Did You Know...
...that in 1800 ether was first used by partyers as a fun diversion? Sniffing the gas led to hilarious and raucous laughter as people watched each other become more and more intoxicated and silly. Several doctors independently realized the value ether would have to anesthetize surgery patients. Of those who claimed rights to the "discovery," none had a happy ending. One had a seizure and died defending his rights. Another spent his life in an asylum because he had been denied acclaim. A third became addicted to chloroform and, in a New York City jail, he soaked a cloth in the drug, severed an artery and bled to death.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8061556 | Automated freezer component An automated freezer stores food items stacked in a removable cartridge. The food items are dispensed from the automated freezer in response to a request for the food items. The food items are loaded into the cartridge outside of the automated freezer. When the cart... | 11/22/2011 |
| 7886930 | Modular cabinet for vending machines This invention is a vending machine and components parts that include a product retrieval and delivery system deployed within a uniquely designed, insulated cabinet that includes an adjustable ventilation system, and a conveniently located compact, easily removable ... | 02/15/2011 |
| 7497353 | Displaceable barrier A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment may have a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. Th... | 03/03/2009 |
| 7418311 | Portable dispensing device for refreshments and sundries A portable dispensing system comprising a vending machine including an upper snack-holding portion, an intermediate beverage-holding portion, a lower refrigeration portion, contained within a housing that fits within the basket of a golf cart. The snack-holding port... | 08/26/2008 |
| 7367472 | Pneumatic vending machine A machine particularly adapted for dispensing light items packaged in symmetrical, frustum-shaped container. The items are propelled through a tubular cartridge and individually ejected by a flow of air generated by a blower under control of a toggling dual-gate mec... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7364050 | Mobile vending The mobile vending apparatus can be transported to a desired venue such as a festival grounds, sports park, or the like, and is quickly and easily rendered operational for use by persons standing at ground level. The apparatus can include individual automatic vendin... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7350667 | Injection drug feeding device On each of a plurality of disposed racks, an injection drug storing container is each detachably mounted. The injection drug storing container includes a transportation device for transporting a stored injection drug in one direction. The injection drug transported ... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7329394 | High throughput incubation devices The invention provides an efficiently automated incubation device that reduces the number of powered moving parts in the device and the amount of air transfer between environments that are internal and external to the device. ... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7322274 | Automatic locking device for coffee brewing apparatus This invention provides a locking device for coffee brewing apparatus of an automatic coffee maker. With this invention, when the top cover is closed, the brewing chamber can be locked and sealed at the same time automatically, while after coffee is brewed, the brew... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7322200 | Method and device for cooling products in a transport system A device for cooling products (12) contained in a transport system, comprises at least one lead-down duct with an upper and a lower portion, where the upper portion is arranged to be supplied with products from a feeder device (21), and where the lower... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7303093 | Hot food vending machine A heated food vending machine has a front with a) slots for dispensing the food and for accepting money, b) a video screen and c) several depressible buttons. Inside the machine is a refrigerator with a roof having an openable door and a side having a fastenable doo... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7284678 | Capsule dispensing apparatus with refrigeration A capsule dispensing apparatus includes an elongate tube for containing a plurality of capsules and a housing remote from the elongate tube. The elongate tube may be releasably coupled to the housing, and a dispensing arm connected to the housing may control the rel... | 10/23/2007 |
| 7266423 | Facilitating vending of customer-configured pizza preparation kits A vending machine comprises a first product dispensing unit configured for dispensing packaged pizza crust product, a second product dispensing unit configured for dispensing packaged pizza topping product, and an information processing apparatus coupled to the firs... | 09/04/2007 |
| 7240805 | Quick release for article handling mechanism An article dispensing apparatus, such as a vending machine (10), includes a controllably positioned suction hose dispenser (220) for retrieving articles (223) from a storage area (215). In one embodiment, a quick release device (500 | 07/10/2007 |
| 7228989 | High efficiency beverage vending machine The invention provides a vending machine for cooling food products. The vending machine includes a housing defining an interior. The vending machine also includes a plurality of holding members substantially thermally isolated from one another and disposed in the in... | 06/12/2007 |
| RE39551 | Food dispensing cycle and means A method of dispensing food whereby food prepared at a first location is transported to a second location for dispensing in a working cycle characterized by the steps of apportioning the food onto a plurality of trays (20A, 20B) at the first location, ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7191612 | Thermal separating baffle in a vending machine A vending machine apparatus (32) comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage area (76) positioned inside the cavity. The article storage area (76) has a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storag... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7181501 | Remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system including handheld wireless equipment A remote data acquisition, transmission and analysis system including handheld wireless equipment to obtain operational data and the status of remote machines is disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with the remote machines from which ope... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7178689 | Table top folded sheet dispenser A dispenser includes a body having four side walls, a base and an opening in a top of the body. The base has end walls extending substantially parallel to the side walls so that the dispenser is substantially double walled. A lid is hingedly connected near the top o... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7171451 | Remote data acquisition and transmission system and method A remote data acquisition and transmission system and method are disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with remote equipment from which operation data is acquired by the application controllers. The application controllers communicate with... | 01/30/2007 |
