Better Mousetraps, Inc.

Nien Made Enterprise Co., Ltd.

Ira Gaber

Cooper C Woodring

William H Rapp

William H Rap

A Venetian blind having forwardly cantilevered and rearwardly counter-weighted slats, and at least a partially recessed vertical system connected to the slats for raising and lowering the slats independently of their tilted position and for spacing, supporting and tilting the cantilevered slats from an essentially horizontal open viewing position to a forwardly tilted fully sealed position (e.g., full or none), and wherein the vertical system is hidden from view when the slats are in their sealed position, to thereby provide a clean blind appearance. The Venetian blind raises and lowers the blind independently of the position of its tiltable slats and hides the vertical members and cords of the recessed vertical system and their respective slat openings in the slats from view from at least one side, preferably from the room interior, when the slats are in their fully sealed position. The interacting elements of the Venetian blind provide a Venetian blind that has great versatility, is attractive, and has room darkening and privacy features.

Venetian blinds

A cord-lock mechanism to take up or expand slats of Venetian blind, comprising a fixed hollow drum with an end cover secured to window frame or door frame; a pulley block fixed in the hollow drum, a pulley at the pulley block, a brake wheel reciprocally movable between a braking position and a release position in a guide channel formed on the pulley block; and a lift cord made of soft material, wound around the brake wheel and the pulley, having its both ends extended to the respective ends of the headrail, passed through the middle cord outlets, turned downwards and tied to the respective ends of the foot rail so that all or part of the slats and the tubular foot rail can be raised and the slats can be taken up by pulling of the lift cord.

Cord-lock mechanism

A food press having an elongated body including a forward end to which a perforated cap or the like is removably attached and through which pressed foodstuffs pass, and a chamber means within the body adjacent the forward end of the press for receiving and pressing foodstuffs. A reciprocating piston is slidably fitted within the chamber means for moving and pressing foodstuffs, wherein the piston is adapted to be positioned rearwardly of the foodstuffs in the chamber means in its retracted position and against said forward end for pressing the foodstuffs through the perforations in the cap in its forward position. The press also has a rotatable handle pivotally connected to the elongated body rearwardly of the piston, and a linking member connected to the handle and to the piston. When the handle is rotated in one direction the piston is moved to it's retracted position to allow the chamber means to received foodstuffs. When the handle is rotated in the other direction the piston is moved to it's forward position for pressing foodstuffs through the perforations in the cap. The food press provides progressively increasing pressure ratios through the linking of the non-constant increments of linear movement of the travel of the piston to the constant increments of arcuate travel of the handle.

Food press

A tilter mechanism for rotating a headrail so as to tilt slats of a Venetian blind includes a fixed hollow drum secured to the headrail; a hollow rotary mechanism rotatably fixed in the hollow drum, including a pulley section and an fixing section engaged with the headrail for synchronous motion; and a tilt cord made of soft material wound around the pulley section such that pulling of the tilt cord results in the rotary mechanism and the headrail being rotated synchronously and the slats being tilted.

Tilter mechanism

A rotary tubular headrail blind comprising a tubular headrail with plurality of suspending ladder sets to support a plurality of horizontal slats in parallel, a tubular foot rail, a tilter to rotate the tubular headrail directly, a lifter to raise the tubular foot rail to any desired level, and a holder with two ends to tie each ladder set's inner and outer ladder tapes to maintain the inner and outer ladder tapes close and parallel with each other when the tubular headrail is rotated so that all slats are kept in a same tilting degree.

Rotary tubular headrail blind design

Ladder tape fixer

A venetian blind includes a plurality of slats, rotating means for rotating the slats from a first closed setting through a plurality of open settings to a second closed setting, and indicating means for indicating when the rotating means has rotated the slats to one of a plurality of predetermined desired settings, including at least one open setting. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the means for indicating includes a cam that rotates as the tilt rod is rotated. The cam has a substantially annular perimeter with a number of detents at predetermined locations corresponding to the predetermined desired settings of the slats. A spring clip is biased toward the perimeter of the cam such that a portion of the spring clip travels along the perimeter of the cam when the cam is rotated and engages a detent when it becomes aligned with the detent. The engagement of the spring clip with the detent will provide a visual indication to a user that a predetermined desired setting of the slats has been achieved since the slats will jump to the desired setting as the user rotates the slats to a position that is close to the desired setting. When a desired setting has been achieved further rotation of the slats will be impeded to provide a tactile indication to the user that the desired setting has been achieved.

Apparatus for accurate adjustment of the slats in a venetian blind

Disclosed in a window covering having a headrail and a plurality of slats suspended therefrom, the slats are adapted to pivot and thereby contact contiguous slats to form dead air cells for improved appearance and insulating properties.

Window covering

A food press, having an elongated body including a forward end with perforations through which pressed foodstuffs can pass, and chamber means adjacent said forward end for receiving and pressing foodstuffs. A reciprocating piston is slidably fitted within the chamber means for moving and pressing foodstuffs, wherein the piston is adapted to be positioned rearwardly of the foodstuffs in the chamber means in its retracted position and against said forward end for pressing the foodstuffs through the perforations in its forward position. The press also has a rotatable handle pivotally connected to the elongated body rearwardly of the piston, and linking means which are connected to the handle and to the piston. When the handle is rotated in one direction the piston is moved to its retracted position to allow the chamber means to receive foodstuffs. When the handle is rotated in the other direction the piston is moved to its forward position for pressing foodstuffs through the perforations. The food press provides progressively increasing mechanical advantage ratios and correspondingly progressively increasing pressure ratio through the linking of the non-constant increments of linear movement of the travel of the piston to the constant increments of arcuate travel of the handle.

Hand-holdable food processor

A hand-holdable food processor for cutting, slicing, shredding or grating vegetables, fruit, cheese and the like. The food processor is operable in various orientations while being held by hand and has a power supply, food cutting means for cutting, slicing, shredding or grating operatively engaging the power supply and a food delivery means extending from the processor for momentary storage and feeding of food to the food cutting means. A food cutting device also is disclosed which includes one or more blade sections eccentrically positioned about the axis of a food processor.

Growing community of inventors

West Norwalk, CT, United States of America

Ira Gaber