Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7180300 | System and method of locating ground fault in electrical power distribution system A method for locating a ground fault in an electrical power distribution system includes providing a plurality of current sensors at a plurality of locations in the electrical power distribution system. The method further includes detecting a ground fault in the ele... | 02/20/2007 |
| 6011211 | System and method for approximate shifting of musical pitches while maintaining harmonic function in a given context The present invention enables non-musicians to effectively compose music using a computer, and provides them with the means to manipulate musical content in an intuitive fashion without the need for formal musical training. The invention combines a repres... | 01/04/2000 |
| 5687240 | Method and apparatus for processing discontinuities in digital sound signals caused by pitch control Small discontinuities in digital sound data caused by a pitch control operation are processed by using a secondary FIR filter and smoothing the discontinuities. When lowering the key, the data value subject to the pitch down operation is moderately approx... | 11/11/1997 |
| 5442129 | Method of and control system for automatically correcting a pitch of a musical instrument A pitch control system for the automatic pitch correction according to a harmony-dependent tuning, especially the harmonic tuning, for a musical instrument, having an input device for the input of note input signals in a pre-determined fixed tuning, espec... | 08/15/1995 |
| 5129303 | Musical equipment enabling a fixed selection of digitals to sound different musical scales Musical equipment enables the row of front digitals of a musical keyboard to sound either the diatonic scale or a six-tone musical scale. Thus music written by different methods of notation can be played on the keyboard by a musician trained in either one... | 07/14/1992 |
| 4318326 | Plural manual organ having transposer An electronic organ, particularly of the institutional type employing classical voicing, having Swell and Great manuals as well as a full pedalboard wherein the manuals and pedalboard are multiplexed simultaneously to produce a plurality of synchronized s... | 03/09/1982 |
| 4206676 | Electronic musical instrument with sequencer for automatic arpeggio performance An electronic musical instrument is provided with a keyboard circuit, a voltage-controlled tone signal generating circuit arrangement and a sequencer for sequentially coupling memorized pitch voltage signals to the voltage-controlled tone signal generatin... | 06/10/1980 |
| 4203338 | Trumpet and synthesizer apparatus capable of polyphonic operation There is disclosed a trumpet incorporating rotary potentiometers which are controlled by means of circular wheels coupled to the shaft of the potentiometers. By rotating the wheel, the musician can vary the resistance of the potentiometer to thereby contr... | 05/20/1980 |
| 4198890 | Keyboard system for musical instruments Adjacent primary digitals of a musical keyboard are actuated in the same fingering sequence for all key signatures. Each primary digital forms part of a three section group having two secondary digitals for producing the sharps and flats. Through a separa... | 04/22/1980 |
| 4178821 | Control system for an electronic music synthesizer A control system for an electronic music synthesizer includes a circuit responsive to the keying of a musical instrument for producing a binary coded signal. This signal is converted to an analog signal, for application to a music synthesizer. The analog ... | 12/18/1979 |
| 4058042 | Key transposing electronic organ A transposing electronic instrument wherein the clock frequency applied to control a top octave frequency generator is derived by comparing any single output of the generator with the response of a frequency reference circuit to that output, deriving a dc... | 11/15/1977 |
| 4056032 | Musical apparatus A pitch changing apparatus shifts the absolute pitch of musical output from an electronic organ. The apparatus combines two or more transposing switches in a cascade arrangement. In the preferred embodiment, the apparatus comprises four binary transposing... | 11/01/1977 |
| 4048893 | Electronic musical instrument Electronic tone transposition apparatus in an organ allows the front digitals of the keyboard to play different musical scales and to play the diatonic scale in different keys. The apparatus physically actuates a key signature of written music by intercha... | 09/20/1977 |
| 4011784 | Transposition apparatus for an electronic musical instrument A transposition apparatus for an electronic musical instrument such as an electronic organ is disclosed. The transposition apparatus permits the playing of a musical score in any desired key regardless of the key actually being played. The apparatus conve... | 03/15/1977 |
| 4009633 | Electronic musical instrument The organ is designed to play six-tone musical scales, which lead naturally to a simple and easily learned system of hexatonic notation. A scale selector apparatus can be set to make different hexatonic scales playable on the front digitals of the keyboar... | 03/01/1977 |
| 3973460 | Keyboard type musical instrument The instrument is designed to play a six tone scale on its lower digitals, which leads naturally to a simple and easily learned system of music notation. In the preferred embodiment, the six tone scale consists of the first six tones of the conventional d... | 08/10/1976 |
| 3971282 | Electronic musical instrument capable of transposition An electronic musical instrument capable of transposition has a high frequency oscillator provided on its output side with an octave frequency divider comprising twelve counter circuits to generate twelve tone signals based on a twelve tone tempered scale... | 07/27/1976 |
| 3949638 | Electronic musical instrument An absolute pitch selector apparatus provides a set of audio-frequency tone signals for a musical instrument. These are selected from a larger number of tone generator circuits by means of a rotary pitch selector switch. Stationary input and output contac... | 04/13/1976 |
| 3933072 | Generator for producing tones of a musical scale in an electronic musical instrument Generator for producing the tones of a musical scale in electronic musical instruments, one master oscillator driving a chain of frequency dividers in a manner such that at the output of each divider a tone is produced which is lower by a semi-tone than t... | 01/20/1976 |
