Abstract: A spring loaded, adjustable caster is disclosed which is used in combination with a rolling ladder. The adjustable caster comprises a wheel, a wheel mount for mounting the wheel, a longitudinal adjustable shank including a connecting rod having a threaded bore and a threaded shaft disposed in screwthreaded engagement with each other, whereby the length of the longitudinal adjustable shank may be varied. A jam nut is disposed in threadingly fitted engagement on the threaded shaft intermediate to the connecting rod and the wheel mount, whereby the jam nut may be rotated into a biasing relationship to the connecting rod. The caster further includes a sleeve adapted for sliding support of the connecting rod and with a spring disposed within the sleeve to provide a compressed relationship between the sleeve and the connecting rod. The sleeve is then mounted on a rolling ladder.

Abstract: An elevator apparatus mounted on a side of a ship, for allowing a pilot to board or disembark from the ship; the apparatus including a vertical track, extending from the water up to the bridge, an elevator, supported by a cable from a davit upon the bridge, being movable vertically along the track, the elevator having a door on its outer side, for access from a pilot's boat, and a door on an opposite side, for entering the ship bridge, controls and lights upon the bridge and in the elevator, and a flotation tank under the elevator, for supporting the same upon the water surface.

Abstract: A plurality of floors served by elevator cars are scanned by direction to detect car positions and hall calls. For each of the cars, a predetermined number is counted up for each scan slot after detection of a car position to determine the service load of each car to be borne before arrival at each floor. When a hall call is detected by scanning, a car with minimum service load in the related slot is selected and the hall call is allotted to that car. When the failure of a car to run to an end floor is predicted in counting the service load of the car, switch is made to count down in response to directional reversal when the scanning has reached the end floor. At the time of subsequent detection of an allotted hall call by scanning, switching is again made to count up, thus determining a proper service load of the cars.

Abstract: The present invention is a brake for free-wheeling ground engaging vehicles, in particular skateboards. The brake includes a bracket which can be easily mounted to the bottom surface of the skateboard. Pivotally mounted to the bracket is a lever to which is secured brake shoes. The lever is biased by gravitational force to a first position in which the brake shoes are disengaged from the wheels. The lever is positioned for actuation by the rider of the skateboard such that the lever will be rotated to a second position in which the brake shoes engage the wheels.

Abstract: In a railway freight car an elastomeric boot is attached to the entrance and/or exit of a hollow sill or hollow structural member through which a brake rod passes. The brake rod passes through a brake rod opening in the boot in entering and/or leaving the sill or structural member, and the boot engages the brake rod sufficiently to substantially prevent moisture from passing through the boot and into the sill or structural member.

Abstract: A brake disk and process for producing the same which is particularly suitable for use on motorcycles. A stainless steel material of particular chromium content is subjected to a heat-treating and press-quenching step to form a brake disk having a sufficient hardness required for the function of a brake and being of favorable appearance for use on motorcycles.

Abstract: A gas-operated absorber includes a piston and cylinder unit wherein axially extending grooves of a predetermined length are provided on the inner surface of the cylinder to vary the dampening effect during the expansion stroke of the piston. The piston expansion movement is braked as the piston moves away from the grooves during its expansion stroke, and through holes in the piston head permit passage of gas therethrough during the expansion stroke although, when the piston moves away from the grooves, a flexible lip on the piston completely closes the holes to effect further braking. Additional holes are also provided in the piston head through which the gas may pass throughout the expansion stroke.

Abstract: A hydraulic shock absorber for vehicles wherein an elastic body tightens the outer periphery of piston rod so that the piston rod floats, and noises and vibrations are reduced to be as low as possible.

Abstract: An agricultural silo comprising a plurality of vertically spaced apart silage discharge orifices includes a double passage chute overlying the orifices. The chute includes a first passage permitting unobstructed operator access and a separate silage discharge passage which confines the silage during the unloading operation. A dormer door provided in the silo top may be opened to discharge silage therethrough into the silage discharge passage. When opened the door vents the silo and when closed the door prevents material from entering the climbing and discharge chute during silo filling and prevents updrafts in the chute during unloading. A frame affixed in a dormer space at the top of the silo and chute defines a dormer opening of substantially the same size as the discharge orifices for snug mounting of an unloading transfer conduit therein.

