Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7274440 | Systems and methods for measuring stress in a specimen Systems and methods for measuring stress in a specimen are provided. One system includes an optical subsystem configured to measure stress-induced birefringence in patterned structures formed on the specimen. In some embodiments, the optical subsystem may be configu... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7274453 | Methods and apparatus for calibrating an electromagnetic measurement device Methods and apparatus for measuring an electromagnetic radiation response property associated with a substrate and calibrating an electromagnetic measurement device are disclosed. The methods and apparatus generate electromagnetic waves and capture a portion of the ... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7234362 | Subsurface material property measurement Subsurface material property measurements, such as soil or chemical properties, are obtained in situ by a direct push method that includes rotating a ring bit at the end of a casing to drill through subsurface materials, lowering a measurement probe through the adva... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7127950 | Method for determining a surface contact force A method of measuring a load on a surface produced by a contact force. An elastic film or coating is located on a supporting surface to provide an indication of normal and tangential or shear forces applied to the surface. A thickness measurement, corresponding to a... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7067795 | Methods and systems for dynamic control of polarization of an optical signal Techniques and systems for dynamically controlling polarization of an optical signal by using various feedback controls, and by combining both feed-forward and feedback controls. Various dynamic control algorithms for such systems and other optical systems have been... | 06/27/2006 |
| 6985214 | Method and apparatus for enhancing visualization of mechanical stress Photoelastic elements are formed deliberately with stress concentrations so that, when evaluated with a polariscope, more pronounced isochromatic bands or fringes result when loads are applied to these elements or to assemblies of these elements. A kit of photoelast... | 01/10/2006 |
| 6952270 | Apparatus and methods for surface contour measurements Apparatus and methods of measuring three-dimensional position information of a point on the surface of an object. The invention also relates to an apparatus for projecting fringes onto a surface of an object including two sources of radiation separated by a distance... | 10/04/2005 |
| 6943869 | Method and apparatus for measuring strain using a luminescent photoelastic coating A method and apparatus for measuring strain on a surface of a substrate utilizes a substrate surface coated with at least one coating layer. The coating layer provides both luminescence and photoelasticity. The coating layer is illuminated with excitation light, whe... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6809803 | Surface topology inspection Apparatus and a method for inspecting a topology of a surface (2) of a structural member (1) are provided. The degree to which a known type of stress has been applied to the member may be ascertained using a Moiré grid (8). The method involves ... | 10/26/2004 |
| 6665059 | Method of measuring an inner stress state of disk substrate A measuring method capable of automatically analyzing quantitatively the inner state of a disk is provided. Linearly polarized light from a light source enters a retarder to produce a desired elliptically polarized state. The elliptically polarized light ... | 12/16/2003 |
| 6662088 | Methods and systems for inspecting aircraft fuselage frames A method for inspecting an aircraft fuselage using an inspection system including a movable detector, wherein the method includes coupling a collision avoidance system to the inspection system detector, monitoring the collision avoidance system during ope... | 12/09/2003 |
| 6587188 | Method and sensor arrangement for measuring temperature and strain using an optical fiber embedded in a cover layer on a substrate In a sensor arrangement for sensing temperature and strain, an optical fiber with a Bragg grating therein is arranged on a substrate and embedded in a cover layer. The fiber is initially adhered onto an adhesive carrier, which then positions and applies t... | 07/01/2003 |
| 6219139 | Full field photoelastic stress analysis A structural specimen coated with or constructed of photoelastic material, when illuminated with circularly polarized light will, when stressed; reflect or transmit elliptically polarized light, the direction of the axes of the ellipse and variation of th... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6055053 | Full field photoelastic stress analysis A structural specimen coated with or constructed of photoelastic material, when illuminated with circularly polarized light will, when stressed; reflect or transmit elliptically polarized light, the direction of the axes of the ellipse and variation of th... | 04/25/2000 |
| 6018396 | Glossmeter A glossmeter for the determination of the gloss of regular and irregular shaped objects, including objects with curved surfaces. Illumination is at any desired angle of incidence on the object, which angle can be varied at will. Photosensitive elements (1... | 01/25/2000 |
