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 |
| 7940465 | Collimator array A collimator array using a molded element to hold the input fibers and to collimate the light. The input fibers are held within holes in one face of the element, and the collimation of the light emitted from the ends of the fibers is performed by an array of lenses ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7939800 | Arrangement and method for compensating emitter tip vibrations The present invention provides a charged particle beam apparatus with a charged particle beam source including an emitter with an emitter tip; and supporting member for supporting the emitter. Further, the apparatus includes an emitter location-measuring device for ... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7938023 | Wet-gas flowmeter Methods and apparatus determine phase fractions for phases within a fluid mixture flow under a wide range of flow conditions including wet-gas flow. Appropriate flow algorithms can utilize this phase fraction information with a total flow rate of the mixture to find... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7932495 | Fast wafer inspection system A charged particle beam device is provided including a particle source emitting a primary particle beam, a secondary particle beam generated by the impingement of the primary particle beam on the sample, a detection unit for detecting the secondary particle beam, th... | 04/26/2011 |
| 7929108 | Optical switching device with reconfigurable channel spacing An optical switching device includes an array of liquid crystal macropixels, wherein each macropixel includes at least two liquid crystal subpixels. The subpixels may be controlled together to act as a single polarizing pixel, or independently to act as multiple pol... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7928405 | Magnetic lens assembly A lens assembly having a magnetic lens assembly for a charged particle beam system is provided. The lens assembly includes: a first pole piece having a connecting portion of the first pole piece and a gap portion of the first pole piece, a second pole piece having a... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7926503 | Fluid injection system The present invention is directed toward an apparatus for efficient, durable, reliable, and cost-effective fluid injection. In particular, the present invention provides an unpowered device for automatic fluid injection dictated by pressure differential in the line.... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7926360 | Sonar circumferential flow conditioner Methods and apparatus enable measuring flow of a fluid within a conduit. For example, flowmeters may measure the velocity of production fluid flowing through production pipe of an oil/gas well. The flowmeters rely on detection of pressure variations generated as a r... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7922643 | Method for reducing the emission of green house gases into the atmosphere A method for reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, such as for example carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere above a ground surface, the method comprising injecting a gas stream comprising one or more than one greenhouse gas into a subsurface injection formation,... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7922023 | Receptacle for a contaminant An apparatus for receiving and storing a soiled item has a container and a cover, which can be rotated about spindles. The cover comprises a casing in which a movable body can move to and fro. The moveable body is placed inside a compartment at the closed end of a f... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7921974 | Damping cylinder with annular bladder An improvement to damping cylinders in which the damping fluid needs to be separated from a gas is disclosed. In particular, an annular bladder is used. An annular bladder allows for a control shaft to extends at least a portion of the length of the damping cylinder... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7919749 | Energy filter for cold field emission electron beam apparatus An electron beam apparatus and a method for providing an energy-filtered primary electron beam are described. Therein, a primary electron beam having an asymmetric first energy distribution is generated by means of an electron source. The primary electron beam is hi... | 04/05/2011 |
| 7916303 | Non-uniform sampling to extend dynamic range of interferometric sensors Methods and apparatus for interrogating optical sensors with high slew rates using non-uniform sampling are provided. The transmission of optical signals in a non-uniform pattern is employed to allow for demodulation of fringe rates exceeding the commonly understood... | 03/29/2011 |
| 7913456 | Method for mounting a control assembly for doors and windows Method for mounting a control assembly for doors or windows, in which the door or window comprises a frame including a metallic section bar having an outer wall and a longitudinal groove, and in which the control assembly comprises a handle having a base, a rotatabl... | 03/29/2011 |
| 7911059 | High thermal conductivity substrate for a semiconductor device A method and apparatus for packaging semiconductor dies for increased thermal conductivity and simpler fabrication when compared to conventional semiconductor packaging techniques are provided. The packaging techniques described herein may be suitable for various se... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7908947 | Arrangement for damping of vibrations and defection in a tool holder The invention relates to a device for damping vibrations and/or controlling the flexion of an object in machining, said device comprising at least one force exchange device which could be a force applying device or a damping device. A such force applying device is f... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7907807 | Pure silica core, high birefringence, single polarization optical waveguide Methods and apparatus provide for birefringent waveguides suitable for optical systems exhibiting polarization dependence such as interferometer sensors including Sagnac interferometric fiber optic gyroscopes (IFOG). The waveguides, for some embodiments, may offer s... | 03/15/2011 |
| 7905068 | Protective cap for coupler bar The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatus for protecting a coupling that is disposable within a concrete structure. In one aspect, a cap for engaging a coupling of a cement coupler bar is provided. The cap includes a body having an engagement ... | 03/15/2011 |
