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 |
| 7543936 | Hybrid contact lens system and method of fitting A hybrid contact lens comprises a substantially rigid zone having a base curve and a substantially flexible hydrophilic portion coupled to the substantially rigid zone, wherein the substantially flexible portion has one of a plurality of radii. ... | 06/09/2009 |
| 6792669 | Method for allocating disk drive spindle motors based on an operating characteristic A population of disk drives includes a first disk drive configuration that has a spindle motor made according to the spindle motor design and a second disk drive configuration that has a spindle motor made according to the spindle motor design. A population of spind... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6449686 | Method and apparatus for determining removable magnetic media types in a computer after detection of a read error condition This invention relates to a system and method for determining the media type of a removable magnetic media, such as a floppy diskette or tape. The system performs an analysis of the media type of the removable magnetic media only after a data error is ret... | 09/10/2002 |
| 5956767 | Infant cover-up An infant cover-up garment having a generally oval shape with an elastic perimeter defining an open back, an adjustable front closure with an aperture for the face of an infant, and a plurality of elastic fastener loops secured to and distributed about th... | 09/28/1999 |
| 5893867 | Stent positioning apparatus and method A stent positioning apparatus and method are provided for the attachment of a stent to a balloon to be used in the treatment of stenosis, such as coronary angioplasty. In one preferred embodiment, a first generally cylindrical member has a radially deform... | 04/13/1999 |
| 5833122 | Dispensing machine A dispensing machine for dispensing items of hot food comprises a freezer compartment for storing items to be dispensed, a heating compartment, a dispensing location, and a transport mechanism for conveying items form the freezer compartment, via the heat... | 11/10/1998 |
| 5686947 | Ink jet printer incorporating high volume ink reservoirs An ink jet printer having an inking system that includes an ink jet cartridge, a large ink reservoir mounted inside the housing of the ink jet printer at a location which is remote from the ink jet cartridge and tubing connecting the ink reservoir to the ... | 11/11/1997 |
| 5679459 | Perfluorinated amphiphilic phosphorous compounds: liposomal compositions Perfluoroalkylated amphiphilic phosphorus compounds, corresponding to the formulae: ##STR1## wherein V is O or S; R1, R2 and R3 are H or substituted or unsubstituted perfluoroalkylated or hydrocarbon radicals; provide... | 10/21/1997 |
| 5670311 | Peptides for detecting antibodies to HTLV-2 Peptides corresponding to epitopes of HTLV-2 proteins are provided. These peptides are immunologically reactive with HTLV-2 specific antibodies. Several of the peptides are sufficiently unreactive to antibodies to HTLV-1 to distinguish between antibodies ... | 09/23/1997 |
| 5633754 | Integrated optical system for endoscopes and the like Optical systems for endoscopes, borescopes, dental scopes, and the like which are characterized by having three groups of lenses of positive optical power and an external entrance pupil. Typically, all three groups of lenses are displaced from the pupil a... | 05/27/1997 |
| 5607154 | Blade replacement system for hockey sticks A hockey stick replacement system includes a coupler adapted to receive a wooden hockey stick shaft at one end and a replacement blade at the other; the replaceable blade being made of either conventional wood or of aluminum. The aluminum replaceable blad... | 03/04/1997 |
| 5605673 | Stabilized microbubble compositions for ultrasound A microbubble preparation formed of a plurality of microbubbles comprising a first gas and a second gas surrounded by a membrane such as a surfactant, wherein the first gas and the second gas are present in a molar ratio of from about 1:100 to about 1000:... | 02/25/1997 |
| 5589175 | Peptides for induction of neutralizing antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus In accordance with the present invention, novel peptides corresponding to epitopes of human immunodeficiency virus-1 gp120 protein and analogues and homologs thereof are provided. These peptides can be utilized alone or in combination, uncoupled or couple... | 12/31/1996 |
