Teledyne Industries, Inc.

Dental Research, Inc.

Teledyne Water Pik

John M Trenary

David W Smith

Christopher W Elkins

Gerald T Swanson

Alan D Crawford

Allan B Johnson

Cleve A Graham

John E Petrovic

Victor F Zackay

Donald R Rowe

Donald W Ruehmann

Elmer Erwin

Roy Treadwell

William G Lloyd

Ronald R Kerr, Deceased

Joseph G Mammoser

A periodontal cleaning device including a hollow housing having a handle member and a brush head member. The brush head includes a gear train reciprocally driven by a rack. The gear train includes at least one drive gear engageable by the rack which in turn drives a plurality of series interconnected driven gears. The drive gear includes one portion engaged by the rack and another portion engaged by an adjacent driven gear. An axial width of a gear portion of the drive gear is greater than the axial width of gear portions of the driven gears so that in operation, the rack does not engage the driven gears. The drive and driven gears each include a tuft holder by which bristles are removably held.

Automatic cleaning device

A cleaning apparatus is provided for transmitting powered motion to an operating member having a removable head mechanism contained within a hollow housing. A motorized base, including a base drive shaft, is locked onto a head drive shaft of the removable head mechanism in response to axial movement of the base drive shaft into the housing. The head mechanism comprises a collet having outwardly radiating arms and inwardly extending feet at the lower end of the collet and a rack at the upper end. The rack engages rotatable gears containing tufts of filaments. The base drive shaft defines a shoulder and a tip at the upper end which is received into the collet. A sleeve, retained within the head mechanism by the inner dimensions of the hollow housing, receives the outwardly radiating arms and compresses them over the tip of the base causing the feet to engage the shoulder. Once locked onto the head mechanism, the axial movement of the base drive shaft causes rotation and counter-rotation of the gears and the tufts mounted within the gears. Unlocking of the shafts is accomplished by pulling the head mechanism away from the base. The rotational movement of the tufts is useful for cleaning surfaces such as teeth.

Removable head mechanism for automatic cleaning device

A showerhead has a series of orifices together with a series of spray outlets and a turbine with a valve for sequentially opening successive ones of the orifices. The turbine is driven by water emitted from a nozzle. A multiply-apertured flow director plate communicates water to the nozzle, the orifices and the outlets. Overlying the director plate is a control plate that selectively couples water to different ones of the apertures in the director plate as the latter is moved by a control ring. First, second and third passages are defined in the showerhead, the first between an aperture in the director plate to the nozzle and also through the valve to the orifices, the second from an aperture in the director plate to the outlets and the third from an aperture in the director plate in bypass of the nozzle but through the valve to the orifices in a manner to retard the speed of the turbine. A first set of shutters on the control plate serves to close the third passage, open the first passage and variably open the second passage during opening of the first passage as the control plate is moved. A second set of shutters also defined on the control plate close the first and second passages, while opening the third passage again as the control is moved. The different combinations include a mode in which a comparatively slow delivery of pulses is combined with the delivery of a spray.

Showerhead

Successively-delivered liquid pulses are led into an elongated hollowed handle of a size and shape to be grasped by the human hand. A nozzle, mounted to the handle, delivers those pulses against the teeth and gums of the user. Also mounted to the handle is a toothbrush for scrubbing the teeth and massaging the gums. Included within the handle are elements that cooperate to drive the toothbrush relative thereto.

Combination handle

Hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide are catalytically removed from air at room temperatures. Air containing H.sub.2 S and HCN in dilute concentrations is contacted with a dry, activated catalyst formed of palladium (II) and copper (II) salts such as chlorides, on an alumina substrate, at a temperature in the range of -20.degree. C. to 85.degree. C. The catalyst may also contain nickel (II) chloride.

Method for removing gaseous pollutants in highly dilute concentrations

An oral hygiene apparatus includes means for producing a succession of water pulses at a preselected pressure together with means for delivering those water pulses into a handle shaped to be grasped by the human hand. An elongated nozzle projects outwardly from the handle, manipulation of the handle permitting the water pulses, flowing through the nozzle from the handle, to be directed against the teeth and gums of the user. Included within the handle are means to define a flow path from the delivery means into the nozzle. A valve disposed within the handle is selectively operable to open or close that flow path during the delivery of the water pulses. Also disclosed is the inclusion of an accumulator within the handle for adsorbing the pressure load of incoming water pulses during closure of the valve.