Abstract: In an installation for distributing food products such as sweets from a primary conveyor line to respective transverse conveyors leading to packaging machines. A secondary conveyor line having two successive bunching conveyors is arranged to receive intermittently rows of products from the primary conveyor line, through the operation of a deflecting device, and to bunch and align the products prior to transferring them in rows to the transverse conveyor, at a conveying speed which can be matched to the demand of the packaging machines, even though this may differ from the speed of the primary conveyor line.

Abstract: An apparatus for laterally arranging bars, particularly ferrous bars, moving longitudinally along a roller conveyor in a rolling mill. The bars are initially confined laterally into a compact group centrally located between the conveyor sides. The compact group is then subdivided into a plurality of laterally spaced bar packs which are then run over one or more magnetic separating rollers to achieve a desired lateral separation between each bar.

Abstract: A device for picking up and placing articles on a moving conveyor or assembly line, comprising a conveyor including a support adapted to be moved in a first conveyor shaft, an article station adjacent the conveyor, an article handling device support assembly adjacent the conveyor, an arrangement mounting the article handling device support assembly for movement along an article handling path, and a reciprocating drive connected to the conveyor and to the article handling support assembly to move the article handling support assembly in timed relationship to the conveyor.

Abstract: Individual longitudinal channels equipped with closely spaced wheels running the full length of the conveyor and suspended in a natural catenary fashion by cross support cables is disclosed.

Abstract: A cylinder type display box is made from a single sheet of paperboard material and includes a base and two upstanding sidewalls. The display box further includes a tubular plastic sleeve member disposed over the base and sidewalls so as to form a plastic front wall, top wall, and back wall. The base and sidewalls of the box are generally prismatic in configuration, each having spaced apart panel members. The base includes a pair of substantially parallel locking slits extending from the front wall to the back wall, each of the locking slits being adjacent to one of the sidewalls. Each locking slit includes an elongated central portion and a pair of end portions, the end portions of each slit being flared toward its adjacent sidewall. Each of the sidewalls has a locking portion receivable in the locking slit adjacent thereto. Each locking portion includes a central portion integral with the respective sidewall and a pair of end tabs.

Abstract: An apparatus for carrying, stacking and transporting bowling balls. A housing of suitable size for holding a bowling ball incorporates interlocking members on the top and bottom surfaces thereof. A substantially square or rectangular member depends from the top surface of the housing, the member adapted to receive and be vertically interlocked with a mating member depending from the bottom surface of a like housing. Innerconnection of the mating members, one to the other, will permit vertical stacking of the housings or cases and prevent inadvertent vertical movement thereof. Each housing is equipped with an internally moveable cover to secure the bowling ball within the housing, the cover binding the ball between the interior walls of the housing and the covering member itself.

Abstract: A packing device for an electric fan of assembled type, composed of a basic shell having more than two recesses separated from each other and a partially complementaryly recessed holder, which are made of cushioning materials. The basic shell is provided with a first recess for accommodating therein both a blade assembly and a pair of guards in piles, and a second recess positioned next to the first recess for accommodating therein both a casing integrally formed with a supporting arm having a motor and a base portion without making any contact between them when packed as a whole. The base portion is positioned within the either one of vertical side spaces with respect to the supporting arm when the casing integrally formed is accommodated on its side in the second recess.

Abstract: A package for batteries which comprises a header board and a heat-shrunk thermoplastic film holding the batteries relative to the header board. The header board has a vertical wall and a skirt integrally extending downwardly from the lower end of the vertical wall and covering a portion of the battery. The thermoplastic film covers the skirt and the batteries.