| 5584498 | Suspension system for vehicle Several embodiments of suspension systems for vehicle wheels arranged in pairs and having paired shock absorbers. The shock absorbers are interrelated in such a way that they provide a first degree of damping during certain kinds of suspension loadings an... | 12/17/1996 |
| 5575699 | Outboard motor exhaust system A catalytic exhaust system for an outboard motor wherein the catalyst is positioned in the drive shaft housing to remove the source of heat from the power head. However, the catalyst is contained within a sealed compartment in the drive shaft housing lowe... | 11/19/1996 |
| 5573757 | Viscoelastic compositions containing concentrated fluorinated compounds their method of preparation and their uses Compositions for topical application in gel form comprising a fluorocarbon or perfluorocarbon compound or mixtures thereof at a concentration of at least about 75% v/v, a minor quantity of a surface active agent and an aqueous phase. The compositions prov... | 11/12/1996 |
| 5571261 | Liquid delivery device A liquid dispensing device and the method of dispensing liquid are disclosed. The device includes a hollow gas- and liquid-tight casing, a flexible gas- and liquid-tight membrane having multiple convolutions disposed across the casing interior and dividin... | 11/05/1996 |
| 5572735 | Method and apparatus for discharging the output voltage of a DC power supply A voltage discharge circuit discharges the voltage across a charge storage device, such as a capacitor, at an output of a power supply. The discharge circuit may be used, for example, in a contrast power supply for an LCD panel. The discharge circuit uses... | 11/05/1996 |
| 5564380 | Camshaft operating system A valve trains drive assembly for a V-type engine which includes a balancing shaft. The valve train includes a flexible transmitter between a crankshaft sprocket and one of two camshafts in the cylinder heads as well as a sprocket around the balancing sha... | 10/15/1996 |
| 5560422 | Controller for air conditioner A controller for an air conditioner is provided wherein an operation mode is not unnecessarily changed in accordance with variations in temperature. When room temperature t is in a range of T+3.0>tࣙT+1.5, and when a timer expires (steps 212, 214), it is... | 10/01/1996 |
| 5559604 | Color matching apparatus for reproducing the same color under different illuminants Colorimetric values such as L*a*b* values are transformed into color separation values such as CMYK values dependent on the characteristics of a color output device by using a multilayered feedforward neural network. The neural network learns in advance t... | 09/24/1996 |
| 5555855 | Water circulation system for marine engine A water circulation system of a marine engine improves the consistency of engine combustion by stabilizing the temperature of water flowing through the engine water jacket and by heating the intake manifold to a temperature within a desired temperature ra... | 09/17/1996 |
| 5551047 | Method for distributed redundant execution of program modules A method for organizing and programming distributed computer systems in which processors are connected via interconnection or communication networks, such that even if many cases of hardware and software faults occur within the processors or within the ne... | 08/27/1996 |
| 5542669 | Method and apparatus for randomly increasing the payback in a video gaming apparatus A video gaming apparatus that plays an interactive game of poker with a player provides a payback table that is modified at the beginning of each hand to provide at least one bonus card combination which has an increased payback amount. The bonus card com... | 08/06/1996 |
| 5540909 | Harmonic ultrasound imaging with microbubbles A method for ultrasonic harmonic imaging is disclosed, which uses microbubbles particularly selected for their properties of reradiating ultrasound energy at frequencies other than the exciting frequency.... | 07/30/1996 |
| 5509144 | Baseball cap with interchangeable logos A baseball cap configured to permit different logos to be interchangeably positioned on the cap. The cap includes a crown portion and a visor. The crown portion is comprised of a plurality of panels sewed onto a rib structure and a hat band. At least one ... | 04/23/1996 |
| 5490812 | Boning device and method The present invention relates to a device and a method with the following working steps: holding the limb (1) to be boned; severing the center joint (3), including the tendons adhering thereto; severing the end joint portion (5) and/or the end portion (6), includin... | 02/13/1996 |
