Did You Know...
...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 |
| 6040878 | Apparatus, methods and material for absorbing magnetic radiation Hook- and loop-type tapes are selectively attached to a video display unit and to flexible elongated strips of magnetic material so that the strips of magnetic material may be removably mounted around the video display unit in orthogonally intersecting pl... | 03/21/2000 |
| 5640779 | Apparatus, system and method for forming custom-made shoe inserts A foot impression unit is provided with an array of gauging elements, a control mechanism for urging the gauging elements into contact with the undersurface of a person's foot to form an impression of the undersurface of the foot, a locking mechanism for ... | 06/24/1997 |
| 5400088 | Apparatus, methods and material for absorbing magnetic radiation Hook- and-loop-type tapes are selectively attached to a video display unit and to flexible elongated strips of magnetic material so that the strips of magnetic material may be removably mounted around the video display unit in orthogonally intersecting pl... | 03/21/1995 |
| 5379538 | Dual-function label An adhesive backed label is perforated or scored along its mid-line. The same label either can be used as a standard adhesive label or it can be folded along its midline to capture the ends of a string and can be used as a tag label.... | 01/10/1995 |
| 5185034 | Ink-jet inks with improved colors and plain paper capacity A specific dye set, comprising Acid Yellow 23, Direct Red 227, and Acid Blue 9, yields true, vivid colors on specially coated paper and transparency, and yields true colors on uncoated or "plain" papers. This dye set, which is intended for 300 dpi thermal... | 02/09/1993 |
| 5028848 | Tile vector to raster conversion method A technique for rasterizing a line having a predetermined width and slope, including the step of providing stored data associated with predetermined slopes and widths of lines, such data including information indicative of raster data for portions of line... | 07/02/1991 |
| 4978979 | Wheel supported carriage for a scanning plotter A carriage for a scanning ink jet plotter has at least two roller supports which ride on the platen or on the drafting surface to maintain a constant spacing between an ink jet mounted on the carriage and the drafting surface to improve resolution of the ... | 12/18/1990 |
| 4977361 | X-Y addressable workpiece positioner and mask aligner using same In an X-Y addressable workpiece positioner the workpiece to be positioned, such as a semiconductive wafer to be aligned with a mask image, is coupled to move with a work stage moveable in X and Y direction and having a two-dimensional array of positioning... | 12/11/1990 |
| 4967208 | Offset nozzle droplet formation A device, particularly useful for thermal ink-jet printheads, for improving the repeatability of droplet volume is disclosed. Offsetting a nozzle from its corresponding ink heating element perpendicularly to the flow if ink across the element has been fou... | 10/30/1990 |
| 4940413 | Electrical make/break interconnect having high trace density A pressure make/break interconnect for two sets of coplanar, parallel traces (30 and 46) includes contact pads (50 and 52) on the ends of the one or both sets of traces (30 and 46), the pads (50 and 52) being wider than the spaces between the traces (30 a... | 07/10/1990 |
| 4926197 | Plastic substrate for thermal ink jet printer A substrate for the print head of an ink jet printer includes a plastic base, a metallization layer overlying the plastic base, and a dielectric structure overlying the metallization layer. A thin film resistor is deposited over the substrate, as required... | 05/15/1990 |
| 4922268 | Piezoelectric detector for drop position determination in multi-pen thermal ink jet pen printing systems Apparatus for determining inter-pen offsets in a multiple pen ink jet printer including a piezoelectric ink drop detector having a piezoelectric detector film having one or more openings formed therein. A carriage position sensor indicates the position of... | 05/01/1990 |
| 4922270 | Inter pen offset determination and compensation in multi-pen thermal ink jet pen printing systems Apparatus for determining inter-pen offsets in a multiple pen ink jet printer including a drop detector for measuring flight time of ink drops, an aperture plate disposed in the print media plane, and a carriage position sensor for determining carriage po... | 05/01/1990 |
| 4920357 | Unattended replacement of plotter pens A computer driven plotter pen includes a turret from which a any one of plurality of different types of pens may be selected. When the plotter determines that a pen has become spent, the spent pen is automatically removed by a pen transfer carriage from t... | 04/24/1990 |
| 4917286 | Bonding method for bumpless beam lead tape A tape automated bonding method and structure is disclosed. Interconnection using prepatterned metal beam tape interconnect is accomplished by providing vias in passivation layers overlaying a metal region in or on the major surface of the device which is... | 04/17/1990 |
| 4916638 | Media advance system for swath printers A media advance system for swath-type printers for precisely positioning the media for successive swath printing. A dual photodiode line sensor is mounted on the print head. The diode active areas are separated by less than the line widths of lines printe... | 04/10/1990 |
| 4910528 | Ink jet printer thermal control system The temperature of the ejector (12) of a thermal ink jet print head (10) is maintained within acceptable operating limits by measuring the current temperature, predicting the heat loading on a subsequent pass over a printing medium (32), and adjusting the... | 03/20/1990 |
| 4885932 | Determination of cleanliness level of foam reservoir The cleanliness in foams used as ink reservoirs and ink delivery systems in ink-jet printing is determined by at least one of two methods. In the first method, the amount of non-volatile residues is measured. An amount of NVRs of less than about 0.2 wt/wt... | 12/12/1989 |
| 4887011 | Computer monitor vertical sweep generator having frequency independent height control and "S" waveform correction A signal generator which generates an amplified yoke signal for application to a vertical yoke of a cathode ray tube monitor is presented. The signal generator includes a linear ramp generator and a correction generator. The linear ramp generator has an o... | 12/12/1989 |
| 4885595 | Multicomponent refillable toner delivery system A liquid delivery system for delivering inks of three or more different colors or densities or dye-forming reactive components comprising multiple liquid reservoirs, liquid bladders, and valves that permit (a) total interruption of liquid flow, (b) liquid... | 12/05/1989 |
