Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 4190962 | Navigation devices Improvements are disclosed in the pattern cone of the magnetic compass as described and claimed in copending application 769409, Harold T. Lyman, Jr., now U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,113. Simpler apparatus for trimming the sensor outputs of the sine and cosine of... | 03/04/1980 |
| 4177517 | Monitoring device for power presses A monitoring device is described for use with a rotary drive shaft of a machine tool, such as a power press. The monitoring device includes a light emitting means and a photo-electric receiving means for producing a discrete electrical signal for each rot... | 12/04/1979 |
| 4166291 | Chord liner using angle measurement A track aligning device for monitoring the curvature of a track and adjusting the track successively to correct the curvature incorporates three rods mounted on a car or cars running on the track and pivotably connected together, the rods defining three c... | 08/28/1979 |
| 4137638 | Electromechanical survey vehicle and method A method and vehicle are disclosed for surveying terrain by providing data from which three-dimensional coordinates of the path of the vehicle on the terrain are calculated. The vehicle includes two members articulated to one another and each member is su... | 02/06/1979 |
| 4136558 | Electronic test instrument for measuring the speed and timing angle of an internal combustion engine Direct readings of the timing angle and duration of the fuel injection of a diesel engine along with the engine speed are provided by an electronic test instrument that converts the duration of the timing advance and the duration of one engine revolution ... | 01/30/1979 |
| 4099495 | Method and apparatus to determine the timing of a periodically repetitive event with respect to the position of a rotating body, and more particularly ignition timing, fuel injection timing, and the like, in automotive internal combustion engines A pair of marker signals are generated with respect to a predetermined crankshaft position; the leading edge of the marker signal is used as a control edge to generate, by digital calculation, a digital control signal calculated in accordance with engine ... | 07/11/1978 |
| 4094073 | Angle detector An angle detector for determining a transducer's angular disposition to a capacitive pickup element. The transducer comprises a pendulum mounted inductive element moving past the capacitive pickup element. The capacitive pickup element divides the inducti... | 06/13/1978 |
| 4063538 | Ignition timing control method and apparatus A method and apparatus for controlling the ignition timing in an internal combustion engine. The angular position of peak cylinder pressure is measured and to the extent such angular position deviates from a preselected set point, the time of spark igniti... | 12/20/1977 |
| 3989024 | Constant energy electronic ignition system A first sensor couples to an internal combustion engine and generates a first set of pulses suitable for ignition firing. A second sensor operates in synchronism to the first sensor producing a second set of multiple pulses, during the interval between a ... | 11/02/1976 |
| 3986007 | Method and apparatus for calibrating mechanical-visual part manipulating system An automaton includes a work part supporting and manipulating system having sensors which provide signals indicative of the position of the work holder in a first coordinate system and a television system which can observe a part and generate signals repr... | 10/12/1976 |
| 3952420 | Digital solid state compass A timing circuit receives substantially square wave clock signals and generates Sine and Cosine driving signals therefrom at a predetermined frequency for application to first and second mutually perpendicular Hall effect generators. The output signals fr... | 04/27/1976 |
| 3953713 | Reel diameter discriminator A web or sheet material supply reel is monitored for minimum diameter in anticipation of a continuously running splice from an exhausted supply reel to a fresh supply reel. The monitoring technique is to combine electrical pulses proportional to the passa... | 04/27/1976 |
| 3932740 | Method and apparatus for processing two d.c. voltages, especially representing unbalance components In a method and apparatus for processing a pair of d.c. signals representing information having angular and amplitude components, in particular, information relating to the unbalance of a body to be balanced, coordinate transformation means are provided i... | 01/13/1976 |