Abstract: There is provided a biostable package of syringes of the type having a barrel, piston and nozzle. The package comprises a self-supporting syringe holder having an enclosure means with upper, lower, side and end walls for receiving a portion of a syringe such that at least the nozzle thereof is disposed within the enclosure means. Circular sealing apertures are disposed in the upper wall of the enclosure means for receiving the syringes and bendable sealing flaps are disposed around the periphery of each sealing aperture to form a non-dust seal around the syringe. An upstanding panel projects from the enclosure means and a rupturable plastic film extends from the walls of the enclosure means to the upstanding panel whereby the syringes are biostably sealed from ambient contamination. When the film is removed the portion of the syringe disposed in the enclosure means is non-dust sealed from solid contamination.

Abstract: A number of articles, such as jars, are packaged in a sleeve made from a blank of foldable sheet material. The blank comprises a top panel, a number of spaced apart side forming panels, a pair of strip panels hingedly joining the side forming panels and opposite pairs of bottom forming panels provided by the sheet material between adjacent side forming panels as extensions of the strip panels. The top panel abuts one end of the jars; the side panels extend alongside the jars so that the jars are visible in the space between them; and the strip panels are turned outwards so that the bottom forming panels of each pair project mutually inwards and overlap in abutment with the other end of the jar.

Abstract: A reclosable blister card package comprises a plastic blister having a flanged portion and a raised product holding portion. A paperboard card is releasably affixed to the flanged portion, and a portion of the card is folded over to present a folded edge extending over and engaging the flanged portion of the blister. A pair of parallel creases are provided in the paperboard card, one of which creases is disposed in substantial registry with the folded edge. Construction and arrangement is such that pivotation of the folded portion about the one crease away from the blister is effective to release the overlapped flanged portion from the folded edge and accommodate subsequent release of the card from the blister by pivotation of the card therefrom about the other crease.

Abstract: Corrosive chemicals are contained in metallic vessels, the inside portion of which is coated with a homogeneous, porous polymer containing inorganic filler. The particle size, shape and distribution provides a controlled porosity which allows entrapped permeants from the corrosive chemical to escape, yet does not significantly affect the utility of the protective coating as a chemical corrosion barrier protecting the metallic vessel.

Abstract: A waterproof pill container especially adapted to hold pills and the like is disclosed. In addition to a container base having an open top adapted to be closed by a cover, closure means are provided for continually urging the cover into watertight sealing engagement with the peripheral edge that forms the open top of the container base. Such closure means includes a post attached to and downwardly dependent from the inner portions of the cover and to which a laterally extending crossbar is rotatably engaged. Also the container base is provided with a pair of inwardly extending flanges under which the ends of the crossbar are adapted to engage, thereby establishing anchor points against which the cover may be tightly drawn into sealing engagement with the container base to assure a watertight fit between the two members.

Abstract: An easy opening envelope has a rectangular front panel, a substantially rectangular back panel which faces the front panel and is connected to it at a fold line at the bottom edge of the panels, first and second side flaps which can be folded inwardly and which have an adhesive coating which secures the back panel in place, and an envelope flap extending the full width of the front panel. The back panel has a tear panel defined by perforations extending generally parallel to the upper edge of the back panel. Adhesive strips on the envelope flap are in registry with the tear panel when the envelope flap is closed. To open the envelope, the flap is gripped and pulled away from the back panel to cause the tear panel to be stripped away.

Abstract: A stuffed, sealed envelope assembly has superimposed front and back plies with insert material within the envelope unattached to the plies so as to be freely disposed therein. At least one cut line or a line of perforations is provided in one of the envelope plies in the vicinity of an edge of the insert to facilitate opening of the envelope for exposing the insert for extraction. An outline of a simulated flap is applied to the outer surface of the one envelope ply so as to overlie or be delimited by the cut line or line of perforations. Other seam lines may be applied to the same outer surface so as to give the impression, together with the flap outline, of a folded-flap envelope construction. The envelope assembly is therefore capable of being opened for exposing the insert in a manner similar to that of a folded-flap construction.