| 7903908 | Multi-core strain compensated optical fiber temperature sensor Methods and apparatus for discrete point temperature sensing include a temperature sensor that can be part of an array of temperature sensors for location in a wellbore. A single unitary ribbon-like structure can form the temperature sensor that has separate optical... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7900851 | Pop-up spraying devices with a flexible stem Embodiments of the invention provide an irrigation pop-up with a flexible stem which may be a pulsating or conventional (i.e., non-pulsating) irrigation sprayer or sprinkler. The flexible stem enables an extended stem to be bent instead of being severed, as experien... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7897726 | Fluorescent proteins from and methods for using the same The present invention provides nucleic acid compositions encoding a novel colorless GFP-like protein, acGFP, from Aequorea coerulscens and fluorescent and non-fluorescent mutants and derivatives thereof, as well as peptides and proteins encoded by these nucle... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7897420 | Light emitting diodes (LEDs) with improved light extraction by roughening Systems and methods are disclosed for fabricating a semiconductor light-emitting diode (LED) device by forming an n-doped gallium nitride (n-GaN) layer on the LED device and roughening the surface of the n-GaN layer to extract light from an interior of the LED devic... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7895726 | Tubing connector and method of sealing tubing sections There is disclosed a connector for tubing, in particular, expandable tubing sections. There is also disclosed a method of sealing a connection between tubing sections, in particular, expandable tubing sections. In one embodiment of the invention, a connector ... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7894722 | Packaged optical device stack A packaged stack of optical devices includes two or more WDM optical devices, the stack having a reduced per-channel manufacturing cost and an improved mean time between failure relative to individual optical devices. WDM optical devices, which may be contained in a... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7892891 | Die separation Techniques for dicing wafer assemblies containing multiple metal device dies, such as vertical light-emitting diode (VLED), power device, laser diode, and vertical cavity surface emitting laser device dies, are provided. Devices produced accordingly may benefit from... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7891237 | Method for estimating pump efficiency The present invention provides highly accurate methods for directly calculating pump fillage which avoid the need and expense of a pump dynamometer card and subsequent calculations. ... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7888113 | Modified green fluorescent proteins and methods for using same The present invention provides nucleic acid molecules encoding mutant fluorescent proteins as well as proteins encoded by these nucleic acids. In addition, host-cells, stable cell lines and transgenic organisms comprising the above-referenced nucleic acid molecules ... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7887103 | Energizing seal for expandable connections A tubular configured to mate with a second tubular so that sealing integrity is maintained between the tubulars before, during, and after expansion of the tubulars is disclosed. In one embodiment, a connector for connecting tubulars is provided. The connector includ... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7886122 | Method and circuit for transmitting a memory clock signal Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving clock signals. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving, at a memory device, a first clock signal and a second clock signal. The frequency of the first clock... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7885546 | Method and apparatus for transparent Ethernet multiplexing and demultiplexing A method and apparatus for multiplexing multiple Ethernet-based data streams in an optical network reduce the number of optical transceivers required by the optical network. Multiple data streams are multiplexed into a combined data stream, transmitted from a node i... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7883292 | Node storage, deployment and retrieval system A method and apparatus for storing, deploying and retrieving a plurality of seismic devices is described. The apparatus includes a ramp device coupled to a portion of a trailing end of a vessel, a cable handling device positioned between the ramp device and a leadin... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7882902 | Top drive interlock The present invention generally relates to methods and apparatus for improving top drive operations. A method of ensuring safe operation of a top drive includes operating a top drive, thereby exerting torque on a first tubular to makeup or breakout a first threaded ... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7881884 | Flowmeter array processing algorithm with wide dynamic range Methods and apparatus enable sensing flow of a fluid inside a conduit with an array of pressure or strain sensors. Inputs for a curve fit routine include power correlation values at one of multiple trial velocities or speeds of sound and several steps on either side... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7880133 | Optical multiphase flowmeter Method and apparatus enable direct measurement of at least one flow velocity for one or more phases within a multiphase fluid mixture flowing in a conduit. Some embodiments provide determination of actual individual phase flow rates for three phases (e.g., oil, wate... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7879988 | Fluorescent proteins from and methods for using the same The present invention provides nucleic acid compositions encoding a novel colorless GFP-like protein, acGFP, from Aequorea coerulscens and fluorescent and non-fluorescent mutants and derivatives thereof, as well as peptides and proteins encoded by these nucle... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7845290 | Nesting and folding table Folding table having fixed support structure, a table-top articulated to the fixed support structure and movable between a lowered position and a raised position, and a first and a second pair of legs borne by the fixed support structure and movable between a usage ... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7878242 | Interface for deploying wireline tools with non-electric string Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and/or apparatus for deploying wireline tools with a non-electric string. In one embodiment, a method of determining a free point of a tubular string stuck in a wellbore includes deploying a tool stri... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7874364 | Method for jarring with a downhole pulling tool The present invention generally relates to an apparatus and method of jarring with an overpull generator. In one aspect, a method of dislodging an object stuck in a wellbore is provided. The method includes the step of running an assembly into the wellbore on a conv... | 01/25/2011 |
| D631600 | Flat panel lamp with mounting hole | 01/25/2011 |
| 7872239 | Electrostatic lens assembly A lens assembly having an electrostatic lens component for a charged particle beam system is provided. The assembly includes: a first electrode having a conically shaped portion, a second electrode having a conically shaped portion, and a first insulator having a co... | 01/18/2011 |
