...In 1790, the cost to obtain a patent was between $4 and $5.
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7453215 | Illumination system having cold cathode started, illumination controlled gas discharge lamps in series An illumination system having cold cathode started, illumination controlled gas discharge lamps in series, includes the parts of a voltage-adjustable full-wave voltage-doubler rectifier power supply, a gas discharge lamp operating serially with the full-wave rectifi... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7261458 | Semiconductor chip with container and contact elements for use in a light socket A shunt device for use in a light socket includes a first semiconductor chip and a first container having a receiving surface for receiving the first semiconductor chip therein and having an open surface through which the first semiconductor chip is exposed and a fi... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7250730 | Unique lighting string rectification An improved decorative light string circuit comprises full bridge rectification located in or downstream of the front plug, wherein the rectification circuit contains one or more voltage reducing and/or filtering elements in order to reduce or limit LED drive curren... | 07/31/2007 |
| 6929383 | Semiconductor chip and conductive member for use in a light socket A shunt device for a light socket includes a semiconductor chip which is operably interposed between a pair of electric terminals of the socket. The sockets are in series for a conventional set of display lights, such as holiday lights. ... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6555974 | Wiring geometry for multiple integral lamps A multiple integrated lamp system is powered by a power source. The system includes a first integral lamp having lamp electronics and a lamp integrated as a single unit, and a second integral lamp having lamp electronics in a lamp also integrated as a sin... | 04/29/2003 |
| 5559393 | Under-the-cabinet lighting system A power supply is plugged into an ordinary household electrical outlet and conditionally provides a high frequency current at a power receptacle operative to receive the power plug of an ordinary table lamp; which table lamp has a special fluorescent lamp... | 09/24/1996 |
| 5381075 | Method and apparatus for driving a flashing light systems using substantially square power pulses An enhanced method and apparatus for driving an immersed flashing light system used for enhancing algae growth is disclosed. The flashing light system includes a plurality of light source elements that are arranged to illuminate the algae. The light sourc... | 01/10/1995 |
| 5192895 | Synchronously-controlled light string A synchronously-controlled light string includes a plurality of light string units, each of which has a plug in one end and a socket in the other end, thereby allowing the light string units to be coupled together. Each light string unit has a control cir... | 03/09/1993 |
| 5023517 | Light controller apparatus A light driver circuit which is activated by an audio signal. The circuit includes three signal channels and four automatic level control circuits. The three channels are high, low and mid-range frequency channels. There is an automatic level control circ... | 06/11/1991 |
| 4945279 | Lamp apparatus for generating sequential flashes A xenon lamp apparatus for generating sequential flashes comprises a plurality of sets of lamp units which are connected in series with one another by a socket and a plug which are mounted at either end of each lamp unit. A driving circuit device is prefe... | 07/31/1990 |
| 4939381 | Power supply system for negative impedance discharge load A power supply for negative impedance discharge loads such as discharge tubes used in gas laser systems, in which the discharge power is supplied not from the voltage source but from the current source through the current transformer so that stabilized an... | 07/03/1990 |
| 4933603 | Circuit arrangement for indicator lights in motor vehicles A circuit arrangement for indicator lights in motor vehicles comprises four differently dimmable groups of lights I for tachometer and speedometer illumination 1, 2, II for the remaining dashboard illumination 3, 4, III for the center panel and foot space... | 06/12/1990 |
| 4906899 | Fluorescent lamp regulating system One of the low voltage output windings of a standard ballast circuit is coupled to one filament of a pair of series connected fluorescent lamps by an external current controller. The current controller acts to restrictively reduce the operating voltage ap... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4769579 | Flicker-control device with polarized lamp This invention utilizes the property of diodes to judge positive/negative voltage, and connecting general incandescent lamps in parallel to combine, as lamp-strings, with each being polarized. The lamp-string is assembled with flicker-control device, a po... | 09/06/1988 |
| 4682079 | Light string ornament circuitry A decorative device is disclosed which includes a motor, music module or other electrical loads and electrical circuitry and a connector for connection to a selected socket of a string of conventional sockets for connection to an A.C. line. The connector ... | 07/21/1987 |
| 4560909 | Dual load remote power control for a ceiling fan An arrangement is disclosed for controlling the power applied to two remote loads energized from a common ac line. An example is a circuit for controlling fan speed and lamp brightness, both loads being installed in a common ceiling fixture, and requiring... | 12/24/1985 |
| 4495446 | Lighting unit with improved control sequence An energy efficient lighting unit is described designed for functional similarity to the incandescent light used in the home. The lighting unit utilizes a metal vapor arc lamp as the main source of light supplemented by a standby filamentary light source.... | 01/22/1985 |
| 4488092 | Illumination mode selecting device for illumination lamp An illumination mode selecting device for an illumination lamp having more than one individual illumination element is arranged so as to enable an operator to remotely control the number of illumination elements to be lit without special wiring between th... | 12/11/1984 |