| 7167892 | System, method and apparatus for vending machine wireless audit and cashless transaction transport The present invention provides a system, method and apparatus for collecting, storing and communicating vending machine transaction data. The system preferably includes an embedded data collection and storage device that, when placed inside a vending machine, will c... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7164884 | Method and system for interfacing a machine controller and a wireless network A wireless interface module interfaces a machine control system, such as a vending machine controller, with one of plural wireless networks through one of plural removably coupled wireless transceivers. Communication between geographically distributed vending machin... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7159410 | Thermal barrier for a refrigerated compartment in a vending machine A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment has a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. The art... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7139616 | Real-time alert mechanism for monitoring and controlling field assets via wireless and internet technologies An apparatus and system are disclosed for real-time monitoring and control of field assets. A monitoring device may be coupled to a field asset to determine the occurrence of one or more error conditions. Error conditions may be detected either as they occur or by t... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7137529 | Apparatus and method for distributing warm prepackaged foods An apparatus (1) for distributing pre-packaged, frozen or heated food products (12), comprises a magazine (7) for containing said products (12), resting means (11) for said products (12) in said magazine (7), moving m... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7137530 | Method and apparatus for positioning an article handling device An article handling apparatus embodied, for example, as a vending machine, includes a controllably positioned hose-type dispenser for retrieving articles from an article storage area. A first end of the hose receives article securing energy (e.g., suction), and a se... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7118009 | Displaceable barrier A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment may have a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. Th... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7086198 | Machine for vending floral arrangements A machine for vending floral arrangements is described including stack of generally circular carousels each for supporting a plurality of floral arrangements; and a generally cylindrical exterior housing surrounding the carousels. ... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7054909 | Automatic vending machine having a control system capable of easily and reliably rewriting a control program in each terminal control unit In a control system for an automatic vending machine with a controlled device, a terminal control unit controls the controlled device in accordance with a control program. A main control unit is connected to the terminal control unit through a transmission path and ... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7044330 | Vending machine The present invention relates generally to improvements in article dispensing, such as in a vending machine, and more particularly to improvements in product containment systems which improve product storage capacity, as well as the ease and efficiency of product ha... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7024882 | Cooler with ordered refilling An ice chest or cooler having a vertically oriented chute to receive beverage containers such that when the cooler is being refilled the beverage containers are directed through an opening in the bottom of the chute, into the bottom of the main compartment containin... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7021491 | Freezer door opener/closer for a vending machine An article handler having an article storage area and an article dispensing opening at a top portion thereof, with a hinged lid mounted so as to have at least a predetermined range of arcuate movement thereover. The lid has a lifting portion thereon adapted for enga... | 04/04/2006 |
| 7017779 | Portable dispenser for dispensing frozen aerated edible products Frozen aerated edible product can be dispensed from single dose cartridges containing said frozen aerated edible product, using a portable dispenser comprising thermally insulated storing means for storing single dose cartridges containing said frozen aerated edible... | 03/28/2006 |
| 7020680 | System and method for monitoring and control of beverage dispensing equipment A remote data acquisition and transmission system and method are disclosed. A plurality of application controllers are interfaced with remote beverage dispensing equipment from which operation data is acquired by the application controllers. The application controll... | 03/28/2006 |
| 7013337 | Method and system for the optimal formatting, reduction and compression of DEX/UCS data A method and system for communicating data between a network operations center and a remote device is described. Vending machine state information is communicated between a vending site and a network operations center using a delta scheme. A database, maintained by ... | 03/14/2006 |
| 7010594 | System using environmental sensor and intelligent management and control transceiver for monitoring and controlling remote computing resources The present disclosure provides a system and apparatus for the remote monitoring and control of a computing component. An intelligent management and control transceiver (IMCT) is preferably attached to a computing component to be monitored and controlled. The IMCT p... | 03/07/2006 |
| 6981609 | Injection drug feeding device On each of a plurality of disposed racks, an injection drug storing container is each detachably mounted. The injection drug storing container includes a transportation device for transporting a stored injection drug in one direction. The injection drug transported ... | 01/03/2006 |
| 6965871 | Method and apparatus to enable consumer replenishment shopping by expiration date A method produces a shopping list consisting of one or more items, wherein at least one item in the shopping list is a perishable item. The method operates in an e-commerce site and includes the steps of: storing one or more consumer shopping lists of respective con... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6963851 | Method and apparatus to enable consumer replenishment shopping by useful life A method for producing a shopping list consisting of one or more items, wherein at least one item in the shopping list is a consumable item. The method on an e-commerce site comprising the storing data representing an inventory of items for sale at the e-commerce si... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6929149 | Frozen product vending machine A frozen product, upright-style vending machine having a pick and place mechanism moveable in three dimensions (X, Y, Z) with a fourth, rotational, degree of freedom (W) effected using the Z axis drive. The mechanism moves along tracks in the X-Y directions and is p... | 08/16/2005 |