Abstract: An automatic document sorter particularly suitable for sorting retail store coupons employs a plurality of relatively coarse sorting processes in cascade. The sorting processes sequentially sort the documents according to predetermined properties of the document, including codes, such as bar codes or the like; physical properties, such as size, thickness, color, reflectivity and opacity; the characteristics of the inscriptions on the face of the document; and any uniquely marked areas of the document face. Such a sorting hierarchy permits the documents to be sorted rapidly by reducing the precision required in each sorting step. The hierarchy also permits each document to be classified during each sorting step as falling into a particular class of documents in order to simplify subsequent sorting steps. If a property uniquely identifying the document is found during any one of the sorting steps, the processing is terminated at that point without completing the subsequent sorting steps.

Abstract: An electro-optical inspection system for a binary patterned web which automatically determines registration and the quality of subjects of inspection by comparison with a master pattern stored in the memory of a computer and then passes or rejects individual subjects of inspection depending on the outcome of the comparison effected.

Abstract: A lattice boom crane is provided with multiple boom sections which telescope one from the other to provide a variable length boom. A cable system is connected between the boom sections such that the boom sections are telescoped as the cable is drawn in by a winch mechanism. Cables drawn in by the winch mechanism is directed to a block system which is connected between a gantry structure and the point end of the outermost boom section. The winch mechanism includes two drums about which the cable is alternately wrapped. The block system expands at substantially the same rate as the boom sections extend. Thus, the boom angle, which is determined by the effective cable length between the gantry and the point of the boom, is not significantly effected. In one embodiment of the invention, the cable taken in by the block system is received on a boom hoisting drum which may be controlled to change the effective cable length between the gantry and the point of the boom to vary the boom angle.

Abstract: Robot control with programmed positioning modified by a sensor sensing position error, force or the like. To maintain flexibility, the sensor axis need not coincide with any of several degrees of freedom of the robot. To employ sensor generated signals to modify programmed positioning where sensor and robot degrees of freedom are different, a normalized correction is computed relating a sensor output to each axis of freedom. Merely multiplying sensor output with the appropriate normalized correction provides a quantity in the proper coordinates for correction or position modification, as desired. Further, the robot includes apparatus to change direction of motion under certain circumstances, i.e., a collision with an obstruction. This allows the robot to move around obstructions whose location and extent were unknown at the time of movement programming.

Abstract: A pair of self-propelled vehicles joined by an intermediate bridge having a rigid lifting arm hinged at one end to the intermediate bridge and having a device for gripping and lifting the pipes carried by the free end of the rigid arm such that the rigid lifting arm may be controlled to engage a pipe and lift it over the trench and lower the pipe into the desired position.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for transferring cargo between an ocean-located unit and a vessel by way of a loading crane or derrick with associated winch and especially at sea under conditions of heavy wave movement. A cargo-supporting hook is subjected during loading and unloading to a controlled wave movement relative to the loading crane or derrick which corresponds to the relative movement between the ocean-located unit and the vessel and is in step with this relative movement.

Abstract: A system for parking and storing automobiles in which automobiles are moved from a loading station to an elevator to stacked parking spaces under remote control. The system includes a turntable means which permits the automobile to be driven onto a parking pallet in a forward direction, and allows easy, safe egress by the driver. The turntable is rotated and cam arm means delivers the pallet to an elevator means which raises the pallet to a selected unoccupied parking space, exchanges the loaded pallet for an empty pallet from the parking space, then returns the pallet to the loading turntable. Similarly, the elevator means can, by remote control, retrieve the loaded pallet and return it to the turntable. The turntable operates to deliver the automobile to the driver in a manner permitting easy and safe entry by the driver and which permits him to drive away in a forward direction.

Abstract: A tidy box made entirely of polypropylene consists only of two parts fitted together after moulding. One part, the lower part, forms the base of the box together with a lid provided on one side with a catch or fastening lug and on the other side with a pull handle. The lid is made integral with the base by a polypropylene hinge so that the whole forms a single piece. The other part, the upper part, forms side parts, a top, back and front, the latter forming a fixed frame for the lid without any bottom cross-member, and the top has a notch and retaining edge for co-operating with the lid catch or fastening lug, the whole again forming only a single piece.

