Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5439655 | Apparatus for washing and sterilizing rubber plugs or the like which may be used in pharmaceutical containers Apparatus for washing, rinsing, sterilizing and drying delicate components such as plugs for pharmaceutical use, or the like, formed by an autoclave chamber containing a substantially cylindrical rotating drum or basket with two helical members extending ... | 08/08/1995 |
| 5418417 | Piezoelectric motor A piezoelectric motor. Such motor includes a support (2), a stator (S2, S3) fixed to the support (2), piezoelectric means (10) adapted to be electrically excited so as to induce a vibratory motion in the stator (S2, S3), a rotor (R2, R3) mounted for rotat... | 05/23/1995 |
| 5400477 | Closing and clamping lever for a ski boot The closing and clamping lever for a ski boot comprises a substantially perimetral structural casing (10a,12a,13a) which is provided on at least the sides of the body (10b,12b,13b) of its components, which is made of plastic. A couple of transverse portio... | 03/28/1995 |
| 5393517 | Sunscreening compositions containing 1,3,5-triazine derivatives Derivatives of 2,4,6-tris-[(p-carboxy)-anilino]-5-triazine are described, which can be used as light stabilizers for synthetic polymers and for the preparation of cosmetic and dermatological compositions.... | 02/28/1995 |
| 5388036 | Adjustment system for a motor vehicle headlight reflector A reflector (3) of a motor vehicle headlight is coupled with a housing (1) by an adjustment device (4) with which it is pivoted about an axis (10). The adjustment device substantially comprises an adjusting pin (12) rotatably mounted in an opening in the ... | 02/07/1995 |
| 5384755 | Timepiece of the mechanical or electromechanical type including a drive wheel controlling at least one display system such as a date display The invention concerns a timepiece. Such timepiece comprises: a horometric movement (1) including a motor pinion or intermediate wheel (2), a crown wheel with interior teeth (6) associated with a first display system, such as a date display, and a jumper ... | 01/24/1995 |
| 5383801 | Hollow jet thruster device A device for producing thrust from a flow of accelerated fluid, including: a fluid accelerator (1) fitted with drive vanes (5) and rotated inside a stator (10) about an axis of revolution; a circularly symmetrical stationary web portion (7) centered on th... | 01/24/1995 |
| 5382924 | Continuous phase frequency shift keying modulator A modulator is adapted for use in a transmitter of an information transmission signal in which the information is in the form of a frequency shift keyed code. The signal is centered on a fictional carrier frequency fc, on either side of which are emitted ... | 01/17/1995 |
| 5382588 | Methyl piperidine derivatives of cinnamic acids, benzoic acids, benzoazols and benzophenones useful as skin anti-aging compounds Free radical deactivating 4- or 1,4-substituted, 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl piperidines are condensed with UV absorbing cinnamic acids or benzoic acids or benzoazols or benzophenones to produce skin anti-aging compounds and compositions which have both free radi... | 01/17/1995 |
| 5380112 | Assembly for concentrically positioning a casing relative to a shaft An arrangement for concentrically positioning a first part relative to a second part, for example, a casing, or sleeve, (2) relative to a shaft (1), when the parts are made from materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion, provides a radial... | 01/10/1995 |
| 5375755 | Toe space stapler An adapter for a stapler is formed in the shape of a saddle which straddles the neck portion of the stapler. A drive bar is affixed to the upper surface of the saddle and is angled so that when the nose portion of the stapler is inserted into a vertically... | 12/27/1994 |
| 5374920 | Directional and warning blink apparatus for a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle A directional and warning blink apparatus for a vehicle, particularly for a motor vehicle, comprises a directional warning blink sender (1) including a relay (12) with a driving circuit (5) therefor, a timing generator (4) and a control and logic circuit ... | 12/20/1994 |
