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 |
| 7993240 | Variable ratio gear A variable ratio gear system is configured for use with a constant speed generator being driven by a variable speed rotor. The variable ratio system includes three shafts: The first shaft is mechanically coupled to the rotor; the second shaft is mechanically coupled... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7510502 | Method for preventing load change impacts in a motor vehicle Load change impacts in a motor vehicle, especially as a result of abrupt changes in the position of the accelerator pedal, are prevented with the novel method. At least one dual clutch mechanism is provided between the drive engine and the gearbox. The gearbox has s... | 03/31/2009 |
| 7357753 | Method for regulating the rotational speed of a clutch-independent power take-off Method for regulating the rotational speed of a clutch-independent power take-off. The power take-off is driven by an engine arranged in a vehicle. The engine is connected to an automatic stagegeared transmission by way of an automated vehicle clutch. At least one c... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7356397 | Crowd control system for a loader A work vehicle comprising a motor, a drive unit for driving a ground engaging portion, a torque converter for variably transferring power from the motor to the ground engaging portion, a lubrication circuit for providing lubrication fluid to the torque converter, an... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7220213 | Vehicle control apparatus A vehicle control apparatus is configured to avoid a forward lunging of a vehicle during a downshift while decelerating. The vehicle control apparatus has a clutch element that operatively coupled to an output of an engine to perform a gear shift operation and a con... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7212888 | Method for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle A method for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle considers several desired input quantities of different priority in the formation of a desired value. At least one output quantity of the drive unit is adjusted in dependence upon the desired value input quantitie... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7201703 | Gear type speed change unit control device, control method, and automobile A control device for giving an existing gear type transmission a parking lock function to lock a vehicle; a control method thereof; and an automobile having an improved transmission. The gear type transmission comprises a gear type speed change mechanism (5) ... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7165662 | Mobile vehicle comprising a friction clutch and an inch pedal A mobile vehicle comprising a shiftable transmission with fixed gear ratio steps and a controllable friction clutch contains a distance sensor, which is connected to an inch pedal and in which the starting position and the end position of the inch pedal are adjusted... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7158872 | Method of timed shift to neutral in apparent stationary modes A control for a transmission and a clutch monitors conditions to determine when a vehicle associated with the clutch and transmission is likely in a stationary state. If the vehicle appears to be stationary, with the transmission engaged and the clutch open, then th... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7153235 | Running control device for industrial vehicle The present invention provides a running control device for an industrial vehicle that has superior driving operability and that allows easy starting and stopping on road surfaces that have sloped or stepped surface. The running control device for an industrial vehi... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7140460 | Vehicle driving force control apparatus A driving force control apparatus is provided for a vehicle capable of preventing a shock from being generated by disengaging a clutch disposed between a subordinate drive source and subordinate drive wheels during vehicle travel. When a transition determination is ... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7101312 | Vehicular power take-off control A vehicular powertrain includes a throttle controlled engine and a power take-off system for driving external loads. A power take-off control executed in a first processor seeks to have engine control authority in accordance with operator invoked switch states inclu... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7097021 | Running control device for industrial vehicle The present invention provides a running control device for an industrial vehicle which generates no speed change shock when the traveling direction is switched to the opposite direction by the forward-reverse selection member during the running of the vehicle. The ... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7074160 | Controller for driving system of vehicle A control device for a drive line of a vehicle, in which a drive line from a power source to drive wheel includes a wheel control for controlling the speed of the wheels, and a connection mechanism for increasing/decreasing a torque transmission capacity between the... | 07/11/2006 |
| 6979280 | Control apparatus and control method for vehicle In a control apparatus for a vehicle, when a coast downshifting is performed in response to a downshifting command from a vehicle operator during braking operation under the fuel cut control, the braking force of the wheel brake is increased so as to increase the de... | 12/27/2005 |
| 6969341 | Engine deceleration control system An engine deceleration control system for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle is arranged to prohibit correcting an air quantity supplied to the engine when an elapsed time period from a moment of turning off of an accelerator of the engine is within a first ... | 11/29/2005 |
| 6951525 | Method and device for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle A method for controlling the drive unit of a vehicle in which an extended overrun mode having reduced fuel consumption and reduced pollutant emission is possible. A free-wheel mode in which the vehicle operates with the clutch disengaged is set as a function of a dr... | 10/04/2005 |
| 6708096 | Method for controlling an element of a drive train of a vehicle and control unit for performing said method A method and device are described for controlling an element of a drive train, which is influenceable by an operating device, in a vehicle having a control unit and a storage device, the element and/or the operating device being implementable in different variants. ... | 03/16/2004 |
