Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6903261 | Solar concentrator A solar concentrator module comprising a front lens on its front face, a receiver cell on its rear face and a reflector between the front lens and the receiver cell, said reflector having inclined sidewalls along at least two opposite sides of the receiver cell char... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6763826 | Solar water heater A solar water heater is provided. The heater features heat control so that a maximum temperature is automatically controlled. The heater is insulated to maintain a water temperature of water stored therein for long periods of time. The heater includes an insulated l... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6372978 | Wind/sun solar collection system (HS2) The present invention is a self-contained, solar powered heating and cooling system for a building. The collector has an insulated heating chamber, and a light transmissive cover and a thermostatically controlled vent. The chamber contains absorptive colu... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6109258 | Device for capturing solar energy and transferring it onto a receiving medium to be heated The invention concerns a device for capturing solar energy and transferring it onto a receiving medium to be heated. The device comprises a multiplicity of blades (16), mutually spaced and tiered up to form a screen (10) with an external surface (18) for ... | 08/29/2000 |
| 5981865 | Apparatus for utilizing solar energy An apparatus (10) for utilizing solar energy includes an outer shell body (11), an inner body (40) inside it, and a hollow body (30) provided in between which are formed in a shape of a uniform polyhedron, in particular a dodecahedron. The shell body (11)... | 11/09/1999 |
| 5931157 | Thermal insulation/thermal collector assembly A combined thermal-insulation/thermal-collector assembly for the outside walls or roofs of buildings has a heat-insulating layer which is transparent to solar radiation and is designed with a transparent structure. The heat-insulating material including a... | 08/03/1999 |
| 5735262 | Solar energy diffuser A diffuser to be used with a solar energy concentrator and a solar energy receiver to more uniformly distribute solar energy to the receiver and to reduce the amount of energy lost due to circulation of air into and out of the receiver. A portion of the s... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5657745 | Solar heat collecting panel A solar heat collecting panel having three stacked compartments enclosed within a frame. A pair of similar spaced apart parallel clear plastic sheets form the top and bottom of the uppermost compartment. The middle compartment is formed by the bottom shee... | 08/19/1997 |
| 5009218 | Heat-insulating building and/or light element A building and/or light element includes at least two parallel wall elements (1) between which support elements (2) for the formation of an evacuated interspace (3) are placed and are connected by a flexible seal on the edge. The distance between the wall... | 04/23/1991 |
| 5005557 | Heat-insulating building and/or light element A building and/or light element comprises at least two parallel wall elements (1) between which support elements (2) for the formation of an evacuated interspace (3) are placed and the wall elements are connected by a flexible seal on the edges. The dista... | 04/09/1991 |
| 4993403 | Method and apparatus for trapping heat energy A heat trap for collecting heat energy includes an enclosure having an interior surface reflective with respect to heat energy within the enclosure and a heat absorbent exterior surface. Heat energy applied to the exterior surface of the enclosure is abso... | 02/19/1991 |
| 4723535 | Solar trap This invention relates to a solar energy collecting device that concentrates the intensity of the sunlight by funneling the sunlight with one or more light funnels having a substantially V-shaped cross section made of light reflecting surfaces. The sunlig... | 02/09/1988 |
| 4565186 | Passive-type solar device A passive-type solar device comprising a transparent plate disposed for exposure to sunlight, a reflecting film curtain provided in alignment with said transparent plate and adapted for covering and uncovering movement with respect thereto, and a heat ins... | 01/21/1986 |
| 4561424 | Nontracking parabolic solar energy collector apparatus A mirror collector having a generally parabolic surface terminating near the vertex in a circular or cylindrical curve, an evacuated cylindrical heat entrapment tube composed of a clear glass for energy admission and two pair of elongated heat collector t... | 12/31/1985 |
| 4527544 | High insulating solar block structures A light-transmissive solar insulating block assembly comprising: light-transmissive insulating block means defining at least one internal cavity for insulating the interior of a structure to be heated; a housing having a light-transmissive cover providing... | 07/09/1985 |
| 4411256 | Solar collector Apparatus including an insulated housing having multiple generally parallel layers of fluid carriers with laterally extending portions which are arranged in a staggered serpentine manner. A first screen extends back and forth between the laterally extendi... | 10/25/1983 |
| 4370974 | Inverted channel focusing solar collector A solar energy collector in the shape of an inverted geometric cusp of the second kind which permits the collection of direct and diffuse solar radiation, and which attenuates losses by thermal convection, conduction, and reverse radiation or re-radiation... | 02/01/1983 |
| 4346695 | Solar heat exchanger A solar heat exchanger comprising a frame having an inner surface area defined by upstanding walls, ends and bottom wherein an insulation layer of relatively uniform thickness is spread throughout the inner surface. A plurality of channels are spaced thro... | 08/31/1982 |