| 5370635 | Device for delivering a medicament A device for delivering a medicament has a membrane (7) with at least one permeable area (7b) permeable to the medicament and a reservoir space (25) which contains a solvent and the medicament at least partially dissolved therein, An adjustable and/or def... | 12/06/1994 |
| 5370316 | Spray head assembly A spring-biased actuator lever arm (44) of a spray head assembly (10) has an actuator shaft (42) which extends into a sealed spray-head compartment (20) for sliding a cam (70) to move a cam follower (72) and thereby open a poppet valve (76) positioned ins... | 12/06/1994 |
| 5369872 | Process for the adjustment of various components of a relay A process for the adjustment of various components of a relay involves use of measuring devices which monitor the respective components as they are slid, or shoved, into mounting positions and, in response to the components achieving correct, or desired, ... | 12/06/1994 |
| 5369131 | Oral, cutaneous and intravaginal pharmaceutical compositions in the form of foam A liquid pharmaceutical composition which can be administered as a foam by means of suitable supplying devices, without necessity of gas propeller, said composition consisting of: a) one or more natural or synthetic ionic or non ionic, acid, basic or neut... | 11/29/1994 |
| 5367996 | Microprocessor-based diesel engine cold start controller A cold start control apparatus for diesel engines includes a cold start switch, engine temperature and speed sensors and a transistor all connected to a programmable controller. The transistor is connected in a series circuit with a cold start relay and t... | 11/29/1994 |
| 5363350 | Watch case with hollowed-out caseband A watch case is made of gold with a caseband-bezel (11) hollowed-out in order to diminish the weight of gold as much as possible. To avoid dents in the caseband-bezel the hollow (26) is filled with metal, for example brass, which also serves as a casing r... | 11/08/1994 |
| 5363238 | Diffraction grating The present invention discloses diffraction gratings which do not generate any thermal strain and can perform extremely high-precision and high-efficiency diffraction nearly free from scattered beams. The diffraction gratings are built by allowing the che... | 11/08/1994 |
| 5362481 | Benzofuran derivatives and the use thereof as stabilizers against UV radiations Compounds of the general formula I ##STR1## wherein R--R4 are as defined in the description, have stabilizing activity against UV radiation and are useful in cosmetics and dermatology.... | 11/08/1994 |
| 5362324 | Zero slump - loss superplasticizer A superplasticizing additive for concrete and other cementitious mixes with high retention of workability (low "slump loss") and low air-entraining effect, is made by terpolymers of a) (meth)acrylic acid and its salts, b)polyethyleneglycolmonomethylether-... | 11/08/1994 |
| 5360954 | Push button switch A push button switch, particularly a master switch, has housing-affixed contacts (4, 5) and a contact bridge (8) for bridging the contacts, with the bridge being moved by a spring plunger (10). A spring-switching mechanism (24, 25, 26) is operatively coup... | 11/01/1994 |
| 5358154 | One-hand-operable container closure A closure includes a capping part (1), which is attachable to a container, in which a form-stable floor wall (9) has a sealing apparatus (11) with a sealing cone (13) is held to the rest of the capping part by means of a flexible wall area so that the sea... | 10/25/1994 |
| 5357489 | Timepiece provided with driving means formed by a piezo-electric motor A timepiece comprising a display (2) such as a data display and a driving motor (M1, M2) for driving the display is characterized in that the driving motor comprises a piezo-electric motor directly engaging the display.... | 10/18/1994 |
| 5355571 | Method for opening a watch case and apparatus for practicing such method In order to open the watch case (1) by extraction of the crystal (2) such case is secured in an enclosure (3) after its stem and crown have been removed. Next, a suction cup (4) is applied to the crystal, such suction cup being maneuverable from outside t... | 10/18/1994 |
| 5353825 | Radial crutch tip assembly A crutch tip assembly (12) comprises a crutch tip base (14) with a laterally protruding lip (28) adjacent a base bottom surface (26) and a resilient boot (16) having the shape of a rocker. The boot defines a mounting cavity (36) for snugly receiving the b... | 10/11/1994 |