| 4876758 | System and method for forming custom-made shoe inserts A foot impression unit is provided with an array of gauging elements, a control mechanism for urging the gauging elements into contact with the undersurface of a person's foot to form an impression of the undersurface of the foot, a locking mechanism for ... | 10/31/1989 |
| 4717263 | Gas bearing Statically pressurized gas bearings employ improved bearing pockets, each including one or more slots arranged in a double cross, star or other configuration, and supplemental gas exhaust slots, as well as stepped annular land flow restrictors, to optimiz... | 01/05/1988 |
| 4687980 | X-Y addressable workpiece positioner and mask aligner using same In an X-Y addressable workpiece positioner the workpiece to be positioned, such as a semiconductive wafer to be aligned with a mask image, is coupled to move with a work stage moveable in X and Y direction and having a two-dimensional array of positioning... | 08/18/1987 |
| 4617604 | Method for driving a relay A method which prolongs the lifetime of relays and to prevents degraded performance of relays due to oxidized film on relay contacts is presented. The method essentially comprises the alternation of relay switch operation in dry switching mode with operat... | 10/14/1986 |
| 4615621 | Auto-focus alignment and measurement system and method An auto-focusing alignment and measurement system for use in precisely positioning a semiconductor substrate with respect to an integrated circuit mask is herein disclosed. This system includes a moveable convergent lens operable with another pair of conv... | 10/07/1986 |
| 4611307 | Function analyzing A programmable electronic calculator is provided for numerical evaluation of mathematical problems through application of one or more mathematical operators to each input numerical operand of a mathematical problem according to accepted rules of mathemati... | 09/09/1986 |
| 4604562 | Feedback-controlled workpiece positioning system X-Y position measurement apparatus is employed with feedback controlled X-Y positioning apparatus for positioning a workpiece stage at a desired X-Y coordinate position in response to signals indicative of the actual position and the desired position of t... | 08/05/1986 |
| 4598199 | Safety device for controlling a light signal generator based on fiber position A safety device for a light signal generator only activates a laser beam emerging from an optical fiber connector when an optical fiber is connected. By inserting a plug of the optical fiber into the connector of the light signal generator a photodetectin... | 07/01/1986 |
| 4597664 | Step-and-repeat projection alignment and exposure system with auxiliary optical unit A step-and-repeat alignment and exposure system is provided with an adjustable holder for holding a main reticle, a main optical unit including a projection lens for producing an image of the main reticle at an image plane, a stage movable along coordinat... | 07/01/1986 |
| 4587630 | Intelligent programmable touchscreen system A computing system for detecting movement of a user's touch on a touchscreen and to operate an intelligent programmable device is provided. The system includes a touchscreen for detecting information of an initial touch by a user on a display surface, a c... | 05/06/1986 |
| 4580900 | Auto focus alignment and measurement system and method An auto-focusing alignment and measurement system for use in precisely positioning a semiconductor substrate with respect to an integrated circuit mask is herein disclosed. This system includes a moveable convergent lens operable with another pair of conv... | 04/08/1986 |
| 4577958 | Bore-sighted step-and-repeat projection alignment and exposure system A projection lens and a source of exposure light are employed for projecting an image of a reticle onto a first reference mark or a semiconductive wafer, both of which are movably supported in the image plane of the projection lens. Optical apparatus, inc... | 03/25/1986 |
| 4577957 | Bore-sighted step-and-repeat projection alignment and exposure system A projection lens and a source of illumination and exposure light are employed for projecting an image of a reticle onto a first reference mark or a semiconductive wafer, both of which are movably supported in the image plane of the projection lens. Optic... | 03/25/1986 |
| 4573791 | Step-and-repeat projection alignment and exposure system An alignment and exposure system is provided with a main stage movable along orthogonal axes to position either a reference mark, aligned with one of those axes, or a semiconductive wafer directly beneath a projection lens. Another stage is disposed above... | 03/04/1986 |
| 4540278 | Optical focusing system An optical focusing system is provided for accurately focusing a wafer surface, thereby enabling the production of sharp microcircuit images. Accurate focusing is achieved despite non-parallel and non-flat wafer surfaces, despite differences in reflectivi... | 09/10/1985 |
| 4517696 | System and method for forming custom-made shoe inserts An automatic system for forming custon-made shoe inserts for a person's feet from a pair of blanks is provided with a foot impression mechanism including a pair of pin arrays for simultaneously forming an impression of the contour of the undersurface of e... | 05/21/1985 |
| 4510636 | System and method for forming custom-made shoe inserts An automatic system for forming custom-made shoe inserts for a person's feet from a pair of blanks is provided with a foot impression mechanism for simultaneously forming an impression of the contour of the undersurface of each of the person's feet and fo... | 04/16/1985 |
| 4496194 | Gas bearing A gas bearing is provided which has a spherically contoured pocket with a gas supply passage which opens in the center of the pocket. The gas bearing is coupled to the load and is supported by a stem and a ball joint through which the gas is supplied to t... | 01/29/1985 |
| 4473293 | Step-and-repeat projection alignment and exposure system An alignment and exposure system is provided with a main stage movable along orthogonal axes to position either a reference mark, aligned with one of those axes, or a semiconductive wafer directly beneath a projection lens. Another stage is disposed above... | 09/25/1984 |
| 4456950 | Current spike protection circuit for switch-mode power supplies A circuit which prevents the flow of excess spikes of magnetization current in the primary windings of a transformer used in a switch mode power supply is disclosed. The circuit comprises an AC coupled, peak detecting, negative feedback path from a curren... | 06/26/1984 |