On/off handle for oral hygiene apparatus

An electric toothbrush housing contains a motor, a battery and a secondary coil coupled to charge the battery. An elongated magnetic core is disposed within that secondary coil. A well is defined in a base which receives a portion of the housing within which the secondary coil is positioned. In that base is a primary coil for inducing magnetic energy into the secondary coil. Disposed within the primary coil is an elongated stud of magnetic material. It is aligned axially with the core, so that respective end portions are mutually adjacent. One of those end portions is generally cup shaped and the other is formed and relatively oriented to nest within the first.

Rechargeable electric portable appliance

A showering system includes a source of hot water and a showerhead fed from that source. To produce steam, there is a conduit that delivers water from the source to a showerhead and in which is defined an outlet. Disposed within the conduit is a selectively controlled diverter of the water arriving from the source, so as to direct it away from the showerhead and through the outlet in the form of a mist. The preferred showerhead is of a turbine-valve kind in which the turbine is driven by nozzles. Apertures in a flow director plate, governed by a control plate, feed nozzles predetermined to vary the force of water delivered from outlet orifices in correspondence with the number of the nozzles open to communicate with the inlet through the apertures.

Showering system

A filter for cigarettes or the like has an elongated tubular shell one interior end portion of which may be shaped to define a seat of a diameter to frictionally receive an end portion of a cigarette and longitudinally of that seat being shaped to define a tubular wall of predetermined cross-section and partially closed by a transverse wall in which is defined a central aperture. An air inlet extends through the outer wall of the shell. A filter element is of a porous material which is inhibitive to the passage of substances such as tar and nicotine. The element is in the form of an elongated hollow sleeve one end of which is closed and the other end of which is open. A laterally projecting shoulder is defined on the sleeve to have the aforementioned predetermined cross-section so as to seat frictionally within the tubular wall and against the transverse wall with a portion of the sleeve projecting through the aperture.

Smoking filters

A vacuum breaker, capable of preventing undesired reverse flow of water, includes a hermetically-sealable housing provided with inlet and outlet couplings at its respectively opposite ends. The housing defines a chamber within which is a first valve seat near the inlet coupling and a first valving member disposed in the path of flow between the couplings and cooperative with the first valve seat to block flow from outlet toward inlet. A second valve seat is disposed adjacent to the outlet opening and provides communication between the chamber and the housing exterior. A second valving member is in a position exclusive of the flow path between the inlet and outlet couplings through the first valve seat and serves to selectively block communication between the chamber and the exterior.

Vacuum breakers

A housing contains electrical components that constitute a battery-operated smoke detector and alarm. Forming a part of the housing is a transverse wall that includes at least one opening. Adjacent to that one opening in one surface of the wall are a first succession of semi-cylindrical cavities each diametrically sized to seat a cylindrical battery. A support web is suspended from the wall in a position spaced from and opposite the opening with the wall-facing surface of that web including a second succession of semi-cylindrical cavities each diametrically sized to seat the battery and aligned with the respective cavity formed on the wall so as to captivate a battery therebetween. A cover member is matable with the wall so as to overlie the compartment in which the batteries reside. A lug depends from the cover for locking reception with an aperture formed in the transverse wall. An ear depends from the cover in a position to press against the battery when the cover is installed. Desirably, there are a space-opposed pair of such apertures, lugs and ears, together with a slot positioned in the wall in relationship to the battery opening so as to receive either of the ears when the lugs are engaged in the apertures. The wall also has an inwardly struck wall portion and inwardly projecting posts that serve to mount an electrical-component-mounting substrate.

Housing for battery-operated device

A spray nozzle is of a kind including a housing that has a fluid inlet and first and second groups of spray discharge outlets. First and second flow paths are defined in the housing from the inlet to the first and second groups of outlets. Pulsation means in the first flow path cyclically interrupts the flow of fluid from the inlet to the first group of outlets so as to cause a pulsating spray to be discharged therefrom. The second flow path bypasses the pulsation means to cause a continuous non-pulsating spray to be discharged from the second group of outlets. Included are control means for adjustably dividing flow from the inlet between the first and second flow paths. New features include a special resilient seal that serves in part to define the second group of orifices, formation of the control means into a flow-directive plate cooperative with a shutter assembly together with a captivation arrangement for a seal effective between the two, specific stopping arrangements cooperative between the flow-directing plate and the shutter assembly, formation of a portion of the housing into a general tubular body that contains the pulsation means and in which portions of the flow paths are contained together with various arrangements of the same for obtaining adequate sealing between the different components, as well as additional retainer-type sealing arrangements coooperative within the overall structure.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

John M Trenary