| 4323053 | Solar heater with integral heat trap glazing A solar heater including a housing having a combined transparent front wall and heat trap, a radiation absorbent collector element positioned in the housing and arranged to accept incident solar radiation passing through the front wall, and means for pass... | 04/06/1982 |
| 4321910 | Emitter-receiver panel having high radiant energy efficiency The panel is constituted by a heat-conducting flat metallic support plate provided with at least one absorbent surface composed of metallic tubes in the form of right circular cylinders having axes at right angles to the surface and disposed on a uniform ... | 03/30/1982 |
| 4301787 | Solar heat collector Disclosed herein is a solar heat collector which is placed across an open window area for selectively heating the interior of a dwelling place or the like. The collector includes a plurality of fins transversely disposed across the window area between two... | 11/24/1981 |
| 4300538 | Solar energy receivers The disclosure illustrates a solar energy collector of the focusing type where the beam component of solar radiation is reflected and focused along a focal axis. A heat conductive tube for heat exchange fluid is positioned along the focal axis. A cylindri... | 11/17/1981 |
| 4299202 | Integrated solar roof system and method of producing same An integrated solar roof system, consisting of insulated roofing panels and collector panels, and method of producing same wherein the base assembly of the collector panel may be used with either an air or liquid absorber and is both an insulator and radi... | 11/10/1981 |
| 4294232 | Solar collector A solar collector is designed for converting solar radiation into heat and transferring the heat thus collected, by means of a chamber formed of a window exposed to the sun and allowing passage of solar radiation, and of a bottom or opposite end-face. Thi... | 10/13/1981 |
| 4262657 | Solar air heater A solar air heater including a housing having a transparent front wall and an inlet and outlet for establishing a flow path for a gas such as air to be heated and a porous radiation absorbent collector plate positioned across the flow path and arranged to... | 04/21/1981 |
| 4221209 | Solar heat exchange panel Heat-absorbing bars having a V-shape are placed parallel to one another in a spaced relationship over a reflective surface. Sunlight strikes the bars on their exposed surface and also off the reflective surface against the underside of the bars. Water tub... | 09/09/1980 |
| 4220139 | Solar panel shielding A solar energy collector is disclosed. The collector has a frame, a window and an absorber enclosed by the frame and a combined heat trapping and heat shielding arrangement between the window and the absorber. The trapping and shielding arrangement consis... | 09/02/1980 |
| 4153042 | Solar collector A solar collector comprised of a frame and a plurality of tubular collector elements. Each collector element is comprised of an outer transparent tube, a metallic absorber tube, and an intermediate transparent tube which encloses the absorber tube. The ab... | 05/08/1979 |
| 4137899 | Multistage solar energy concentrator A plural stage solar radiation fluid heater comprises a housing having a top in which there is an array of lenses. Near the inside bottom of the housing, there is a first fluid conduit located at the foci of the lenses for absorbing primary solar radiatio... | 02/06/1979 |
| 4089325 | Solar heated boiler The invention has for its object a solar boiler comprising a surface exposed to radiations, having a plurality of cavities or cells acting as black bodies. Each of the cavities is formed by a blind tube protruding in a space in which a heat conveying flui... | 05/16/1978 |
| 4078544 | Corrugated cover plate for flat plate collector A flat plate radiant energy collector is providing having a transparent cover. The cover has a V-corrugated shape which reduces the amount of energy reflected by the cover away from the flat plate absorber of the collector.... | 03/14/1978 |
| 4062346 | Solar collector unit A solar collector unit including a corrugated absorber element coated with a reflectively selective coating; a plurality of thin, low mass, low thermal conductivity, thermal isolating elements for supporting the absorber element; and an insulation medium ... | 12/13/1977 |
| 4046135 | Highly efficient solar collector including means for preventing cover plate fluid condensation A solar energy collector of low cost and high thermal efficiency is disclosed having a heat trap produced by zigzagging a thin strip of polyethylene terephthalate between opposite sides of the trap while wrapping the strip about rows of dowels positioned ... | 09/06/1977 |
| 4026273 | Solar fluid heater with electromagnetic radiation trap A solar fluid heater including a radiation trap for concentrating solar radiation which has been focused on or near a line at the center of a transparent pipe assembly containing the fluid to be heated is described. The pipe assembly may include one or mo... | 05/31/1977 |
| 4019496 | Collecting solar energy In a solar-to-thermal energy converter comprising an insulated frame, a solar energy absorber mounted in the frame, fluid flow heat exchanger means thermally coupled to the absorber to carry away as thermal energy the absorbed solar energy, and a window t... | 04/26/1977 |
| 3996918 | Solar energy collector unit A modular solar collector unit is arranged for symmetrical connection to other similar collectors to form a solar energy collection system. The individual units are arranged to be interlocked without special tools and without special know-how on the part ... | 12/14/1976 |
| 3951129 | Solar energy absorber A solar energy absorber including a tubular absorber surface through which a fluid passes for transferring thermal energy from the absorber to other devices. Positioned above the tubular absorber surface are a plurality of spaced glass layers. Positioned ... | 04/20/1976 |
