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 |
| 4292848 | Walking-gate ultrasonic flaw detector A microprocessor-based ultrasonic inspection system reliably detects fatigue cracks smaller than 0.030 inch under installed fasteners by means of a unique signal-processing method. The signal-processing used in this invention takes advantage of the fact t... | 10/06/1981 |
| 4290308 | Method of monitoring defects in tubular products A defect such as a crack in a steam pipe is monitored by employing ultrasonic techniques to generate defect dependent signals and employing an Adaptive Learning Network (ALN) model to analyze the signals, whereby changes in the defect can be detected.... | 09/22/1981 |
| 4274288 | Method for measuring the depth of surface flaws Disclosed is a method for measuring the depth a of a surface flaw in an object, including the steps of irradiating the flaw with an incident acoustic surface wave signal, detecting a reflected acoustic surface wave signal, including a first portion reflec... | 06/23/1981 |
| 4271705 | Method and device for generating acoustic pulses A method and device for generating acoustic pulses, preferably ultrasonic, and the use of such pulses, more particularly for non-destructive material testing. The acoustic pulses are produced by a modulation or multiplication technique.... | 06/09/1981 |
| 4271389 | Method and apparatus for physiologic facsimile imaging of biologic targets without multipath contamination using remote microwave interrogation A physiologic facsimile image of a biological target without multipath comination is obtained by first producing, for each one of a plurality of sample locations which are spaced so as to define a two-dimensional array, a time delay spectrum wherein the ... | 06/02/1981 |
| 4270546 | Device for ultrasonic examination of biological structures A device for determining preferred directions in biological structures by ultrasonic examination. The device comprises an electroacoustic converter which is sub-divided into at least four sectors and which comprises transducers which are combined in group... | 06/02/1981 |
| 4249421 | Method to determine the shear absorption of a rubberlike material The shear absorption of a viscoelastic material is determined by directing acoustical energy at the viscoelastic material and sampling the backscattered signals that result when compressional waves propagate through the material and are scattered by eithe... | 02/10/1981 |
| 4249422 | Apparatus and process for determining the composition of fluid-filled cavities An apparatus and method for determining the material properties characterizing a fluid contained in a cavity inside a solid comprises analyzing the resonances in the amplitude of elastic waves scattered by the cavity. Specifically, the resonance positions... | 02/10/1981 |
| 4228804 | Diagnostic ultrasonography utilizing frequency spectrum analysis presented in terms of B-scan color patterns or X-Y graph displays Ultrasonographic means and method for visualizing the internal structure and composition of an in vivo soft tissue specimen as a function of its effect on the frequency spectrum of an applied complex wave pulse of short duration provided by a single wideb... | 10/21/1980 |
| 4226121 | Ultrasonic imaging system and improved signal processor therefor In an ultrasonic imaging system, a signal processor is provided which converts the portions of the received signal representing sonic reflections to more closely resemble the acoustic impedance changes which generated the reflections. The signal processor... | 10/07/1980 |
| 4217909 | Directional detection of blood velocities in an ultrasound system The velocity and direction of the flow of blood and similar liquids, toward or away from the transducer, are measured by coherent demodulation of the received echoes in two quadrature components and subsequent real time processing by a complex Fourier tra... | 08/19/1980 |
| 4206653 | Ultrasonic apparatus In an ultrasonic investigating apparatus a transducer can receive reflections from points in the body for which the position in one direction is relatively well known as a result of accurate range gating but for which the position in another direction is ... | 06/10/1980 |
| 4176658 | Ultrasonic echogram display A method of displaying information obtained by pulse-echo ultrasonic examination of an object, particularly in medical diagnostic examination, comprises forming a first display representing the positions of acoustic impedance discontinuities within the ob... | 12/04/1979 |
| 4145741 | Signal processing arrangements For systems, such as ultrasonic investigative systems, analyzing pulses received after transmission or reflection, it is known to apply swept gain to the received signal to overcome loss in propagation. This is achieved in this invention by converting the... | 03/20/1979 |
| 4137775 | Ultrasonic apparatus In an ultrasonic investigating apparatus a transducer can receive reflections from points in the body for which the position in one direction is relatively well known as a result of accurate range gating but for which the position in another direction is ... | 02/06/1979 |
| 4121468 | Method and apparatus for reflective ultrasonic imaging utilizing reconstruction of acoustic impedance projections An ultrasonic imaging system for medical and industrial applications produces quantitative acoustic impedance distributions from reflection data. The method and scanner apparatus with analog computation circuitry herein described acquires echo pulses refl... | 10/24/1978 |
| 4106327 | Anisotropic determination and correction for ultrasonic flaw detection by spectral analysis The anisotropic nature of a material is determined by measuring the velocity of an ultrasonic longitudinal wave and a pair of perpendicular ultrasonic shear waves through a sample of the material each at a plurality of different angles in three planes ort... | 08/15/1978 |
