Did You Know...
...that two musicians were responsible for the invention of color print film? Fascinated by photography, Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes worked together to produce an easy-to-use, practical color film. They worked full time as music teachers and gave concerts while experimenting during their off hours in Mannes' kitchen. Their success earned them full-time, well-paying jobs at Kodak and their efforts resulted in Kodachrome film, which was introduced in 1935.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7357458 | Boring rig A boring rig (14) for underground boring for excavating purposes and including a substructure (21, 22), a propulsion device, a stabilizing device (31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42), and a boring unit (20) having a cutter head (29) an... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7350876 | Combination panline and utility drilling or bolting unit A drilling or bolting unit for selective use with either a vehicle or a panline of a face conveyor associated with a longwall miner or mining machine is disclosed. In one embodiment, the unit comprises a base adapted for engaging the panline and a plurality of recei... | 04/01/2008 |
| 7331735 | Apparatus, system, and method for supporting a gate entry for underground full extraction mining An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for supporting a gate entry or a connecting entry. The apparatus includes a support member, a controller, and a vehicle. The support member is configured to selectively engage a mine roof and a mine floor within a gate ... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7207632 | Shield system for coal mining A mining system for remotely mining ores and minerals which protects against falling rock and allows evacuation of a miner and conveying system in the case of a cave in. A shield is advanced into a mine. Within the shield, the miner and conveying system are also adv... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7178273 | Cutting device for cutting trenches in the ground A cutting device for cutting trenches in the ground having at least one cutting wheel drivable in rotary manner and at least one first cutting element, located on the cutting wheel, for removing soil material during a rotation of the cutting wheel in one rotation di... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7128375 | Method and means for recovering hydrocarbons from oil sands by underground mining The present invention is directed generally to the combined use of slurry mining and hydrocyclones to recover hydrocarbons, such as bitumen, from hydrocarbon-containing materials, such as oil sands, and to selective mining of valuable materials, particularly hydroca... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7097255 | Method and means for processing oil sands while excavating The present invention is directed to the separation of bitumen, such as by the Clark process or by a countercurrent de-sander, in an underground excavation machine, such as a tunnel boring machine. ... | 08/29/2006 |
| 7055625 | Self-propelled instrumented deep drilling system An autonomous subsurface drilling device has spaced-apart forward and rearward “feet” sections coupled to an axial thruster mechanism between them to operate using an inchworm method of mobility. In one embodiment, forward and rearward drill sections are carried... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7040712 | Shield tunneling method and shield tunneling machine An excavating drive (22) movable backward/forward is accommodated in a turnable body (9) which in turn is turnable about an axis perpendicular to an axis of and in a skin plate (7). A cutter device (38) ahead of a rotor (22) in the... | 05/09/2006 |
| 6964542 | Pin and collar shoring device A shoring device is disclosed comprising a piston and a cylinder. The piston is axially expanded by compressed gas, whereby the shoring device engages two opposing surfaces. An outer cam collar and a concentrically enclosed inner ring are mounted upon the cylinder e... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6955232 | Equipment for drilling vertical boreholes The invention relates to equipment for drilling a vertical borehole in hard ground, the equipment comprising: casing put successively into place in the borehole; a drilling machine having a rotary cutting head and ... | 10/18/2005 |
| 6929330 | Method and system for mining hydrocarbon-containing materials The present invention is directed, inter alia, to devices and methods for excavating valuable materials, particularly soft ores such as oil sands, oil shales, and the like, that use one or more of a number of features, including backfilling for ground support, a sma... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6913321 | Mining system A method for extracting mineral deposits in a mineral reserve, a portion being accessible from a sloping surface and the remaining portion being inaccessible, is disclosed. The sloping surface is mined to create a bench and highwall for providing access to the miner... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6910834 | Mine prop A mine prop is comprised of an elongate tube having a slenderness ratio that would generally allow buckling or kneeling of the elongate tube when exposed to a sufficient axial force. A plurality of elongate support members having a length less than the elongate tube... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6799809 | Method and apparatus for remote self-propelled conveying in mineral deposits A method and apparatus for the mining of material from a seam includes a mining apparatus and a self-propelled conveyor capable of advancing or retreating in the seam on its own power and an advancing and steering arrangement for the mining apparatus. The self-prope... | 10/05/2004 |
| 6644753 | Method and apparatus for remote self-propelled conveying in mineral deposits A method and apparatus for the mining of material from a seam includes a mining apparatus and a self-propelled conveyor capable of advancing or retreating in the seam on its own power and an advancing and steering arrangement for the mining apparatus. The... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6578926 | Mining machine having stabilizing apparatus and stabilizing apparatus A mining machine having a stabilizing apparatus includes a mining machine and a stabilizing apparatus attached to the mining machine. The stabilizing apparatus includes a stabilizing element and a moving arm attached to the stabilizing element and the min... | 06/17/2003 |
| 6505892 | Softwall mining method and device A softwall mining method and device. Each of a plurality of mining devices comprise a supporting portion, an earth moving portion and a coupling mechanism for advancing the earth moving portion into a mining face, and for advancing the supporting portion ... | 01/14/2003 |
| 6431653 | Tunnel-boring machine and method of using the same The tunnel rock drill (100) for driving a tunnel bore optionally in open or shielded mode comprises a shield tail (33), which is connected to the drill head (10) and which covers optionally the bore wall over a defined length; a bracing device (20), which... | 08/13/2002 |
