Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) received Patent No. 121,992 for "An Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments." He later received two more patents: one for a self-pasting scrapbook and one for a game to help players remember important historical dates.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7322447 | Disc brake and monitoring device for such a disc brake A disc brake has a brake disc and a brake caliper spanning the brake disc. A brake applicator shaft is supported on the brake caliper and arranged transversely to an axis of rotation of the brake disc. The brake applicator shaft has a rotary lever for actuating the ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7280204 | Multi-spectral detector and analysis system A multi-spectral detection and analysis system detects and classifies a targeted sample. The system may include a light source that causes the targeted sample to luminesce. A light dispersion element disperses the luminescence to a photodetector in a photodetector a... | 10/09/2007 |
| 7270220 | Thermo clip in an adjustor mechanism for a drum brake An adjuster arrangement for maintaining first and second brake shoes of a brake between a minimum and a maximum clearance with respect to a drum. The adjuster arrangement has a pawl located on a pivot pin on the first brake shoe and an arm that engages a star wheel ... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7261190 | Reaction lever for a parking brake A lever for moving first and second brake shoes into engagement with a drum to effect a brake application. The lever has a first end connected to the brake shoes and a second end with a tine fixed thereto to which a cable is connected to apply an input force to effe... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7178642 | Drum brake An adjuster for a strut located between first and second friction members for a drum brake. The strut has a shaft that is free to rotate in a first end member and threaded into the second end member. A lever pivots during a brake application and engages a ratchet wh... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7131519 | Drum brake device with an automatic shoe clearance adjustment apparatus A drum brake device prevents shoe clearance over-adjustment by using a thermo-sensitive member with a lower leg opening force and provides a smaller thermo-sensitive member with a lower cost. A portion between both ends of the brake lever (50) in a direction ... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7104370 | Drum brake assembly A drum brake assembly which includes a rotatable drum having a radially inner drum braking surface and a brake shoe of single piece construction and of generally circular form mounted within the drum and against a backing plate. The brake shoe includes friction lini... | 09/12/2006 |
| 7093695 | Park brake cable end assembly for a drum-in-hat disc brake assembly This invention relates to an improved park brake cable end assembly for a drum-in-hat disc brake assembly having a disc service brake and a drum-in-hat parking and emergency brake. The drum-in-hat disc brake assembly includes a backing plate adapted to support a dru... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7077249 | Drum brakes with interconnected multi-degrees-of-freedom shoes This invention is a new type of drum brake and its variants for motor vehicles, the shoe mechanism assembly of which has at least one set of interconnected shoe mechanism and automatic adjusting mechanism of brake clearance. The interconnected shoe mechanism consist... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7070025 | Drum brake apparatus An automatic clearance adjusting device 10 that automatically adjusts the position of brake shoes (3, 4) based on the wear includes an adjuster gear that is rotatably depending on the amount of how much the brake shoes are parted from each other, a cam... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7040465 | Slack adjuster with wear reduction A slack adjuster for a vehicle brake includes a slack adjuster body having a cylindrical inner surface at least partially defining a chamber in the body. A worm gear is received in the chamber in the body. At least one low friction ring is interposed between the wor... | 05/09/2006 |
| 6929102 | Method for actuating a wheel brake device The invention relates to a method for actuating a wheel brake assembly, in particular an electromechanical wheel brake assembly (10) or a mechanical system involving friction and having spring elasticity. To increase a braking force once a quasi-static termin... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6763919 | Dual mode drum brake device A dual mode drum brake device of this invention is subject to lightning and low-cost without over braking during the parking brake operation. Pistons 10, 11 in a cylinder device 9 push and rotate brake shoes 2, 3 to be separated apart around an ... | 07/20/2004 |
| 6691838 | Adjuster strut A drum brake assembly, adjuster strut (10) being adjustable and having axially extended and retracted conditions. The strut includes means (11, 35) for engaging braking members (3), a rotatable member (27) rotatable about the lengthwise axis of the strut,... | 02/17/2004 |
| 6684986 | Adjuster mechanism for a drum brake An adjuster mechanism in a drum brake wherein a rotation of a star wheel on a shaft of an extendable strut is limited to a single increment define the pitch of a plurality of teeth on the star wheel. The limitation is achieved by a lever that is carried b... | 02/03/2004 |
| 6679356 | Brake caliper backdrive apparatus and method The invention provides a brake caliper backdrive apparatus and method of backdriving a brake caliper. The apparatus includes a brake caliper, a motor including a shaft operably attached to the brake caliper and, a biasing member operably attached to the s... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6659236 | Parking brake A disc brake having a ball-in-ramp actuator retained in a caliper for supplying a piston with a static clamping force to move first and second friction members into frictional engagement with a rotor to effect a parking brake application. The clamping for... | 12/09/2003 |
| 6651789 | Limiter means for a release spring of a brake cable A drum-in-hat park brake assembly for a vehicle wherein first and second brake shoes are retained and aligned on a backing plate by first and second pins. The first and second shoes are moved into engagement with a drum by a force applied to an actuator b... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6619441 | Conical brake assembly A brake assembly utilizes a conical brake drum and matching conical brake lining assembly to provide a more efficient braking system. An adjuster mechanism with a pair of conical adjuster members is controlled by an electric motor and worm gear drive. As ... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6619442 | Automatic stroke adjustment device for a brake actuator An automatic stroke adjustment device for a brake actuator having clutch rings (240, 340, 440, 540, 546, 640) making an irreversible screw engagement relatively rotatable for the amount of exceeding the backlash by releasing the clutch engagement to rotat... | 09/16/2003 |