| 6620077 | Work machine having a drive train with an enhanced braking mode An enhanced braking mode for a work machine includes activating engine compression release brakes while placing a torque converter in an overspeed condition. By doing so, both the engine and the torque converter contribute to decelerating the work machine... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6560522 | Driving force control apparatus A driving force control apparatus is configured to prevent degradation of acceleration performance and the occurrence of large torque shock when shifting from the non-execution to the execution of a driving force control operation. A first target driving ... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6551212 | Decelerator system for a work machine A decelerator control system includes a first control member, a machine control device, an engine, at least one brake, and a transmission. The first control member is manually moveable and is adapted to produce a first operator control signal. The machine... | 04/22/2003 |
| 6438479 | Control apparatus for an automatic transmission of a vehicle and method An apparatus for controlling an automatic transmission of an automobile and a control method thereof. When a feedback control is executed by the automatic transmission while the speed is being changed, the control operation may often lose stability. This ... | 08/20/2002 |
| 6421589 | Method and arrangement for detecting a changing quantity for motor vehicles The invention is directed to a method and an arrangement for detecting a changing quantity for a motor vehicle. The changing quantity is the position of an operator-controlled element. At least one stop value is determined for the operator-controlled elem... | 07/16/2002 |
| 6371883 | Vehicular transmission control system A vehicular transmission comprises an engine E, a continuously variable transmission CVT and a starting clutch 5. The driving force from the engine E is conveyed through the continuously variable transmission CVT with a speed change to a countershaft 2, a... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6259986 | Method for controlling an internal combustion engine A method is presented for controlling powertrain torque by minimizing the error between the actual powertrain torque (as read by the torque sensor) and the desired powertrain torque (as requested by the vehicle driver). Since torque sensors are known to d... | 07/10/2001 |
| 6162146 | Electrohydraulic control device for a drive train of a machine In one aspect of the present invention, an electrohydraulic control device for a drive train of a machine is disclosed. A control member produces an operator control signal. An engine control module receives the operator control signal and responsively re... | 12/19/2000 |
| 6137401 | Engine brake indicator light An engine brake indicator system is provided for use with a vehicular accessory power source and a pair of brake lights mounted on a rear of a vehicle. Included is an engine brake having a plurality of engine brake coils, a stage switch, and an engine bra... | 10/24/2000 |
| 6045485 | Circuit for interfacing vehicle drivetrain, service brake, and power take-off with engine control A circuit interfaces the brake, the drivetrain, and an accessory driven from the engine through a power take-off with the engine control so as to disallow application of the brake from discontinuing running of the engine at running speed set by the thrott... | 04/04/2000 |
| 6032095 | Control apparatus for an automatic transmission of a vehicle and method An apparatus and method control an automatic transmission of an automobile. When a feedback control is executed by the automatic transmission while the speed is being changed, the control operation may often lose stability due to a large deviation between... | 02/29/2000 |
| 5993352 | Clutch assembly with control device which determines adapted gripping point and gradient of clutch characteristic curve An automatically controlled clutch is arranged between the engine and the driving wheels in the transmission line of a motor vehicle having a transmission which can be shifted manually in an arbitrary manner between idling and driving positions. A control... | 11/30/1999 |
| 5978719 | Control system for hybrid vehicles A control system for a hybrid vehicle including an internal combustion engine, a drive shaft driven by the engine, a generator for converting kinetic energy of the drive shaft to electrical energy to generate electric power, and an electrical storage devi... | 11/02/1999 |
| 5611751 | Engine speed control and method for operating same A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a power take off ("PTO") controller used on a vehicle. The controller includes a PTO on/off switch, a brake/clutch ignore switch, and a PTO set/resume switch connected to an electronic controller. T... | 03/18/1997 |
| 5492512 | Brake system with wheel-reversing means for an automobile A brake system for an automobile comprises a planetary gear set, a clutch operating unit and an emergency braking unit. The planetary gear set is disposed between gear and clutch assemblies of the automobile and includes a bell-shaped casing with a centra... | 02/20/1996 |
| 5480364 | Elevated idle speed control and method of operating same An elevated idle speed control is disclosed for use with an internal combustion engine on a vehicle. The control includes an electronic controller connected to a brake pedal sensor, a clutch pedal sensor, an engine speed determining means, a vehicle speed... | 01/02/1996 |
| 5459658 | Automatic transmission with programmable shiftpoints An apparatus is provided for use in a vehicle having an engine driven transmission which includes a plurality of gear ratios. The apparatus includes a sensor adapted to sense an operating parameter and responsively produce a parameter signal. A memory dev... | 10/17/1995 |
| 5452208 | Display device A device for optically providing information pertaining to the value of the quotient of the rates of revolution of two axles contains converters connected to the axles, which converters generate electrical signals which are a measure for the rate of revol... | 09/19/1995 |
| 5351776 | Electronic system for a motor vehicle The invention is directed to an control system for a motor vehicle and includes: a plurality of control elements coacting for carrying out control tasks with reference to engine power, drive power and braking operation, respectively, and a plurality of co... | 10/04/1994 |
| 5097724 | Automatic mechanical transmission start control system Preferred embodiments of a mechanical transmission start control system are provided which employ a central processing unit (10) operative to process signals indicative of throttle foot pedal position (26); engine speed (20); transmission input speed (14)... | 03/24/1992 |
| 5042327 | Method for upshifting a compound semi-blocked splitter type automatic mechanical transmission An improved control method and control system for controlling the upshifting of an AMT (10) system including a compound splitter type semi-blocked transmission (12) is provided. In particular, different control logic is utilized to implement simple and co... | 08/27/1991 |
| 4899857 | Automatic transmission apparatus for vehicle An automatic transmission apparatus of the invention includes a friction clutch connected to the output shaft of an engine, a clutch actuator for driving the friction clutch, a parallel shaft type gear transmission whose input shaft is connected to the fr... | 02/13/1990 |