| 4488090 | Advertising sign system A low-voltage system is disclosed for supplying operating power to high-voltage neon light tubes located within housings in the forms of letters and other shapes commonly used for illuminated advertising on the outside of buildings. Within the building, a... | 12/11/1984 |
| 4450382 | D.C. Lamp burn-out protection A D.C. lamp system having a number of small zener diodes arranged in eleccal parallelism with various lamp current supply wires. The zener diodes are sized so that the collective wattage ratings of the zeners is equal to the arithmetical product of the D... | 05/22/1984 |
| 4420711 | Circuit arrangement for different color light emission A circuit arrangement for different color light emission, comprises first series circuit of a first light-emitting element having a given color, a diode, and a resistor; and a second series circuit of a second light-emitting element having another color a... | 12/13/1983 |
| 4413209 | Series-connected discharge device ballast apparatus A ballast apparatus for series-sequenced gaseous discharge devices having series-connected filaments wherein a transformer is connected to a potential source and to a pair of series-sequenced gaseous discharge devices with a starting capacitor shunting on... | 11/01/1983 |
| 4410836 | Voltage limited ballast for gaseous discharge devices A ballast apparatus for series-sequenced gaseous discharge devices includes at least one pair of series-sequenced discharge devices having series-connected filaments with a first rectifier means coupling a filament of one discharge device to the transform... | 10/18/1983 |
| 4398126 | Protected low-pressure discharge lamp operating circuit A fluorescent lamp control circuit which provides power at high frequency, or example in the order of 35 kHz, includes a push-pull oscillator circuit having two transistors (T1, T2), an inductance element (L1, L1'), and a capacitor (C1, C1') to supply the ... | 08/09/1983 |
| 4388559 | Bicycle lighting system A flash tube is provided for producing successive high intensity bursts of light, and a pulse producing device is provided for supplying a train of high voltage pulses for energizing repeatedly the flash tube. An impedance matching arrangement is provided... | 06/14/1983 |
| 4348616 | Preset lighting device A preset lighting device in which the number of common input and output terminals is reduced and which does not respond to a duplicate switch activation state so that a previously-determined lighting state as maintained until a valid activation state is p... | 09/07/1982 |
| 4329677 | Signal-light systems, especially for a series of emergency-phone stations distributed along the length of a highway, or the like Emergency phone stations distributed at intervals of 1 or 2 km along a highway area and connected to a communications channel with a power line. Each phone station has a set of flash lamps which can be blinked in accordance with differing blinking schedul... | 05/11/1982 |
| 4308488 | Plasma jet ignition system A plasma jet ignition system wherein a plasma jet energy storage system is designed as an add-on system, which is used in conjunction with a conventional ignition system which provides the basic spark timing and high voltage trigger signal to plasma jet i... | 12/29/1981 |
| 4277726 | Solid-state ballast for rapid-start type fluorescent lamps A novel transistorized fluorescent lamp ballast and lamp combination operates from AC line voltage. The ballast provides for "soft-start" lamp operation in one featured aspect and provides for some lamp light output regulation in another featured aspect t... | 07/07/1981 |
| 4207498 | System for energizing and dimming gas discharge lamps An illumination control system for gas discharge lamps which can be dimmed is provided in which a central inverter produces an output voltage at a high frequency which can be about 23 kHz. The amplitude of the inverter output is adjustable to dim the lamp... | 06/10/1980 |
| 4185232 | Multiple flashlamp operating circuit A DC circuit for efficiently operating two arc discharge flashlamps. The lamps are parallel connected across a single supply storage capacitor, and a single trigger capacitor is employed in connection and the two alternately activated trigger sources for ... | 01/22/1980 |
| 4167688 | Composite illumination fixture and control circuit therefor A control circuit including at least one switch and a plurality of rectifiers for selectively applying a-c utility power to either or both of two remote electrically-powered apparatus at respective first and second states of rectification by means of a co... | 09/11/1979 |
| 4138627 | Current-level-sensitive switching system A solid-state switching system which produces one or more switching signals in response to a power circuit current's reaching a preset level or levels whereby remote control of associated apparatus may be effected without independent control circuits.... | 02/06/1979 |
| 4105928 | Sequential control circuit capable of sequencing through a number of stable states in a predetermined order A sequential control circuit capable of sequencing through a number of stable states in a predetermined order, starting from a predetermined stable state and sequencing in either of two opposite directions. A contact maker having two transient positions i... | 08/08/1978 |
| 4071808 | Method and circuit for operating an electrical flash-tube A relatively infinitely incremental mode of obtaining any desired brightness of flash from an electrically operable flash-tube is attained by employing plural capacitors, each having a charging source of selectable voltage level and a unilaterally conduct... | 01/31/1978 |
| 3998539 | Illumination system An electrophotographic copying machine having a moving photoconductive member, in which an original document is illuminated by a pair of light sources, which are energized alternately to illuminate the document at a frequency of 240 hertz. This frequency ... | 12/21/1976 |