| 6460660 | Parking brake for drum type brakes with electronic lining wear sensor and adjuster A parking brake assembly for an automotive drum brake is provided. The parking brake assembly replaces a conventional mechanical strut with an electronic strut actuator subassembly that provides for parking brake engagement and disengagement, sensing of b... | 10/08/2002 |
| 6454057 | Brake cylinder A brake cylinder device with an effective adjustment bolt processing and with an improved air bleeding effect, wherein an adjustment bolt (40) as a component of an automatic shoe clearance adjustment mechanism, wherein an external thread stem (40a) makes ... | 09/24/2002 |
| 6435322 | Duo two leading type drum brake device A small diameter duo two leading type drum brake that can mount a built-in parking brake mechanism. The brake has a link mechanism that includes a pivot lever that is rotatably and pivotally supported at a central region of a first brake shoe. A first str... | 08/20/2002 |
| 6408992 | Stainless steel brake star adjuster An adjuster for establishing the non-braking position of a vehicular brake pad assembly which takes the form of a shaft that is mounted in a sleeve with the inner end of the shaft to threadably engage with a series of female threads mounted within the sle... | 06/25/2002 |
| 6394237 | Automatic shoe clearance adjustment device for a drum brake It is an object of this invention to provide an automatic shoe clearance adjustment device for a drum brake mechanism designed to improve its durability by eliminating a gap, which is caused due to the manufacturing tolerances between the operating end su... | 05/28/2002 |
| 6374962 | Drum brake with dual-actuation A drum brake assembly (10) having first (12) and second (14) brake shoes retained on a backing plate (16). Each of the first (12) and second (14) brake shoes have an end (22,24) aligned on a hydraulic actuator assembly (26) and an end (28,30) aligned on a... | 04/23/2002 |
| 6345702 | Brake adjusters A brake adjuster comprises a variable length strut (16) having two end portions (30, 31) and an intermediate portion (32) therebetween which is in screw threaded engagement with one of the end portions (31). A pawl (39) is attached to the other end portio... | 02/12/2002 |
| 6302245 | Drum brake device A drum brake device which reduces the amount of non-effective stroke (play) and prevents noise for the long period of time. The first strut 12 of an automatic shoe clearance adjustment device is provided adjacent to the service brake actuator 8 and betwee... | 10/16/2001 |
| 6230853 | Drum brake device A single shoe drum brake device which provides stable braking effect by tending to equalize the braking effect when the vehicle is moving forward and backward without losing self-servo property during moving either forward or backward. Additionally, the d... | 05/15/2001 |
| 6213258 | Drum brake using automatic compensation for clearance and selective inhibition A drum brake having an adjustable-length strut (6) to compensate for clearance due to wear between first (21a) and second (22a) friction members and a drum (1). The adjustment being achieved by the rotation of a toothed wheel (7) driven by an adjustment b... | 04/10/2001 |
| 6206148 | Drum brake with duo-actuation A drum brake assembly (10) having first (12) and second (14) brake shoes retained on a backing plate (16). The first (12) and second (14) brake shoes have a first end (22,24) aligned on a hydraulic actuator assembly (26) and a second end (28,30) aligned o... | 03/27/2001 |
| 6125976 | Drum brake device A drum brake device that functions as a leading-trailing (LT) type when the service brake is applied, and as a duo-servo (DS) type when the parking brake is applied, in which the automatic shoe clearance adjustment mechanism functions precisely for a prol... | 10/03/2000 |
| 6119822 | Drum brake with rack and pinion drive A drum brake assembly as provided with a rack and pinion actuator. The rack and pinion actuator includes a pinion gear driving a pair of racks, with the racks driving the brake shoes into engagement with the brake drum. The pinion gear is provided with an... | 09/19/2000 |
| 6050371 | Unit for a drum brake and drum brake equipped with same A structural unit for a drum brake comprises at least one brake shoe (12) and an adjusting device (32) which comprises an adjusting strut (34), a ratchet-detent wheel mechanism and an adjusting lever (40) which comprises the ratchet (52). The brake shoe (... | 04/18/2000 |
| 5913390 | Electro-mechanical actuator for a drum brake A drum brake (10) having first (14) and second (16) brake shoes retained on a backing plate (20) and moved into engagement with a drum (18) to effect a brake application corresponding to a desired braking input supplied to a actuator member (28) is disclo... | 06/22/1999 |
| 5819887 | Drum brake device A drum brake device having a single brake shoe mounted to be movable on top of the back plate. One end of the brake shoe abuts against an anchor (10) and the other end interlocks with a shoe clearance adjustment device (14). A link (11) is supported so as... | 10/13/1998 |
| 5718308 | Automatic brake-adjusting device An automatic brake-adjusting device, and particularly an automatic brake-adjusting device to be used in a trailer, and the device comprises an outer case, a ratchet, a pawl, a pulling bar, a transmission device and an outer lid; the ratchet includes a plu... | 02/17/1998 |
| 5477945 | Drum brake arrangement for vehicle axles A drum brake arrangement for vehicle axles has an axle body and a support plate connected thereto. A bearing lever is fixed to the support plate. A brake camshaft has a first and a second end and is actuatable by a brake cylinder. The brake camshaft has a... | 12/26/1995 |
| 5456338 | Brake drum providing access to brake adjuster An improved drum brake assembly in which brake shoes are mounted on a backing plate and coact with a rotating brake drum mounted on an axle and in which a mechanical brake adjuster has a movable component for adjusting the running clearance of the brake s... | 10/10/1995 |
| 5411119 | Internal shoe-drum brake adjuster cam with leverage projections for brake disengagement An internal shoe-drum type brake has a pair of shoes separable by an actuator into braking engagement with a brake drum. An automatic adjuster includes a two-part strut extending between the shoes, the first strut part being pivotally mounted on the secon... | 05/02/1995 |