| 4105018 | Acoustic examination, material characterization and imaging of the internal structure of a body by measurement of the time-of-flight of acoustic energy therethrough Pulses of acoustic energy are transmitted from a plurality of different directions through a plane of interest, or a number of adjacent planes of interest, of a body to be examined. The body may be biological or non-biological. Time-of-flight of the pulse... | 08/08/1978 |
| 4099416 | Resolution real-time ultrasonic imaging apparatus A real-time ultrasonic imaging system includes a display which is compensated for the non-ideal characteristics of the search beam profile. Echo responsive electrical signals are provided to a preprogrammed computing means for being processed to compensat... | 07/11/1978 |
| 4098130 | Energy reflection flaw detection system An energy reflection flaw detection system utilizes a programmable system synchronization means having high stability and resolution, to facilitate the detection of flaws within an object to be analyzed even in the presence of relatively large amplitude r... | 07/04/1978 |
| 4098129 | Non-destructive testing of materials using ultrasonic waves A method of non-destructively testing materials comprises directing an incident beam of ultrasonic waves onto the surface of a material and detecting the beam reflected by the surface, the angle of incidence and the wavelength of the ultrasonic waves bein... | 07/04/1978 |
| 4095597 | Arrangement for measuring cross-sectional fluctuations of conduits streamed through by fluids and for supplying indications of volumetric flow and/or conduit elasticity based thereon An arrangement for measuring cross-sectional fluctuations on conduits which are streamed through by fluids, particularly blood vessels, pursuant to the Ultrasound-Doppler method, through the utilization of an ultrasound transmitter-receiver system, a Dopp... | 06/20/1978 |
| 4075883 | Ultrasonic fan beam scanner for computerized time-of-flight tomography A fast ultrasonic scanner for soft tissue imaging and/or characterization has a transmitter with a divergent beam pattern and an arcuate array of receivers. The propagation delay time of a short acoustic pulse traversing a water bath and immersed specimen... | 02/28/1978 |
| 4074564 | Reconstruction system and method for ultrasonic imaging Short bursts of ultrasonic energy are directed through a three-dimensional specimen to determine the spatial distribution of those structures within the specimen capable of affecting the waveform of the energy. Transducers are placed in spaced positions a... | 02/21/1978 |
| 4063549 | Ultrasonic method and apparatus for imaging and characterization of bodies Method and apparatus are provided for the determination of the Raylographic information of a body part which is ensonified by acoustical energy pulses by a particularly precisely focused acoustical focusing system to produce acoustical energy echo pulses ... | 12/20/1977 |
| 4052889 | System for measurement of subsurface fatigue crack size A system for detecting and measuring subsurface fatigue cracks wherein acoustic pulse-echo data from the crack under test are manipulated to extract all acoustic characteristics by means of a Fourier operation, deconvolution and inverse Fourier operation,... | 10/11/1977 |
| 4050292 | Method and apparatus for testing railroad wheels An ultrasonic pulse-echo apparatus tests railroad wheels passing through a test zone by sending ultrasonic energy into the rim of the wheels. Sensing means are disposed to discern the type of wheel e.g. locomotive wheel or freight car wheel to be tested a... | 09/27/1977 |
| 4011750 | Method and apparatus for ultrasonic examination of objects Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of an object comprising a transmer for transmitting pulses of ultrasonic energy into the object and a receiver for receiving echoes of the pulses of ultrasonic energy reflected by acoustic impedance discontinuitie... | 03/15/1977 |
| 3996791 | Ultrasonic test method and apparatus utilizing scattered signals In a pulse-echo ultrasonic test arrangement the back reflected echo acoustic wave signal as well as the scattered longitudinal wave and scattered shear wave signals are utilized in an evaluation circuit for determining more accurately the characteristics ... | 12/14/1976 |
| 3991607 | High resolution pulse-echo ultrasonic method and apparatus Acoustic discontinuity responsive echo signals are compressed using special evaluating means for increasing the resolution of pulse-echo test apparatus. The acoustic discontinuity responsive echo signal undergoes mathematical convolution with a predetermi... | 11/16/1976 |
| 3968680 | Wide-band ultrasonic transducer and its uses A wide-band ultrasonic transducer comprising: a body of revolution; at least two electrodes connected to the body of revolution; the body of revolution being made of a material having piezoelectric properties; the body of revolution having one flat end fa... | 07/13/1976 |
| 3953822 | Wave-energy imaging technique A circumferential array of n transducers is used to image an object with resolution equal to that of an array over the entire bounded aperture. This is done by illuminating the object with m components of coherent wave energy, and coherently detecting the... | 04/27/1976 |
| 3934458 | Method and apparatus for pulse echo imaging Method and apparatus are provided for processing the successive echo pulses which result from the interrogation of a layered material by energy pulses, and include the direct provision from said echo pulses of the uncompensated coherent echo response of s... | 01/27/1976 |