| 5525796 | Fiber optic sensing apparatus for detecting a fracture in a metallic workpiece and an associated method of attaching a fiber optic sensing element to the metallic workpiece A fracture detecting apparatus for identifying fractures in a metallic workpiece includes a fiber optic element securely affixed to the workpiece with a metallic material, such as a metallic solder. Accordingly, a fracture in the portion of the metallic w... | 06/11/1996 |
| 5461926 | Single-ended optical fiber strain sensor for measuring maximum strain An optical fiber strain sensor is provided which remembers the maximum stn a structure has experienced in a given timeframe. A reflective surface is fixed at one location on the structure, and a multi-mode optical fiber with a flat end is fixed at anothe... | 10/31/1995 |
| 5461927 | Optical fiber strain sensor for measuring maximum strain An optical fiber strain sensor is provided which remembers the maximum stn a structure has experienced in a given timeframe. A pair of multi-mode optical fibers with flat ends meet end-to-end within a microbore capillary tube with which the fibers have f... | 10/31/1995 |
| 5410917 | Optical force sensor for high density planar electrical interconnects The present invention is a method and an apparatus for the precise quantitative measurement of the magnitude of force exerted at the points of contact on a high density electrical interconnect that quantitatively determines the magnitude of the force. The... | 05/02/1995 |
| 5191387 | Polarization control system A polarization is controlled by introducing a phase difference in an incident light at first, then introducing a phase difference by 45 degrees, and then the polarized light is rotated. The light is passed through an analyzer so arranged that the directio... | 03/02/1993 |
| 5137353 | Angular displacement measuring device A system for measuring the angular displacement of a point of interest on a structure, such as aircraft model within a wind tunnel, includes a source of polarized light located at the point of interest. A remote detector arrangement detects the orientatio... | 08/11/1992 |
| 4840480 | Light conduit arrangement for monitoring a physical condition of a structural part A structural element is provided with at least one light conduit which is arranged thereon under a selected mechanical initial stress. In this manner, the deformation or breakage can be detected at loads or deformations which are lower than the breaking l... | 06/20/1989 |
| 4781455 | Method for measuring optical strain and apparatus therefor A method and an apparatus for optical strain measurement are disclosed. Prior to the deformation or loading of the object to be tested, the latter is provided with a thin transparent film which adheres well to the object and has a thickness between 3 and ... | 11/01/1988 |
| 4777358 | Optical differential strain gauge An optical strain gauge has a first birefringent optical module secured to a specimen bar in a manner transferring tensile strain from the bar to the module and has a similar second birefringent module secured to the bar in a manner transferring shear str... | 10/11/1988 |
| 4688934 | Rotating polarizer angle sensing system A system for measuring aeroelastic deformation of an aircraft wing in flight or in a wind tunnel utilizing light from a linearly polarized light source (101). The light is transmitted through modulating elements (104, 105) to provide a carrier beam, and a... | 08/25/1987 |
| 4409842 | Structural information detector A self-contained, unitary device for collecting and interpreting data reflecting the effect of a force acting on a structure includes a housing adapted to be attached at spaced points to the surface of the structure, an optical sensor within the housing f... | 10/18/1983 |
| 4405231 | Deformograph A deformograph comprises a sensitive element shaped as a tube of an optically sensitive material and fixed in a borehole by cementing the gap between said tube and walls of the borehole. One end of the tube is tapered off and provided with a specular coat... | 09/20/1983 |
| 4320966 | Fourier processor of photoelastic data and method of using same In the reflection polariscope using filter with four elements transmitting light of four different wavelengths each polarized in appropriate plane and a photoelastic coating having a built-in dichroic filter an image is recorded. The record is further pro... | 03/23/1982 |
| 4109515 | Photoelastic stamping analysis There is disclosed a method of analyzing formability, strain level, or a related physical characteristic of a given material for a blank which is formed into a desired shape comprising: providing a blank of said given material; applying a flowable photoel... | 08/29/1978 |
| 4008960 | Photoelastic strain gauge coating and method of using same The photoelastic strain gauge coating comprises a sheet of photoelastic material of predetermined shape having a multiplicity of minute discontinuities or sets of discontinuities arranged in a predetermined grid. The predetermined shape and grid, together... | 02/22/1977 |
| 3994598 | Photoelastic strain gauge coating The coating comprises a sheet of photoelastic material having a multiplicity of regions, in each of which is a plurality of measuring elements at predetermined angles. Each of the measuring elements has an abutment and a finger in operating contact with e... | 11/30/1976 |
| 3971934 | Photoelastic load measurement alarm device This invention relates to a photoelastic load measurement device which measures the load on the cable of the crane by measuring the strain in a particular structural member of the crane and is calibrated to operate an alarm, indicator and/or recorder. A s... | 07/27/1976 |
