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Patent No. 5593111

Safety System For Remove a Rider From a Vehicle by Deploying a Parachute

Methods and apparatus for reducing the velocity of a rider in or on an open cockpit vehicle when the rider is thrown from the vehicle.

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Class 172 - Earth working

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837 Subclasses


Subclasses list

Definition

GENERAL STATEMENT OF CLASS SUBJECT MATTER

This is the generic class for subject matter relating to working the earth in situ. Earth working involves physical treatment of the earth and includes beating, compacting, crushing, cultivating, cutting, digging, furrowing, harrowing, leveling, mixing, plowing, pulverizing, rolling, scraping, scratching, smoothing, and tilling.

The earth is usually worked by an earth working element carried on an apparatus traversing the ground but hand held tools such as hoes are also included.

This class also takes subject matter, not otherwise classified relating to the cutting and removal of sod or turf from the ground.

Apparatus comprising means other than earth working means supported on or attached to a vehicle for manipulation in a manner consistent with the use of the means as an earth working means is classifiable in this class if the means is identified in a claim by name only and the claim contains no feature otherwise inconsistent with classification in Class 172. However, lines with other classes have in many cases not been cleared so that where the bulk of the existing art has been classified on a basis other than indicated above such classification is continued.

(1) Note. CLAIMS NOT CONTROLLING IN PATENTS PRIOR TO 1930. Patents prior to 1930 have not necessarily been classified by claims so that the placement of these old patents does not necessarily indicate lines of classification. In view of the large numbers of old patents in this class many of these patents have been classified in accordance with their total disclosure. This is especially true of the patents in subclasses 332+. Most of the patents, however, regardless of their age have been placed in accordance with their claimed subject matter.

Lines with other classes and within this class

SUBJECT MATTER RELATING TO SNOW REMOVAL, TO WORKING THE EARTH FOR INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES, TO COMPACTING EARTH FOR ROADS OR PAVEMENT AND TO WORKING HARD MATERIAL IN SITU

Class 37, Excavating, generally relates to removing snow or to working the earth for industrial purposes as by making a ditch or moving earth by a conveyor or scoop. In many cases the devices found in Class 37 for these purposes are indistinguishable structurally from devices found in Class 172. Classification turns on emphasis for a certain use, such as snow removal or ditch digging. Class 37 formerly contained subclasses 143 through 181 entitled "Scrapers" which included subject matter relating to scraping the earth by means of a blade or such subject matter in combination with other earth working means such as harrows or rollers. The devices in these subclasses were typically road graders or bulldozers for working or moving the earth for industrial purposes. These subclasses were abolished and the art found in them was for the most part incorporated into Class 172 and is to be found in subclasses 4.5, 26.5, 26.6, 777-809 and other appropriate subclasses. Some of the art was specialized to ditch filling and was placed in Class 37 subclass 142.5. The remaining patents were not drawn to scraping blades or such blades combined with simple earth working means and were transferred to appropriate subclasses in Class 37 or other classes. Class 37, subclasses 104+, Railway Graders, and subclasses 381+, Road-Grader Type, were not cleared. Patents in these subclasses should be drawn to devices more specialized than the general utility scrapers or "road graders" which were classified in abolished subclasses 143-181.

Class 299, Mining or In Situ Disintegration of Hard Material, as the title indicates, generally provides for the working of hard earth material such as rock and also the working of ice in situ. However, a tool which is actually of general utility in earth working, such as a ripper tooth or scraper and traverses the earth without relative movement with respect to its support (as by rolling or cyclical driving) is classifiable in Class 172 even if solely disclosed for disintegrating rock.

Class 404, Road Structure, Process, or Apparatus, subclasses 117, 121, and 122+, for a roller device which performs a simple compacting function on the earth. See the note to Class 172, under the class definition of Class 404.

JOINTS

Many of the patents relating to earth working devices claim joints between parts of the device. A claim to a joint between two disclosed earth working portions of an earth working apparatus, e.g., a claim to a joint between a plow share and moldboard, is classifiable in Class 172, subclasses 681+. Also, a claim to an overload release joint between implement parts, e.g., between a tractor and a device solely disclosed as an earth working type of implement, is classifiable in Class 172, subclasses 261+ and a claim to a spring biased joint for biasing an earth working tool is classifiable in Class 172, subclasses 705+. However, other claims to joints, per se, are classifiable in the various classes relating to joints. Thus, joints of general application are classifiable in Class 403, Joints and Connections. An articulated joint between a tractor and a trailing vehicle, as long as that vehicle is not solely disclosed as an implement, is classifiable in Class 280, Land Vehicles, subclasses 400+.

The Search Notes below also contain lines with other classes.

 
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