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 |
| 8028721 | Heated garden hose for use cold weather The present invention is related to a heated garden hose that has a flexible hose with an inlet and an outlet. The garden hose has an inlet coupler and an outlet coupler. A heating cable coupler is connected between the inlet and the outlet of the flexible hose. A h... | 10/04/2011 |
| 7469719 | Limb for breathing circuit A limb for a breathing circuit manufactured from very thin walled polymer materials has an elongate axial reinforcing spine lying freely inside the conduit and fixed to each end connector. The spine is laterally compliant but axially stiff. The spine provides resist... | 12/30/2008 |
| 7282638 | Protection profile for subsea cables An elongated object for use in subsea having a heating pipe and an electrical cable fixed to the surface of the heating pipe. The electrical cable has a protective sleeving for surrounding the electrical cable, composed of a series of elongated synthetic plastics co... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7260320 | Electric heat tracing Heat tracing of an elongate, thermally-insulated substrate is effected by means of one or more elongate, constant wattage electric heaters mounted in thermal contact therewith beneath the thermal insulation. A metal conduit is mounted on the substrate and extends aw... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7256374 | Induction heating apparatus for controlling the welding parameter of temperature for heat treating a section of piping The present invention relates to a novel induction heating apparatus for controlling the welding parameter of temperature for a pre-weld heating operation, interpass operation, or a hydrogen bake-out operation. Specifically, the present invention relates to using a ... | 08/14/2007 |
| 7243716 | Heated windable rigid duct for transporting fluids, particularly hydrocarbons Rigid wound or reelable pipe (1) for transporting hydrocarbons having a single-walled or double-walled envelope comprising two coaxial pipes, internal (2) and external (3), respectively, separated by an annular space, comprising at least one ele... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7220947 | Pipe heater A heater for heating elongated objects includes an elongated strip of flexible material having first and second ends and elongated opposite side edges defining a width therebetween. The strip of material comprises a fiber reinforced elastomeric material having at le... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7159905 | Material feed hose system and method of constructing a material feed hose system A material feed hose has a multilayered hose with an inflow end, an intermediate length, and an outflow end. The hose has an an armored crush-resistant outer layer and a heating layer disposed between an inner layer and an intermediate insulating layer. A pair of ho... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7156127 | Current carrying stretch hose An improved flexible hose for carrying fluids is disclosed. The hose has a first end and a second end, and is typically in a retracted position when no tensile force placed on an end of the hose and in an extended condition when a tensile force of a pulling nature i... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7155461 | Information processing system Information such as a last scan time and a last update is encrypted and added to a file system that a CPU 132 on a host computer 13 manages. In accordance with the information, host 13 and a scan server work cooperatively. A scan is omitted for ... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7108018 | Reinforced flexible hose A reinforced flexible hose comprising as least a first inner extruded tubular layer and at least a second extruded tubular layer with a tubular reinforcement fabric provided between said first and second hoses. The two tubes are joined so as to form a homogeneous un... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7086422 | Respiratory gas hose system for supplying a respiratory gas A respiratory gas hose system for supplying a respiratory gas is provided, particularly for use in the frame work of CPAP therapy. The respiratory gas hose system comprises a flexible hose line including a flexible sheathing body to surround the flexible hose line, ... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7077164 | Pipe A pipe has an innermost layer, outside of which there is an inner electrode layer, outside of which there is an insulating layer, outside of which there is an outer electrode layer. The innermost layer is made of plastic by continuous extrusion and the insulating la... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7069957 | Thermal insulation device for at least one underwater pipe compressing sealed partitions The present invention concerns a device for heat-insulating at least one sub-marine pipe. The sub-marine pipe includes a heat insulation covering including a material subject to migration, the covering surrounding the pipe and being covered by a sealed protective en... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7063011 | Hot stamping cylinder The hot stamping cylinder (1) is provided with a heating system which consists of a heating foil (3) which is arranged on the inner wall of the cylinder (1), enabling extraordinarily quick heating and cooling times. In addition to actually heati... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7037104 | Device and method for exposing a candle wick embedded in candle wax A device and method for exposing the ignitable end of a candle wick embedded in wax leaving an area around the wick to facilitate future lighting. The device includes an elongate hollow heated tube, heated by a heating source which heats the elongate hollow tube to ... | 05/02/2006 |
| 6955221 | Active heating of thermally insulated flowlines Hydrocarbon liquids are transported from a subsea welihead to an above-surface hydrocarbon processing facility along a pipe-in-pipe flowline. The flowline is a pipe placed coaxially within an outer carrier pipe and the annulus between the pipes is filled with therma... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6805167 | Fluid conduit A fluid conduit has a peripheral wall defining a fluid passage extending along a longitudinal access. A heating element is located in contact with the peripheral wall and extending parallel to the longitudinal access. A jacket entrained about the peripheral wall and... | 10/19/2004 |
| 6617556 | Method and apparatus for heating a submarine pipeline A novel system for inductively heating a fluid conduit using an electrical cable located proximate the fluid conduit. Electricity is conducted to the cable in either a powering mode, in which a powered system is electrically coupled to the cable and subst... | 09/09/2003 |