| 5352999 | Electromagnetic relay and method of adjusting same An electromagnetic relay having an uncomplicated and cost-effective construction includes a switching contact spring (5) that is adjustable in a particularly uncomplicated manner for controlling actuation sensitivity. In this manner, in particular, actuat... | 10/04/1994 |
| 5350590 | Protein fat replacer and method of manufacture thereof A water-dispersible, gravitational and heat-stable fat replacer composition for foods, which comprises co-formed agglomerates of at least partially denatured whey protein and desolubilized casein, where the mean size of the agglomerate is about 1 to 20 mi... | 09/27/1994 |
| 5349924 | Animal kennel An animal kennel (10) comprises a removable partition (16) which is inserted into a housing (12) through a partition slot (52) in a rear housing sidewall (22). The removable partition is guided by partition tracks (58, 60) extending between the rear housi... | 09/27/1994 |
| 5349628 | X-ray photographic equipment An X-ray photographic holder adapted to use a cassette includes a carriage having the cassette placed thereon, which is reciprocally movable between a cassette loading position and a radiographic position. On the carriage a pair of grippers are provided m... | 09/20/1994 |
| 5349191 | Gamma ray detector for three-dimensional position encoding An apparatus and method are provided for determining the X, Y and Z positions of a point of gamma ray induced light emission in a pattern of a plurality of scintillating light guides. A plurality of spatially separated, scintillating, crystal, light guide... | 09/20/1994 |
| 5348394 | Method and apparatus for measuring fluid thermal conductivity A heating sensor is disposed within a pipe with a clearance between an inner wall of the pipe and an outer surface of the heating sensor such that a measurement of thermal conductivity is free from any influence of a convective heat transfer. Temperatures... | 09/20/1994 |
| 5348099 | Indoor fire hydrant apparatus An indoor fire hydrant apparatus includes a fire hose having electrical conductors extending along its length and connected to a switch mounted near the nozzle end of the hose. Closure of the switch causes energization of a solenoid-actuated valve which i... | 09/20/1994 |
| 5346691 | S-triazine derivatives as light stabilizers S-triazine derivatives of formula (I): ##STR1## a process for the preparation thereof and the use thereof as light stabilisers.... | 09/13/1994 |
| 5343318 | Liquid crystal cell having an alignment layer with a temperature dependent tilt angle The liquid crystal cell with an alignment layer in the form of a soluble halogenated polymer of the ethylenic substituted ethylenic cycloaliphatic or heterocycloaliphatic type which induces homeotropic or planar alignment of the crystal molecules in conta... | 08/30/1994 |
| 5340009 | Packing An annular packing (30) has a cross-section in the form of a dumbbell including two enlargements (31, 32) connected by a neck (33). In a preferred embodiment the enlargements exhibit a polygonal cross-section. The packing advantageously replaces an O-ring... | 08/23/1994 |
| 5340007 | Motor vehicle roof-rack The roof-rack device for a motor vehicle roof comprises at least two longitudinal elements coupled to the vehicle roof via respective pairs of end legs, with each longitudinal element being made up of at least three portions, namely: two end portions each... | 08/23/1994 |
| 5339920 | Foldable fire-escape ladder The following invention relates to a fold out fire escape ladder. The ladder comprises at least two parallelly arranged strings (1, 2), which are interconnected by means of a plurality of pivotally arranged parallel rungs (3). The holes for the pivoting p... | 08/23/1994 |
| 5337624 | Powershift transmission with overlapping ranges of ratios A powershift transmission having input, center and output clutch sections, each section including a plurality of clutches, is arranged to have a high and a low range of input/output speed ratios with some of the lower ratios of the high range being substa... | 08/16/1994 |
| 5336678 | Use of minoxidil for treating erectile impotence A method of treatment of human erectile impotency by topical administration to the penis of a topical composition containing 0.1 to 10% minoxidil.... | 08/09/1994 |
