Did You Know...
...that the inventor of the electric motor was a blacksmith named Thomas Davenport? Described as "a brilliantly unsuccessful inventor", Davenport invented the first rotary electric motor. In 1836 he headed out -- on foot -- from his Vermont home to file a patent application at the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. By the time he got there, he had squandered away his money and couldn't afford the $30 filing fee so he turned around and went home. When he later mailed in his application with money he'd raised, the Patent office was destroyed in a fire. He did finally get credit for his invention on Feb. 5, 1837.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6422530 | Fail-safe fluid actuator A fail-safe fluid actuator comprising a piston slidably disposed within a cylinder. In the event of a pressure loss, the piston is urged to a fail-safe position by a plurality of externally mounted constant force spring mechanisms. In one embodiment the m... | 07/23/2002 |
| 6398182 | Pilot solenoid control valve with an emergency operator A discharge valve is provided to open an electrically controlled pilot valve in emergency situations such as during an electrical or hydraulic failure. The discharge valve has a poppet that operates in response to a pressurized control signal, which may b... | 06/04/2002 |
| 5447285 | Safety device for cylinder valve automatic switching unit The invention relates to safety device for a cylinder valve automatic switching unit, wherein said valve is automatically closed when some abnormality such as down of an air pressure takes place. A first air-operated selector valve 8 is installed which ca... | 09/05/1995 |
| 4553731 | Fail-closed, tight seal gas safety valve system A fail-closed gas safety valve system for blast furnace stove operations employing two tight seal butterfly valves, one a gas shutoff valve and the other a gas regulating valve, which together operate to prevent the leakage of hazardous gas into a blast f... | 11/19/1985 |
| 4462541 | Constant temperature control for a vehicle compartment heater or heater-air-conditioner A desired temperature within the passenger compartment (10) of a motor vehicle is selected by occupant movement of a control lever (80) for a variable resistor (VR2). The temperature of conditioning air being supplied to the compartment is measured by a t... | 07/31/1984 |
| 4412670 | Fail-safe actuator and hydraulic system incorporating the same The present invention is directed to an improved fail-safe actuator and hydraulic system incorporating the same. The actuator includes energy storage means in the form of a spring adapted to set a control device in a predetermined condition, illustrativel... | 11/01/1983 |
| 4270566 | Self-restricting shutoff valve A self-restricting shutoff valve for use with a fluid leak detector to prnt excessive loss of fluid in event of a high flow-rate leak. A valve spool within a valve body is spring-biased to a partial flow position and is maintained in an opened position b... | 06/02/1981 |