| 6574982 | Icemaker fill tube assembly In one aspect, a fill tube assembly for supplying water to an icemaker is described. In one embodiment, the assembly comprises a grommet comprising and inlet and an outlet, and a fill tube configured for coupling to the grommet outlet. The fill tube compr... | 06/10/2003 |
| 6536458 | Device for heating a tap The aim of the invention is to prevent outer taps from being damaged by the effects of frost. To this end, the invention provides a heating device for heating a tap (1) with an electrothermal converter (2) means. Said heating device is mounted in or on th... | 03/25/2003 |
| 6371693 | Making subsea pipelines ready for electrical heating Apparatus and method are provided for connecting electrical power for heating subsea pipelines after the pipeline is deployed. Electrical connections may be made subsea using wet-mateable connectors. The electrical power may be supplied from a boat or may... | 04/16/2002 |
| 6316751 | Apparatus for forming field joints on plastic coated pipe A system and apparatus for and method of fusing a wrap to a portion of a length of plastic-coated pipe are disclosed. The system comprises a thermoplastic piece shaped to conform to the portion of pipe, the piece including a heat-generating trace and the ... | 11/13/2001 |
| 6315497 | Joint for applying current across a pipe-in-pipe system A heated flowline electrical isolation joint is disclosed for introducing current into a pipe-in-pipe system having an outer and an inner pipe. A hub presents a load flange having tension and compression load shoulders on its terminal end and connects to ... | 11/13/2001 |
| 6305423 | Thermoplastic or thermoset pipes including conductive textile reinforcements for heating and leak detection purposes Novel thermoplastic pipes which can withstand internally generated and/or applied pressures for utilization within, primarily, underground liquid and gas transport systems are provided. Such pipes are improvements over standard metal (i.e., steel, lead, a... | 10/23/2001 |
| 6305422 | Undersink frozen pipe thawing system A micro heater assembly (10) is provided with a micro heater (12) on the distal end (14) of an elongated support wire (16). Micro heater (12) is insertable into a normally water-carrying aperture (141) of an accessible pipe portion (68) under a valved out... | 10/23/2001 |
| 6230745 | Pipe heating device A pipe heating device for conveniently thawing out pipelines. The pipe heating device includes a scissor-like member including a first elongate member having a first end, a second end, and an intermediate portion, and also including a second elongate memb... | 05/15/2001 |
| 6219490 | Ventilation tube, particularly for medical devices The present invention relates to a ventilation tube particularly for medical devices, which has the particularity that it comprises a tubular body made of flexible plastics which forms raised ridges on its outer surface. An electric wire is embedded in at... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6213157 | Submarine pipeline for transporting petroleum products A pipeline comprises flow lines in which petroleum products flow and a protective carrier pipe around the flow lines. It further comprises a buoyancy module made of a thermally insulative material that is mechanically resistant to the hydrostatic pressure... | 04/10/2001 |
| 6170533 | Wiremesh reinforcement-plastic composite pipe component and method for making the same A pipe has a wiremesh reinforcement-plastic composite construction that includes a first and second spiral reinforcing wire layer. The first spiral reinforcing layer has grooves formed at selected intervals, and the second spiral reinforcing wire layer is... | 01/09/2001 |
| 6142707 | Direct electric pipeline heating A system for direct electric heating of a subsea pipeline is disclosed in the form of a pipe-in-pipe flowline having an electrically conductive outer carrier pipe and an electrically conductive inner pipe or flowline arranged longitudinally, substantially... | 11/07/2000 |
| 6131617 | Safety-enhanced heat tracing Safety-enhanced steam tracing includes a metallic tube with a thin jacket of polymeric material, such as silicone rubber. The polymeric jacket is typically about 40 mils to about 60 mils thick. The safety-enhanced steam tracing provides a substantially lo... | 10/17/2000 |
| 6070615 | Leakproof and fireproof tubing A leakproof and fireproof tubing according to the invention comprises an inner tube for guiding a chemical fluid, a heater surrounding the inner tube, a foil enclosing the inner tube which is already surrounded by the heater, and an outer tube surrounding... | 06/06/2000 |
| 6041821 | Frozen pipe thawing system A micro heater assembly (10) is provided with a micro heater (12) on the distal end (14) of an elongated support wire (16). Micro heater (12) is insertable into a frozen pipe (60) to reach the frozen area (100) of the pipe (60) whereat to thaw pipe (60) f... | 03/28/2000 |
| 6043466 | Hot runner heating clamp A system for clamping an object, such as a heater, to a cylindrical member, such as a nozzle or a hot runner channel is described. The system has at least one deformable elastic member for applying a clamping force to the object so as to hold the object a... | 03/28/2000 |
| 6031972 | Impedance heating system An impedance heating system generally includes an outer tubular member having a first end and a second end, and an inner tubular member having a first end and a second end positioned coaxially inside the outer member. The inner member extends substantiall... | 02/29/2000 |
| 6019123 | Apparatus and kit for preventing freezing in pipes The present invention is an apparatus and kit for preventing freezing in pipes. In its most basic form, the apparatus of the present invention includes three lengths of uninsulated flexible ductwork, each having a pair of connectors attached to each end, ... | 02/01/2000 |
| 5979506 | Arrangement in a pipe bundle The present invention relates to an arrangement in a pipe bundle, more specifically to a method and a system for heating subsea or on-shore pipelines, especially pipelines for transportation of substantially oil, gas and water, said pipelines (8, 108, 208... | 11/09/1999 |
| 5975119 | Ice-proof fluid line assemblies Apparatus for conducting fluid and preventing its icing have a fluid line structure and a tubular fluid line element located in that fluid line structure and having a cross-section sufficient for a desired throughput of fluid. A heater element is located ... | 11/02/1999 |
| 5859953 | Electric heating apparatus for deicing pipes utilizing flexible heated hose inserted into pipe A electric heating apparatus for de-icing pipes includes a flexible hose with a closed bottom end and a top end. The hose has a pair of insulated wires situated within an interior of the hose and a plug coupled to the top end of the hose. The plug has a p... | 01/12/1999 |
