Other

The United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of the

Coast Foundry & Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Wilson Sales Company, Inc.

Westates Space-era Products, Inc.

California Institute of Technology

Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA

Graning Company

Tdv Co.

James B Stephens

Charles G Miller

James C Fletcher

Robert A Frosch

Eric G Laue

Charles G Miller, Deceased

Frank R Anderson

Charles P Gulledge

Lloyd M Austin

Charles L Youngberg

Anthony A Finnerty

By Ann Miller, Executrix

Charles Youngberg

Mary M Yang

An opthalmic spectacle or contact sharp cut-on orange lens that improves visual acuity and substantially reduces eye damage in a bright sunlit environment. The lenses substantially eliminate ultraviolet radiation and blue light shorter than 515 nm. The ultraviolet radiation has been implicated as a cause of cateractogenisis. The blue light is implicated in senile macular degenerations, night blindness and snow blindness. The lens is substantially transparent to wavelengths greater than 636 nm which are most useful for high visual acuity in bright sunlit environment.

Optical lenses with selective transmissivity functions

A reliable moisture-indicating capactive sensor is provided with wire electrodes at least one of which includes a coating of moisture-absorbing dielectric material by spirally twisting the wire electrodes about each other, thereby establishing a pair of electrodes in contact with opposite surfaces of a layer of dielectric material, and assuring consistent contact of each electrode with the dielectric material despite changes in environmental conditions.

Spiral configuration of electrodes and dielectric material for sensing

A differential pressure-actuated valve with a piston slidable to open or to close an inlet port. The piston slides in a cylindrical wall, and separates a bias chamber and a flow chamber. The piston is fitted with two oppositely-directed lip seals, one of which seals against bias chamber pressure, and the other of which scrapes particulate matter off of the wall. Optionally, an elongated filter extends from the piston into an inlet pipe where it filters water which flows to the bias chamber. The filter may have a perforated mesh wall, or a solid wall with an open end.

Differential pressure-actuated valve with clean bias chamber

A flushometer valve integrable with a structure to which it is mounted.

Flushometer valve integrable with a structure

A welding helmet with welder's glass includes one or more reducing auxiliary vision systems providing viewing of areas which would otherwise be blocked by opaque portions of the welding helmet.

Welding helmets with auxiliary optical vision systems

A solid electrolytic type hygrometer is described, which operates with high reliability while providing rapid and sensitive response. A gold foil electrode (16) is wrapped about a hollow glass cylinder (18), a sheet (12) of hygroscopic-electrolytic material is wrapped about the foil, and a wire (14) is wound around the outside of the electrolytic sheet. Moisture passing between wire turns can be absorbed by the electrolytic material (12), and then dissociated by current passed by the electrodes (14, 16) through the electrolytic material. The cylinder has a slit (20) extending along its length, to allow resilient expansion to press the sheet of electrolytic material firmly against the electrodes. The wire turns lie against one another to cause rapid dissociation of moisture throughout the electrolytic material. Additional guard wires (42,44, FIG. 2) lie at opposite ends of the electrolytic sheet, and currents pass through them to avoid moisture buildup at the ends of the main wire coil. The electrical current through the sheet or membrane is proportional to the partial pressure of the water-vapor.

Trace water sensor

YA flow proportioning control for proportioning flow from a water level sensing valve. A barrier is positioned downstream from the valve adjacent to a refill line. A restrictor ring is positioned on said barrier with a portion overlying the upper surface of the refill line. It is interchangeable so that by substituting rings of various sizes, various proportions of flow can be selected.

Float valve system flow proportioning device

A curtain for surrounding welding and cutting operations, especially electric arc welding and electric arc cutting operations to protect the eyes of otherwise unprotected observers such as supervisors, adjacent workers, and visitors to the welding operation. The curtain contains dyes for the purpose of absorbing radiation of wavelengths of potential hazard to such eyes. Because no dye can absorb all potentially harmful radiation and still provide some visibility, means is provided to improve the protection by means of reducing the exposure of the retina to undesirable intensities by optically enlarging the small arc spot, and by presenting the eye with general area illumination instead of pinpoint illumination.

