim, an annular head piece fittable over the rim and forming an upwardly open waste-passing mouth, a container mounted on the rim and holding a pressurized substance which when released at ambient pressure forms a gas that does not support combustion and that is heavier than air, a heat-conducting nozzle carried on the rim, connected to the container, and opening into the vessel, and a plug of fusible material blocking the nozzle and having a relatively low melting point. The container may be a halon- or CO.sub.2 -containing bottle and the melting point of the nozzle plug is about 70.degree. C. The head piece is easily separable from the vessel for emptying of same, and can be opened up to replace the gas-containing bottles and nozzles.

Abstract: An upwardly open container has a flat base with upper and lower sides and an outer peripheral edge defining a predetermined shape. An array substantially of this shape of generally parallel strips extending generally perpendicularly upwardly from the base defines the sides of the container with each of the lower ends of each of the strips secured to the outer peripheral edge. These strips each have a predetermined width measured parallel to the edge and a predetermined thickness measured perpendicular to the edge, and are equispaced apart along the edge by a distance equal to at least this width. A flat rim has an inner edge of the above-mentioned shape and larger in at least one direction parallel to the base than the corresponding portion of the peripheral outer edge of the base by a difference equal to at least twice the strip thickness. The upper ends of these strips are secured to the inner edge.