Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7073678 | Travel beverage container A beverage container has a thermally insulated base defining a reservoir and a cover assembly removably mountable on the base for closing the reservoir. The cover assembly includes a cap defining a recess open to ambient and defines a baffled passage between the rec... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7009152 | Control device for electric blanket A control device for an electric blanket includes a voltage drop rectifier circuit connected to an AC power source, a control gate circuit, a zero-across detecting circuit connected to the AC power source, a central processing circuit connected to the zero-across de... | 03/07/2006 |
| 5162682 | Solid state relay employing triacs and plurality of snubber circuits A solid state relay comprising an input terminal, an optical coupler, a reference voltage circuit, a light dependent resistor circuit, a triac driver circuit, a triac circuit, an output terminal and a snubber circuit, and being constructed in such a way t... | 11/10/1992 |
| 5079457 | Dual solid state relay A dual solid state relay comprised of an input circuit, an optical coupler, a reference voltage circuit, a switch circuit, an SCR saturation circuit, a full wave bridge rectifier, a TRIAC driver circuit, an SCR driver circuit, a TRIAC slave circuit, an SC... | 01/07/1992 |
| 4918340 | GTO thyristor control circuit A new GTO (gate turn-off) thyristor, especially one which can freely control the turn-on and turn-off of the SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) without affecting the features of the A.C. and D.C. function of the SCR i.e. the switching function of great cu... | 04/17/1990 |
| 4845391 | Switching circuits performing thyristor and triac functions The invention relates to fully controlled three-terminal switching power circuits having an extremely high switching speed and very low forward voltage. The switching circuits can perform thyristor and triac functions. They can be also turned on and off b... | 07/04/1989 |
| 4751401 | Low voltage switch A low voltage switch without moving elements, uses a triac power switching element in series with the AC load. A flip-flop circuit provides latching operation for On and Off functions. The triac is isolated from low-voltage actuating circuitry by an optoi... | 06/14/1988 |
| 4734012 | Blower speed control A speed controlling circuit for an alternating current powered blower motor is disclosed in which rectified direct current voltages are manipulated, regulated responsive to ambient temperature, and compared so as to provide reliable and cost effective blo... | 03/29/1988 |
| 4731548 | Touch control switch circuit A touch controlled electronic switching circuit in which the body capacitance of the person actuating the device is coupled in series with current limiting resistors and a capacitor with the junction coupled to a logic circuit which responds thereto to pr... | 03/15/1988 |
| 4710949 | Telephone line fault locating device A fault locating device for determining whether a problem exists on the customer side or the office side of a telephone line. A voltage and current sensitive switch is connected in series with each of the ring and tip lines near the customer side. The vol... | 12/01/1987 |
| 4687985 | Two terminal control switch having a main switch and a saturable current transformer whose primary winding is series connected with the main switch A two terminal control switch having a main switch and a saturable current transformer whose primary winding is series connected with the main switch. A center tapped full wave rectifier has a capacitor connected between its DC sides, such capacitor also ... | 08/18/1987 |
| 4634957 | Remotely controlled light flasher A control circuit for selecting different modes of operation for an outside building light which is operated by interrupting the current to the control circuit from a standard wall switch. The First mode of operation is continuous light for normal use. The sec... | 01/06/1987 |
| 4396932 | Method for making a light-activated line-operable zero-crossing switch including two lateral transistors, the emitter of one lying between the emitter and collector of the other A monolithic light-activated line-operable zero-crossing switch and method of making the same. The device comprises anti-parallel thyristors, each of whose gates is shunted by a field effect transistor. Each device may also be shunted by a resistor to red... | 08/02/1983 |
| 4376253 | Timed switch for an AC load The timed AC switch comprises a manual on-off switch in series with bidirectional semiconductor switch, such as a triac, for connection in a loop with an AC source and a load which would generally be incandescent or fluorescent lamps. The semiconductor sw... | 03/08/1983 |
| 4350949 | Bidirectional switching circuit with control terminal A switching circuit whose current-to-voltage characteristic across a first terminal and a second terminal is a bidirectional and symmetrical breakdown characteristic, and arranged especially so that said breakdown voltage will vary in accordance with the ... | 09/21/1982 |
| 4350903 | Electronic light switch The specification discloses an electronic switch for operating an incandescent lamp from a plurality of stations. A plurality of normally closed mechanical switches may be wired in series with the lamp, and electronic switch to form a single series circui... | 09/21/1982 |