Curtain for shrouding welding operations

A system is provided for forming small accurately-spherical objects. Preformed largely-spherical objects (18) are supported at the opening of a conduit (16) on the update of hot gas emitted from the opening, so the object is in a molten state. The conduit is suddenly jerked away at a downward incline, to allow the molten object to drop in free fall, so that surface tension forms a precise sphere. The conduit portion that has the opening, lies in a moderate-vacuum chamber 40, and the falling sphere passes through the chamber and through a briefly-opened valve (30) into a tall drop tower (32) that contains a lower pressure, to allow the sphere to cool without deformation caused by falling through air.

Sphere forming method and apparatus

A by-pass water softener system including a water softener made from a tube and two end caps, enclosing a charge of ion-exchange resin. A port passes through each end cap. One port is connectible to a hose which leads to a water distributor such as a hand-held shower head. The other port is connected to a diverter valve which selectively directs water from a water supply either to some other water distributor such as a wall-mounted shower head, or to a hose which leads to the other port of the water softener. A suspension device is provided to suspend the water softener, perhaps from the wall of a shower stall.

By-pass water softener system and installation

An extension for the fill port of a fuel tank. The fuel tank has a wall and a fill port. The extension comprises a tube having an axis, an innermost end, and an outermost end. The tube is axially movable in the fill port with its innermost end inside the fuel tank and its outermost end outside of the tank and adapted to be closed by a closure. A peripheral flexible diaphragm has an inner and outer periphery, the diaphragm being imperforated between its peripheries. The outer periphery is sealingly attached to the wall and the inner periphery is sealingly attached to the tube adjacent to its outermost end so that the diaphragm makes a fluid sealing barrier between the tank and the tube to prevent escape of fluid from the fill port except through the tube. The diaphragm is shaped so as to flex and thereby enable the tube to move axially from the retracted to an extended position relative to the fill port. Desirably a releasable latch is provided to hold the tube in its extended position and torsion means is provided to hold the latch engaged.

Fuel tank fill port extension

A method for extracting an underground mineral such as coal, which avoids the need for sending personnel underground and which enables the mining of steeply pitched seams of the mineral. The method includes the use of a narrow vehicle which moves underground along the mineral seam and which is connected by pipes or hoses to water pumps at the surface of the earth. The vehicle hydraulically drills pilot holes during its entrances into the seam, and then directs sideward jets at the seam during its withdrawal from each pilot hole to comminute the mineral surrounding the pilot hole and combine it with water into a slurry, so that the slurried mineral can flow down to a location where a pump raises the slurry to the surface. Droplets of liquid carbon dioxide or other suitable material may be added to the water prior to its exit from a jet nozzle on the vehicle, so that as the water pressure drops in movement through the nozzle the liquid carbon dioxide or other material explodes into a vapor to greatly increase the velocity of the water jet.

Underground mineral extraction

An improved cryostat for use in a low or a substantially gravity-free environment adapted to cool an experiment through the use of helium II, or helium in its super fluid state. The cryostat is characterized by a plurality of interchangeable daughter dewars and helium supply or mother dewar having connected therewith a low pressure venting system for converting helium I contained therein to a super fluid state for use as a primary cryogen. Each daughter dewar is adapted to be removably mounted in mated relation on the mother dewar and is characterized by a support for an experiment package, a source of helium to be employed as a secondary cryogen, and a heat pipe suspended therefrom and adapted to be extended into the mother dewar for facilitating cooling of the secondary cryogen whereby a transfer of heat from the package to the primary cryogen, via the secondary cryogen, is accommodated as a film flow of helium II progresses from the heat pipe to the experiment dewar.

Growing community of inventors

La Crescenta, CA, United States of America

James B Stephens