Abstract: In a container and closure assembly, there is a resilient seal between the two components and the resiliency of the seal determines the normal relative closed positions of the closure and container. When the assembly is included within a stack, there is movement of the closure in the closing direction further to compress the seal. To prevent over-compression of the seal, opposed movement limiting surfaces are provided upon the closure and container, these surfaces being slightly spaced normally, but closing together to take loads directly from closure to container and thus avoid overloading the seal, when the assembly is located in a stack.

Abstract: A wide-necked barrel made of synthetic resin has a removable lid that has a lip-like inner rim axially interfitting into the barrel neck and an edge externally overlapping the barrel neck. The external edge of the lid has spaced extensions that extend obliquely downward and that receive between them projections integrally molded into the barrel neck, so that the upper side of the extensions and the under side of the projections of the barrel neck form a circumferentially extending V-slot that receives a tightening ring. The projections of the barrel neck are trapezoidal as seen in side elevation; and inside the barrel neck, at the location of the spaces between those trapezoidal projections, the material of the barrel neck is compressed into an annular series of supporting beads for the lip-like inner rim of the lid.

Abstract: An installation for venting fuel tanks, in which a flow-interrupting chamber is provided in the upper part of the tank, to which are connected two vent lines; each vent line thereby extends from its connection with the flow-interrupting chamber at first toward the respective tank end and then back toward the opposite tank end; a vent line in communication with the atmosphere is also connected with the flow-interrupting chamber within the center area thereof.

Abstract: Means for shaping a stack of discrete interleaved sheets to improve the pop-up type dispensing thereof from a package containing the stack and having a dispensing orifice thereabove. The sheets are characterized by such stiffness that, when arranged in a conventional interleaved stack wherein the interleaved sheet portions are substantially planar and horizontal, during the removal of a given sheet from the stack through the package dispensing orifice the portion of the next succeeding sheet overlying a portion of the sheet being removed tends near its adjacent folded edge to lift away from the sheet being removed, permitting the sheet being removed to slip out from under the succeeding sheet, resulting in failure of the succeeding sheet to achieve its pop-up position through the dispensing orifice.

Abstract: A blow molded or injection molded plastic container has a neck formed with a substantially horizontal flat top, an internal substantially vertical first sealing surface, a groove, a very smooth second sealing surface of less diameter than the first sealing surface and a lower groove and then a vertical stretch which merges into a breast which widens out to the full size of the container, an external first vertical surface, a horizontal inwardly extending soulder, an indented second vertical surface of lesser diameter than the first vertical surface and an external bead, and a third vertical surface at about the level of the vertical stretch. The second sealing surface has an "injection finish" obtained by use of a blow pin in the mold. The cap has upper and lower internal beads (which seat under the shoulder and external bead of the neck) interrupted in a plurality of gaps, permitting stretching of the cap to seat on the neck.

Abstract: A disposable manually operable wall mounted dispenser having a deformable rubber teat on the bottom of the container, which when pressed by a user's finger compresses and forces liquid through a dispensing slit in the bottom thereof. The dispensing unit is mounted to the wall by a mounting plate with a projection and a cooperating depression in the container.

Abstract: An aerosol dispenser having an overcap containing a valve actuator and dispensing nozzle, the outer end of the nozzle projecting through a window formed in the overcap so that the aerosol spray action takes place beyond the facade of the overcap. The nozzle structure includes a resilient hinged portion, so that depressing the projecting outer end of the nozzle from outside the overcap causes the nozzle to bend without applying an actuating motion to the valve actuator.

Abstract: A dispenser for particulate materials comprising a housing at least a part of which defines a chamber for material to be dispensed, a dispensing orifice and a plunger and stem for controlling the operation of the valve member, the plunger being formed to snap-engage to the housing to resist removal therefrom. The plunger includes ears having bosses engaged in slots in the housing and defines end limits for movement of the valve member.