| 5489297 | Bioprosthetic heart valve with absorbable stent The invention relates to a bioprosthetic heart valve having leaflets affixed to a substantially absorpable stent. The leaflets can be derived from a biological membrane which is affixed to the absorbable stent. The leaflets can also be derived from a sigm... | 02/06/1996 |
| 5483499 | Broadband acoustic Doppler current profiler A system and method for measuring current velocities using coded-pulse broadband acoustic signals. Autocorrelation of two phase coded pulses which are in the water during a single transmission cycle is used to calculate a Doppler frequency. The effective ... | 01/09/1996 |
| 5446910 | Interrupt controller with automatic distribution of interrupts for a multiple processor computer system An interrupt controller for use in a computer system capable of utilizing multiple processors provides a system for automatically distributing interrupts among processors installed in the system. More specifically, in the present invention, each processor... | 08/29/1995 |
| 5446736 | Method and apparatus for connecting a node to a wireless network using a standard protocol Standard protocols, such as those commonly used on LAN networks, are used to connect nodes to an enterprise network via a wide area wireless network. Within the appropriate protocol stacks, the standard protocols are optimized by filtering some packets, e... | 08/29/1995 |
| 5433177 | Lubricating system for engine A lubrication system for the internal combustion engine of a motorcycle that includes a pump that outputs a constant amount of fluid per cycle of operation and a delivery valve which selectively passes lubricant to the engine or returns lubricant back to ... | 07/18/1995 |
| 5433444 | Targeting putter A targeting putter having improved alignment and swing compensation means is disclosed. The putter comprises a putter shaft and a putter head having a striking face, heel and toe ends, and a reflective prism mounted thereon. The reflective prism, which is... | 07/18/1995 |
| 5426740 | Signaling protocol for concurrent bus access in a multiprocessor system An improved signaling protocol for use in a multiprocessor system enables concurrent access to a common system bus during an I/O bus access. This reduces the system bus idling time without introducing complexities into the system bus architecture which mi... | 06/20/1995 |
| 5424191 | Epithelial cell specific differentiation marker A full length cDNA clone from a normal human mammary epithelial cell (strain 184) encoding a 25 kDa protein, HME1, was isolated. Expression of HME1 RNA appears to be limited to epithelial cells. The HME1 sequence shares strong sequence homology with bovin... | 06/13/1995 |
| 5421236 | Metronomic apparatus and midi sequence controller having adjustable time difference between a given beat timing signal and the output beat signal This invention relates to a metronomic apparatus and MIDI sequence controller. The metronomic apparatus comprises a visual display which indicates not only the beat of a piece of music but also gives an indication of the occurence of preset between beat t... | 06/06/1995 |
| 5414610 | Universal power converter with single, shared power transformation circuit A power conversion method and apparatus convert an AC input voltage signal or a DC input voltage signal to a DC output voltage signal suitable for driving a DC load. The power converter includes a first voltage stage coupled to a first pair of input termi... | 05/09/1995 |
| 5401962 | Residual gas sensor utilizing a miniature quadrupole array A residual gas sensor, suitable for mounting within an low pressure chamber, includes an array of quadrupoles formed from a plurality of parallel rods mounted in a cantilevered fashion in a glass seal. Sixteen parallel rods form an array of nine quadrupol... | 03/28/1995 |
| 5402121 | Numeric keypad integration system A system for integrating an external numeric keypad with a keyboard on a portable computer wherein the keypad communicates with the system BIOS through the keyboard. The keyboard includes 82 or 83 keys and an internal keyboard controller connected to a sw... | 03/28/1995 |
| 5397303 | Liquid delivery device having a vial attachment or adapter incorporated therein A device is disclosed which provides direct and effective incorporation of material (such as medicine) from a separate container into the contents of a liquid dispensing device. The device has a hollow sleeve extending outwardly, an openable closure, a se... | 03/14/1995 |