| 5964305 | Trench wall cutter A trench wall cutter with a drive mechanism which is attached to the cutting frame in a position which is spaced away from the bearing shield with a gear for driving at least one cutting wheel is provided. Between the drive mechanism and the drive pinion ... | 10/12/1999 |
| 5931601 | Tunnel excavator A tunneling machine intended to stably carry out gripper replacement by restricting the load imposed on gripper jacks for the main gripper as much as possible during excavation of an inclined shaft. Such a tunneling machine comprises (1) a main beam that ... | 08/03/1999 |
| 5915790 | Tunnel boring machine A cutterhead is supported at the front part of a main frame so as to incline at a specified angle with respect to a vertical plane. The main frame includes (i) a roof support disposed at a position corresponding to where a reaction force acts in the direc... | 06/29/1999 |
| 5890771 | Tunnel boring machine and method A tunnel boring machine particularly adapted to operate at substantial depths below the earth's surface. The machine comprises a head section comprising a cutter head that is rotatably mounted to a support structure. There is a plurality of gripper shoes ... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5765925 | Tunnel boring machine for hard ground and soft ground A tunnel boring machine for boring a tunnel through hard and soft grounds includes a front body, a cutter head mounted to the front body and having a cutter for boring a hard round, and a drive unit rotatably supporting the cutter head for driving the cut... | 06/16/1998 |
| 5649745 | Inflatable gripper assembly for rock boring machine An inflatable gripper assembly for a rock boring or cutting machine is disclosed. The inflatable gripper assembly comprises a base member and an elastomeric sheet secured in a fluid-tight and reaction force secure manner to the base member. The elastomeri... | 07/22/1997 |
| 5575537 | Tunnel drilling machine or tube-driving machine The tunnel drilling machine or tube-driving machine for hard rock drilling has a drill head (19) supporting drilling tools (1 to 18) which has a diameter which is less than the diameter of the bore. The geometric axis of the circle of the envelope of the ... | 11/19/1996 |
| 5527099 | Tunnel boring machine anchor shoe structure and process of operating a tunnel boring machine having such anchor shoe structure The anchor shoes of a tunnel-boring machine arranged in a circular configuration are individually truncated by being tapered rearwardly so that the girth of the circular anchor shoe configuration can decrease progressively in order to accommodate converge... | 06/18/1996 |
| 5386741 | Robotic snake This invention reveals improvements in a flexible robotic limb which can function as a robotic snake. These improvements are particularly pertinent to miniaturization applications such as catheters or positioners for microsurgery, micro-assembly, micro-ma... | 02/07/1995 |
| 5360260 | Tunneling machine with radially sweeping tool carriers In order to drift underground roads, tunnelling machines are used that have a rotatively driven boring head base body, a rigid first bit and rail heads that can radially sweep around axes of rotation between the working point in a conductor shaft and gall... | 11/01/1994 |
| 5333936 | Low profile mining machine having a cutter mounted on a slidable carriage A cutter machine has cutter heads or rollers rotatably mounted on a pivoting cutter arm. It also has a loading ramp and a conveyor running in a direction towards the work face of the cutter machine to take up and convey away cut material. The cutter arm i... | 08/02/1994 |
| 5312163 | System for aiding operation of excavating type underground advancing machine A system for supporting the drive of an excavating type underground advancing machine is provided to lighten the operator's burden so that an unskilled operator can perform operation comparable to that of the skilled operator. In this system for supportin... | 05/17/1994 |
| 5255960 | Tunnel drilling apparatus with drill waste removal A drill head for drilling a tunnel in rock or soil comprises a rotatable drill bit assembly and a cylindrical protecting tube. The bit assembly comprises a bit holder and a cylindrical drill bit. The bit assembly has a cylindrical surface which forms a co... | 10/26/1993 |
| 5234257 | Mobile mining machine having tilted swing axis and method A mobile mining machine for cutting a tunnel in rock has a wheel-like cutterhead assembly supported by a pitch boom assembly that causes movement of the cutterhead assembly in the vertical plane. A swing boom assembly supports the pitch boom assembly and ... | 08/10/1993 |
| 5228752 | Tunnel boring machine Tunnel boring machine whose driving shaft (4) adjacent to the boring head (6) is journalled in a bearing (12) which is intended to take up only radial forces. Shaft (4) is at its other end journalled in bearings (13,14) which take up both radial and axial... | 07/20/1993 |
| 5205613 | Tunnel boring machine with continuous forward propulsion A tunnel boring machine includes a cutterhead having a plurality of cutting units and being rotatable on a machine frame. Two sets of three anchor shoes float relative to the frame and are disposed circumferentially, with the anchor shoes of the two sets ... | 04/27/1993 |
| 5205612 | Transport apparatus and method of forming same Mining apparatus in which a cutting wheel supporting a plurality of roller-cutters rotates about a horizontal axis and is supported on a slewing boom for cutting a tunnel with a flat floor and roof and elliptical walls as it slews across a mining face. Th... | 04/27/1993 |
| 5192115 | Tramming mobile mining machine A mobile mining machine for cutting a tunnel in rock has a wheel-like cutterhead assembly supported by a pitch boom assembly that causes movement of the cutterhead assembly in the vertical plane. A swing boom assembly supports the pitch boom assembly and ... | 03/09/1993 |
| 5192116 | Gantry-type mobile mining machine A gantry-type mobile mining machine includes a cutterwheel having an axis of rotation substantially parallel to the tunnel work face and carried by a boom assembly pivotally movable about an axis also substantially parallel to the tunnel work face and to ... | 03/09/1993 |
| 5135326 | Articulated shield tunneling machine An articulated shield tunneling machine suitable for excavation along a curvature with an articulated shield having front and rear shield sections. In contrast to the conventional apparatus which suffers from various disadvantages such as interference bet... | 08/04/1992 |
| 5125719 | Tunnel boring machine and method A tunnel boring machine having increased thrust capability is disclosed. The machine includes a rotatable cutter head for cutting material away from the face of the tunnel and a drive shaft and motor for rotating the cutter head in a cutting state of oper... | 06/30/1992 |
