Famous Patents
3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6067308 | Electroluminescent solid state device An electroluminescent solid state device includes an active body member that is formed of a single crystalline metal oxide, such as aluminum oxide, that is doped with a rare earth element, such as erbium and/or terbium and an activator atom such as oxygen... | 05/23/2000 |
| 5939640 | Pressure measurement device, in particular for an infusion apparatus A device for measuring the pressure in an infusion tube (12), including a pressure sensor (20) and a housing (14) comprising at least one chamber (16) with one side defined by a deformable membrane (18) contacting the wall of the infusion tube, and contai... | 08/17/1999 |
| 5930666 | Method and apparatus for packaging high temperature solid state electronic devices A semiconductor-chip is bonded to a chip-carrier substrate by way of a gold-to-gold bonding interface. A vacuum chuck is provided to physically hold the semiconductor-chip in physical contact with, the chip-carrier substrate as static force, ultrasonic po... | 07/27/1999 |
| 5921507 | Aircraft control yoke An airbag module is positioned relative to an aircraft control yoke or shaft, the airbag being actuated by majority voting sensors that are responsive to acceleration forces upon the aircraft. The aircraft control yoke or control yoke post is constructed ... | 07/13/1999 |
| 5913618 | Unitary credit card and paper money clip A unitary, pocket size, plastic assembly includes a flat, rectangular, credit-card portion that carries a machine-readable data-containing medium, such as a semiconductor chip or a magnetic stripe. An integral and resilient clasp is formed along a linear ... | 06/22/1999 |
| 5703896 | Silicon quantum dot laser Dynamic variation in the color produced by a silicon quantum dot laser is achieved by utilizing segmented sections or patches of quantum dots of differing sizes to produce different colors of light. The amount of each color of light produced is controlled... | 12/30/1997 |
| 5599317 | Externalized sealed catheter with leakproof access A sealable external access catheter including a portion implanted in the body of the patient, a fixation or anchoring sleeve extending through the skin, and a portion located outside the patient and provided as its free end with a self-sealing septum made... | 02/04/1997 |
| 5572771 | Strap buckle In a buckle, the loose end of a belt is clamped by operation of a pivoted lever that is pressed down onto a base member, a lever belt gripping surface engages one surface of the belt and forces the opposite surface onto a resilient surface in the base mem... | 11/12/1996 |
| 5570030 | Moisture sensor and control system A sensor for measuring moisture changes in soil and having an electrically insulating cylindrical body along which bare electrical conductors are placed. A transmitter produces constant alternating current which is supplied to the sensor. The voltage whic... | 10/29/1996 |
| 5485828 | Portable device for micropulverization generated by ultrasound waves An acoustic micropulverization device for the formation of microdroplets is disclosed having a cell that contains a propagating medium having an attenuation less than or equal to about 1 dB/cm. One wall of the cell comprises an ultrasonic generator. Anoth... | 01/23/1996 |
| 5480278 | Automatic stacker apparatus and method Apparatus for frozen patties wherein one wide and slow conveyor feeds a plurality of narrow and fast conveyors to spread out the patties prior to stacking. Each fast conveyor conveys a stream of patties to a stacking module, each module includes a vertica... | 01/02/1996 |
| 5464235 | Brake lock for in-line roller skate braking system The braking system for an in-line roller skate is operated by a cable attached to a trigger type of lever in a hand grip. This braking system is improved by incorporating an arrangement for allowing the skater to quickly attach or detach the end of the br... | 11/07/1995 |
| 5461807 | Animal eartag electronic transponder An animal eartag houses a passive electronic transponder for use in the identification of the animal by a low frequency radio wave reading system. The eartag is formed of a generally flat and flexible plastic body or carrier member that includes an ear at... | 10/31/1995 |
| 5458469 | Friction-free infusion pump system An infusion pump system for continuously injecting a medical substance contained in a supply chamber into a catheter connected to the body of the patient. The system includes a flattening means driven by a motor (10) and designed to flatten a portion (42)... | 10/17/1995 |
| 5446393 | Electrical measuring and testing probe having a malleable shaft facilitating positioning of a contact pin Electrical connections to extremely small contact points or test connections are obtained by a tool which includes a stable base having a deformable flexible shaft extending therefrom. A needle type contact point in a spring biased mounting subassembly ma... | 08/29/1995 |
| 5429602 | Programmable portable infusion pump system A portable and programmable infusion pump system is disclosed for injecting one or more medicinal substances into an individual under the control of the individual. A common controller unit and microprocessor is provided for one or more pump units. Each p... | 07/04/1995 |
| 5428998 | Method and apparatus for testing an infant for hearing defects An infant hearing test apparatus, primarily intended for use in the early detection of hearing problems of human infants in the birth to eighteen month age group, subjects an infant under test to two low intensity test sounds of an electronically filtered... | 07/04/1995 |
| 5425612 | Mechanized and automatically managed installation for storing objects such as cars An automatic power-driven apparatus is provided for storing objects, particularly motor vehicles. The apparatus comprises at least two vertically-arranged levels, each having a closed-circuit transit track provided with two longitudinal transit lanes, fou... | 06/20/1995 |
| 5396987 | Containers for compact discs A container for compact discs comprises a lightweight sleeve formed of three thin sheets of polypropylene material that are die cut and heat bonded together. A front pocket has a deep U-shaped notch formed on its outer face and provides for insertion of a... | 03/14/1995 |
| 5339186 | Optical data packet compressor/decompressor Apparatus for time modifying, or expanding, a serial optical signal that comprises a plurality of light pulses located in bit cells. A plurality of light reflectors establish a plurality of optical delay paths, one path for each light pulse. Each path pro... | 08/16/1994 |