Abstract: Apparatus for automatically boarding, stripping and stacking hosiery. Interiorly heated boarding forms are mounted on a table for indexing from a loading station at which an operator places hosiery on the forms to a stripping station at which the forms are presented in sets, with spaced clamps engaging the hosiery on the forms of the set at the stripping station and removing them longitudinally of the forms. The clamps are mounted on a carrier that moves on a carriage with the carriage moving laterally of the forms to move the clamps into clamping position and the carrier moving in tracks on the carriage to move the clamps vertically for stripping the hosiery longitudinally from the forms and then to a horizontal position at which the clamps dispose the hosiery in laid out disposition above a stacking table for release onto a collection board. The forms are spaced apart a distance equivalent to the width of the hosiery with the hosiery deposited on the stacking table at this spacing.

Abstract: A belt attached hanger for supporting key chains, measuring tapes and other devices from the pants support belt of the user. The hanger includes a flexible closed loop having a vertical opening in the back thereof intermediate the opposite side edges thereof. The loop encompasses the belt with one of the belt loops of the trousers extending through the opening in the back and engaged over the belt to lock the loop at a specific point on the belt with respect to the trousers. A wire support is engaged in the bottom of the loop below the belt and has an eye for attaching the devices to be supported by the loop.

Abstract: A multiple position infant carrier in which a main member of flexible material is supported at the front of a person carrying the infant by a main strap extending over one shoulder and around the back of the person, while a supplementary head strap extends over the other shoulder and around the back of the person to pass through loops on the main member, the arrangement of the loops and the head strap establishing a seat portion and back and head support portions for the infant.

Abstract: A notepad attachment for mounting a notepad onto the hub of a steering wheel of a motor vehicle includes a platform member with a recess therein, and an annular resilient mounting cushion which is disposed between the platform member and the hub of the steering wheel. An elastic cord or lace is threaded through annularly spaced holes in the base of the recess and round the back of the spoke or spokes of the wheel. The notepad is disposed in the recess of the platform, and a further recess is provided in the platform member for a pencil which is anchored to the platform member by a suitable cord.

Abstract: An inverted U-shaped hollow rectangular tube has clamps at its ends for securing the same to the rain gutter of a vehicle. Openings in the tube removably receive selected load supports and a slide bar in the tube engages the load support to prevent its removal. Locks prevent release of the slide bar and cover the clamps to prevent their unauthorized release.

Abstract: Apparatus for treating a web of textile material in a dwell zone comprises means for guiding around a closed circuit a plurality of suspension bars for carrying loops of the web of material. The web is fed downward at a fixed entrance point in such circuit to cause each passing suspension bar to pick up a loop of the web and is withdrawn continuously at a point in such circuit immediately preceding such entrance point.

Abstract: An assembly system for assembling microcomponents of semi-conductor or other electronic devices includes on a unitary machine frame the tooling for precision excising tape mounted microcomponents, precision forming their electrical leads, placement of the components in correct registration with conductors on a pre-positioned substrate, and bonding the formed leads to the conductors.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided comprising three elongated vacuum chambers arran in line one after another whereby a component carrying means may be transferred successively from one chamber to another. Of these three chambers the first and third comprise air locks and the intermediate chamber contains heat sealing means whereby components undergoing sealing may be soldered under vacuum. By providing a permanent magnet on each end of the component carrying means this may be shifted between vacuum chambers by external application of a magnet. The overall length of the apparatus is reduced since only three chambers are required and the intermediate chamber may be made shorter than would be the case where no such arrangement is provided.

Abstract: A multiorifice structure and a method of making the multiorifice structure is disclosed herein. The structure is made by fusing a plurality of parallel rods stacked in a regular geometric pattern. The interstices between the fused rods form a plurality of small orifices of a noncircular configuration which are ideally suited for atomizing a pressurized fluid. In the preferred embodiment, the multiorifice structure is a fuel atomizer for atomizing the fuel ejected from an automotive type fuel injection valve.

Abstract: A carton for holding an insert of air freshener material includes a front panel with outwardly bowed side edges and a spaced back panel having parallel upper and lower edges and converging side edges. First and second side panels connect the front and back panels. A top closure is formed of a plurality of flaps extending from the upper edges of the panels. The flaps extending from the front and back panels are sealed in overlapping fashion. The carton also includes a plurality of bottom flaps extending from the lower edges of the panels. The flaps extending from the front and back panels are also sealed in overlapping fashion.