...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| D518616 | Conveyor rubber based pulley lagging with staggered embedded ceramic segments | 04/04/2006 |
| 6971610 | Railway diamond wedge crossing with reversible beam castings A railway crossing has a plate with a pocket that defines a crossing angle for enabling one railway line to cross over another at virtually any angle. The pocket closely receives continuous long beams and divided beams. The pocket also has protrusions for restrictin... | 12/06/2005 |
| 6949025 | Downhole motor universal joint assembly A downhole motor universal joint assembly includes a female coupler which receives a male end of a drive shaft. The female coupler has a retainer that prevents separation of the male end and the female coupler. The retainer has a rearward extending skirt with flow p... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6948460 | Crankshaft with variable stroke A drive apparatus, particularly for an internal combustion engine, allows the compression ratio to be changed while operating. A piston is slidably carried in a cylinder. The piston rod engages a power gear via an eccentric link. The power gear rotates around a rim ... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6931933 | Pressure sensing apparatus A pressure sensing unit has a pressure responsive member, a pressure sensor, and a hydraulic connector hydraulically connecting the pressure responsive member with the pressure sensor to produce an indication of sensed pressure. The hydraulic connector includes a tu... | 08/23/2005 |
| 6926656 | Method and apparatus for fabricating corrugated composite stiffeners An apparatus and method for fabricating corrugated composite stiffeners provides a base tool having grooves formed in an outer surface and a roller having a rotating shaft and a removable, lobed, elastomeric member surrounding the shaft. The lobes of the elastomeric... | 08/09/2005 |
| D507624 | Jig head for fishing lure | 07/19/2005 |
| 6917496 | Spacer ring for disk drive spindle with load/unload feature, latch feature, and tribological overcoat A hard disk drive utilizes a spacer ring at its inner diameter to load and unload the read/write heads. During relatively small shock events, the actuator is retained relative to the disk through a circumferential groove in the spacer ring. A complementary protrusio... | 07/12/2005 |
| 6910618 | Method for preparing pipe for butt welding A steel pipe is welded to a threaded connector that has an end with a desired nominal inner diameter. A swage is forced over an end of the pipe, reducing an outer diameter and an initial inner diameter of the end of the pipe. A die is then forced into the end of the... | 06/28/2005 |
| D506121 | Trailer tongue lock | 06/14/2005 |
| 6901735 | Modular fuel conditioning system A fuel conditioning system for a turbine plant may include an inlet fuel module followed by a turbine fuel module for each turbine, the modules being monitored and controlled by a programmable logic controller. The inlet fuel module may include a metering station, a... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6902199 | ROV activated subsea connector A subsea connector is remotely actuated to connect a subsea flowline to a subsea connector hub. The connector has a frame with a tubular mandrel located within it. The mandrel connects to the flowline and has a forward end that engages the connector end. The mandrel... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6900957 | Lubricant depletion detection in a self-healing disk drive A method and apparatus for detecting lubricant depletion in a disk drive is provided. Disk operation performance parameters are monitored for each of a plurality of zones on the surface of the disk and stored. Examples of performance parameters include dwell time, f... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6899517 | Attachment of bearing elements by deformation A method of installing an annular bearing element within a centrifugal pump utilizes a mechanical staking operation. The bearing element locates within a receptacle of a pump stage that is surrounded by a retaining wall. Once the bearing element is located within th... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6899049 | Apparatus and method of constructing offshore platforms A deep-water floating offshore platform includes a buoyant hull having a substantially flat top, and substantially flat bottom, and a plurality of substantially flat sides. The hull further includes a tendon access shaft and a plurality of riser guide sleeves. The t... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6899750 | Method and apparatus for cleaning a gas A system and method of cleaning a gas of undesired particulate, aromas, and gases is disclosed. The invention uses a centrifugal scrubbing space to liquid wet a gas and includes a container for containing a liquid with a pump to circulate the liquid. The gas is pump... | 05/31/2005 |
| 6896076 | Rotating drilling head gripper A rotating drilling head seals around drill pipe while drilling. The drilling head has an outer housing that mounts to the rig floor. An inner housing is rotatably mounted in the outer housing. An annular bladder is mounted in the inner housing. An annular elastomer... | 05/24/2005 |
| 6893207 | Impeller for gassy well fluid A centrifugal pump pumps well fluid with a high gaseous content by utilizing an impeller design for use in gaseous liquids. The impeller has high discharge angles and large balance holes. The impeller has short and long vanes alternating with each other. The shorter... | 05/17/2005 |
| 6894953 | Circuit for measuring time of arrival of an asynchronous event A timing circuit for measuring time of arrival of an asynchronous event is disclosed. The timing circuit includes a counter, a register, a gray code-to-binary converter, and a cascade circuit. In response to a time of arrival of a trigger signal that denotes an occu... | 05/17/2005 |
| 6887029 | Electrically powered load cart A three-wheeled, electrically powered cart is provided for transporting items typically transported using a hand truck. The cart comprises a body section housing rechargeable batteries and a steerable load section that is hinged to the body section. An electric moto... | 05/03/2005 |