| 5335884 | Adaptable aircraft airbag protection apparatus and method Airbags are positioned relative to an aircraft yoke so as to minimize undesired force application to that yoke upon actuation thereof. The airbag actuation is accomplished by sensors which are capable of responding to multiple traumatic forces upon the ai... | 08/09/1994 |
| 5331567 | Pyramidal absorber having multiple backing layers providing improved low frequency response Wall coverings for anechoic chambers are disclosed having an array of lossy pyramid cone material mounted on multiple backing layers of absorbing material. The number of backing layers to be used, their physical dimension (thickness) and their material pr... | 07/19/1994 |
| 5328190 | Method and apparatus enabling archery practice An archery practice device simulates dynamic targets, such as in an animal hunt, on a visible screen. A video disk contains a plurality of hunting scenes which are projected via a video projector on a vertical screen whose size simulates an area normally ... | 07/12/1994 |
| 5301388 | Critically safe vacuum pickup for use in wet or dry cleanup of radioactive materials A vacuum pickup of critically safe quantity and geometric shape is used in cleanup of radioactive materials. Collected radioactive material is accumulated in four vertical, parallel, equally spaced canisters arranged in a cylinder configuration. Each cani... | 04/12/1994 |
| 5301902 | Aircraft airbag protection apparatus and method Airbags are positioned relative to an aircraft yoke so as to minimize undesired force application to that yoke upon actuation thereof. The airbag actuation is accomplished by sensors which are capable of responding to multiple traumatic forces upon the ai... | 04/12/1994 |
| 5291785 | Method and apparatus for testing an infant for hearing defects An infant hearing test apparatus, primarily intended for use in the early detection of hearing problems of human infants in the birth to eighteen month age group, subjects an infant under test to two low intensity test sounds of an electronically filtered... | 03/08/1994 |
| 5273561 | Critically safe volume vacuum pickup for use in wet or dry cleanup of radioactive enclosures A physical compact vacuum pickup device of critically safe volume and geometric shape is provided for use in radioactive enclosures, such as a small glove box, to facilitate manual cleanup of either wet or dry radioactive material. The device is construct... | 12/28/1993 |
| 5186499 | Erasable video cassette label kit An erasable video cassette labeling kit is disclosed having an elongated paper board base member on which an elongated, transparent, plastic bubble is laminated, the bubble being located to one side of the base member and extending parallel to the major a... | 02/16/1993 |
| 5181440 | Tool for measuring the travel of a vehicle brake rod A compound or multi-function tool facilitates manually moving of the brake rod of a motorized land vehicle, and provides a dimensional scale integrally therewith by which the distance of travel of the brake rod between its brake-off and brake-on positions... | 01/26/1993 |
| 5136666 | Fiber optic communication method and apparatus providing mode multiplexing and holographic demultiplexing In a fiber optic communication system, an acoustooptic modulator operates to provide a coherent light beam that is data encoded in the beam's time domain, for example by intensity modulation of the beam. A spatial light modulator then operates to address ... | 08/04/1992 |
| 5088079 | Carriage optics system for optical data storage system The carriage optics system for an optical data storage system includes a read/write head that consists of fixed and moving optics. The moving optics includes a carriage actuator that is equipped with a beam relaying telescope lens system that minimizes th... | 02/11/1992 |
| 5073010 | Optically addressable spatial light modulator having a distorted helix ferroelectric liquid crystal member The disclosure describes an optically addressable spatial light modulator (OASLM) having a light sensitive member and a distorted helix ferroelectric liquid crystal (DHFLC). In a first embodiment a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photodiode layer ... | 12/17/1991 |
| 5070040 | Method and apparatus for semiconductor circuit chip cooling In a semiconductor device, a thin, synthetic diamond film (i.e. a man made film) enhances the transfer of heat from a semiconductor circuit chip to a cooling medium. The heat generating semiconductor circuit chip is located in efficient thermal transfer e... | 12/03/1991 |
| 5041826 | Identification system A passive integrated transponder (PIT) is attached to or embedded in an item to be identified. It is excited via an inductive coupling from an interrogator. The PIT responds to the interrogator via the inductive coupling with a signal constituting a strea... | 08/20/1991 |
| 5031609 | Postoperative compression bandage for the head A post operative compression bandage for the human head is described having primary utility for use after facelift or rhytidectomy plastic surgery. The bandage includes a generally flat and unitary member that is formed of relatively thin, single ply, fou... | 07/16/1991 |
| 5024474 | Locking cam latch mechanism A latch mechanism includes a cylindrically shaped rotating cam having a small radius portion and a large radius portion that are spaced from each other along a circumference of cylinder. A ball is seated against the cam. The ball is forced outward when it... | 06/18/1991 |
| 5018286 | Tamper resistant ski ticket A user authorization tag for the wearer thereof is rendered tamper resistant by forming the tag as an integral unit having a flat panel portion and a flexible loop portion extending from the panel portion. The loop is dimensioned for threading through a c... | 05/28/1991 |
| 4993725 | Unitary skate assembly having vertical spring means A single blade ice skate is disclosed wherein the ice engaging blade, the toe boot plate and the heel boot plate are formed as a unitary assembly from a flat sheet of metal stock material, with the two boot plates being attached to the blade by way of twi... | 02/19/1991 |
| 4978103 | Maneuvering device for heavy flat plates Large, flat objects such as manhole covers, and storm drain grates, are lifted and maneuvered. A tool includes a gripper assembly which receives the object at or near an edge and establishes control by an arrangement of at least one concentrated contact a... | 12/18/1990 |
| 4924971 | Ladder safety apparatus A ladder safety apparatus for use with a straight ladder having vertical side rails, and having horizontally aligned openings in the side rails, is disclosed. An example is a hollow-rung metal or aluminum ladder. The safety apparatus includes a flexible m... | 05/15/1990 |