| 4334183 | Electronic sensor on/off switch Electronic sensor on/off switch for a load connected to an a-c supply network, including a controlled semiconductor switch connected in a series circuit with the load, a sensor for switching the load on and off, a control circuit connected from the sensor... | 06/08/1982 |
| 4334184 | Electronic sensor on/off switch Electronic sensor on/off switch for a load connected to an a-c supply network includes a controlled semiconductor switch connected in series with the load, a sensor for switching the load on and off, a control circuit connected from the sensor to the swit... | 06/08/1982 |
| 4322632 | Remote load selector Circuitry for applying electrical power to one or more load devices under control of a remotely located manually operable switch coupled to the circuitry by a single power transmission line. The circuitry responds to toggling of the remotely located switc... | 03/30/1982 |
| 4314197 | Alternating current power control circuit A circuit for controlling the application of alternating current power to an apparatus provides a triac having a pair of main terminals adapted for being coupled in series between the apparatus and a source of alternating current power, the triac also hav... | 02/02/1982 |
| 4296331 | Optically coupled electric power relay The present invention relates to power relays and more particularly to optically coupled, zero-voltage switching electric power relays. Operating from logic-level signals, the device can control loads of several amperes or more at 60-400 Hz line voltages ... | 10/20/1981 |
| 4276486 | Two terminal power control switch with triac current powered control means A switching arrangement including a current switch for providing a low impedance electrical path therethrough in response to the application of triggering signals thereto, and for providing a high impedance electrical path in the absence of the triggering... | 06/30/1981 |
| 4270058 | Power supply and control circuit for series connected controller A control circuit for a power threshold switch, like a power triac, to be connected in series with a load device, at a situs where only one AC power conductor and a conductor extending to the load device is available, is energized from a DC power supply e... | 05/26/1981 |
| 4258276 | Switching circuit for connecting an AC source to a load In the disclosed circuit, a bilateral breakdown switch such as a triac includes two terminals for connecting an AC source to a load. A variable input arrangement, such as one which includes an LED and a photoresistor, operates a control electrode on the s... | 03/24/1981 |
| 4255699 | Phase modulated power control An apparatus for applying AC power to a load while maintaining a minimum charge across a capacitor for use as a DC power supply, that may be connected in series with the power supply and load, and does not require a parallel connection to the power supply... | 03/10/1981 |
| 4239987 | Switching circuit for controlling various appliances This relates to an electronic circuit which is designed to supply 115 volts AC power to loads of up to 550 watts for a predetermined time period of wide latitude. An "on" cycle is initiated by momentary closure of an external control line pair with a clos... | 12/16/1980 |
| 4129791 | Solid state switching circuit This invention relates to an improved solid state switching circuit for switching an A.C. load current fed from an A.C. power supply in response to values of input signal. The improvement is that, a pair of thyristors are provided in the circuit, for each... | 12/12/1978 |
| 4125794 | Electronic touch key Electronic touch key assembly with a metal probe having touch or keying surfaces through which, when the surfaces are contacted, a capacitive reactive current flows, triggering a switching amplifier through which an electronic valve for controlling bright... | 11/14/1978 |
| 4097769 | Circuit for controllably providing power from an AC source to a load A transformerless triac control circuit provides direct on/off control of loads including loads requiring a high current. An on/off decision is made twice each period of the source voltage, and the on/off decision results from the happening or the nonhapp... | 06/27/1978 |
| 4087702 | Digital electronic dimmer Disclosed is a lamp-dimmer which employs a novel circuit to provide a digitally selected and phase-shifted trigger-impulse for firing a triac.... | 05/02/1978 |
| 4081660 | Heater shutdown circuit The heater shutdown circuit is connected between an electric current source and a heating element in an electric heater and is operable to shut off the flow of current to the heating element when the heating element reaches a predetermined temperature and... | 03/28/1978 |
| 4069446 | Speed control means for AC motor An unbalanced switching circuit is connected with a bi-directional control rectifier in such a manner that variance of counter electro motive forces produced by rotation of an AC motor affects the lower switching voltage in the unbalanced switching circui... | 01/17/1978 |
| 4038584 | Protective arrangement for dependent switching circuits This invention comprises a fusible resistor in a solid state relay comprising two solid state switches connected in parallel with each other, but in series with a load and a source of current. When the first of the two switches is switched on, the second ... | 07/26/1977 |
| 3935482 | Electronic switching circuit with zero voltage switching Disclosed is an electronic switch circuit including a switching thyristor with two switch terminals that are connected to a controlled circuit. A trigger circuit is coupled to the gate terminal of the thyristor to selectively supply trigger signals and th... | 01/27/1976 |