| 6885118 | Balance clip for reducing friction during clip adjustment in spindle motor and hard disk drive balance process A balance clip in a hard disk drive spindle motor facilitates improved disk pack balance correction. The balance clip has one end that is offset from the semi-circular shape of the body of the balance clip. The offset end is located opposite the precise bent tab tha... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6883604 | Shaft locking couplings for submersible pump assemblies An electrical submersible pump assembly has first and second modular component sections, each of the sections having an outer housing and an inner shaft member. A coupling sleeve having a bore is disposed between the modular component sections and receives the shaft... | 04/26/2005 |
| 6883368 | Method and apparatus for characterizing the microwaviness of a disk surface The microwaviness (i.e., surface waviness for wavelengths on the order of the length of the transducing head) of a recording disk surface is measured during manufacture as a quality control process. Preferably, the disk is measured using an actuator-mounted thermal ... | 04/26/2005 |
| D504135 | Cement mixer assembly | 04/19/2005 |
| 6879465 | Integrated lead suspension and method of construction An integrated lead suspension includes a solder ball that is placed between a lead wiring pad provided on a flexure of the suspension, and a bonding pad provided on a slider of a head gimbal section. The lead wiring pad and bonding pad are soldered by melting the so... | 04/12/2005 |
| 6874543 | Woven preform for structural joints A preform for structural joints has a three-dimensional weave architecture with fill fibers woven to provide layer-to-layer interlocking of layers of warp fiber as well as interlocking of fibers within each layer. At least two legs extend from a base, the base and l... | 04/05/2005 |
| 6874219 | System, method, and apparatus for preventing rotation of a disk clamp while being assembled to the hub of a spindle motor in a hard disk drive and fastener centering features A disk clamp for securing disks to the hub of a spindle motor in a disk drive has symmetrically spaced apart countersunk apertures in the top surface of the disk clamp. The apertures enable the disk clamp to maintain a proper orientation before the fasteners are att... | 04/05/2005 |
| 6871708 | Cuttings injection and annulus remediation systems for wellheads A wellhead assembly has an inner wellhead that lands in an outer wellhead, the inner wellhead having first and second internal passages. Each passage has an upper opening at the outer surface of the inner housing and a lower opening at the inner surface. An external... | 03/29/2005 |
| 6868912 | Tension thrust ESPCP system A submersible pump assembly has a pump section, a seal section and a motor section. Within each section are shafts. The adjacent shaft sections are matingly engaged with one another, and are connected by fasteners. The fasteners consist of a key and a screw that fit... | 03/22/2005 |
| 6869251 | Marine buoy for offshore support A marine buoy for the offshore support of subsea production and drilling activities that has a closed-bottomed base section with a solid ballast and variable ballast chambers, a chamber in the base section for storing equipment and supplies, and an upper section wit... | 03/22/2005 |
| 6863767 | Paste-bond clevis joint A method is provided for using a three-dimensional, Pi-shaped, woven preform to assemble first and second composite components. The preform is infused with resin, and at least one surface of the preform is adhered to at least one surface of the first component using... | 03/08/2005 |
| 6860525 | Breech lock connector for a subsea riser A riser assembly includes riser segments, each having threaded ends. A coupling nut is connected to the threaded end of the first riser segment. The threads of a second riser segment and a set of corresponding threads of the coupling nut are breech threads, which al... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6856575 | Monitoring a microseismic event A method of monitoring a microseismic event includes detecting the event to produce a first signal dependent on the event. The first signal includes noise at a frequency of, for example 50 Hz. A first sample of the first signal is taken. Then a second sample of the ... | 02/15/2005 |
| 6854517 | Electric submersible pump with specialized geometry for pumping viscous crude oil A centrifugal pump has impellers for pumping low flow, high viscous materials. The impellers have high exit angles greater than 30 degrees and preferably greater than 50 degrees. The impellers and diffusers have specific geometry that varies with viscosity. The pump... | 02/15/2005 |
| 6848167 | Apparatus and method for separating head gimbal assembly from bonding jig A head gimbal assembly, which is a component of a hard disk drive, has a bending portion that has elasticity and is bent at a predetermined angle under an unloaded condition, and a slider is bonded to a holding portion thereof by mounting the head gimbal assembly on... | 02/01/2005 |
| 6849150 | System and method of forming structural assemblies with 3-D woven joint pre-forms A system and method for forming structural assemblies with 3-D woven joint pre-forms. The method of the present invention forms complex structural assemblies with pre-formed structures. Adhesive is applied between the preformed structures and uncured 3-D woven texti... | 02/01/2005 |
| 6849323 | Waffle stiffener and method of construction A composite panel waffle stiffener has fabric plies pre-cut to a selected pattern and laid on a tool having a waffle configuration. The plies overlap each other to maintain continuity of the structure. The resulting waffle stiffener is then bonded to a panel requiri... | 02/01/2005 |
| D501229 | Display stand | 01/25/2005 |
| 6847868 | Apparatus for cleaning lines on a playing surface and associated methods An apparatus and method for clearing a playing surface are provided. The apparatus preferably includes a chassis or frame, a sensor connected to the chassis to sense a location of a line on a playing surface that needs to be cleaned, and a drive connected to the cha... | 01/25/2005 |
| D500771 | Control arm for cement mixer | 01/11/2005 |