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 |
| 6484028 | Information delivery system using satellite communication An information delivery system includes terminals receiving data via a satellite-communication system, and a user center having a destination-conversion table which lists a satellite-system receiver ID with respect to each ground-network address of the te... | 11/19/2002 |
| 6023725 | Multiple video server system for transmitting data to a constant bit rate network through a variable bit rate network A multiple video server system for transmitting data to a second network of a constant bit rate (CBR) through a first network of a variable bit rate (VBR). The server system has a server unit for transmitting data to the first network at a transmission in... | 02/08/2000 |
| 5900904 | Picture reproduction position detecting apparatus for use with video on demand system A system provider has a data storing unit for storing at least one digital picture data block referred to as a minimum playback picture block (GOP: Group of Pictures) in each fixed-length area (for example, picture data for one second is composed of eight... | 05/04/1999 |
| 5892587 | Store-and-forward method for fax mail apparatus A store-and-forward method for a fax mail apparatus for storing mail information being sent from a fax machine and transmitting the mail information to a designated destination in which the fax mail apparatus divides the received mail information by page,... | 04/06/1999 |
| 5801781 | Apparatus for converting moving picture stream of MPEG1 to transport stream of MPEG2 A demultiplexer receives an MPEG1 system stream obtained by multiplexing encoded data of video and audio and separates the stream into elementary streams (ES) of video and audio. A packetizer forms packetized elementary streams (PES) of MPEG2. Finally, a ... | 09/01/1998 |
| 5757510 | Facsimile mail apparatus A facsimile mail apparatus having a facsimile information mail service function for the purpose of improving efficiency of facsimile mail delivery including: storage portions for storing management information indicating correspondences between: a plurali... | 05/26/1998 |
| 5694458 | Facsimile mail system A facsimile mail system including subscriber terminals, an exchange and a facsimile mail apparatus. Given a request from a subscriber terminal for connection to the facsimile mail apparatus, the exchange adds an originator identification number to that ne... | 12/02/1997 |
| 5530739 | Mail center management system A mail center management system includes a first network accommodating a plurality of subscriber terminals via lines, and a plurality of mail devices connected to the first network. Each of the mail devices, which has a device number and subscriber inform... | 06/25/1996 |
| 5515175 | Facsimile mail system capable of managing facsimile mail designation errors A facsimile mail system capable of investigating the nature of any facsimile mail system errors based on push-button signal designation or optical mark reader sheet designation, and of readily checking communication lines for line quality. The system comp... | 05/07/1996 |
| 5257112 | Facsimile mail system with mail center equipment A facsimile mail system comprising mail center equipment, a plurality of telephone sets connected to the mail center equipment via lines and a telephone exchange, and a plurality of facsimile machines each connected to the respective telephone sets. Condi... | 10/26/1993 |
| 4809361 | Optical composite transceiver An optical composite transceiver for a bus type local area network (LAN) system using a U-shaped or S-shaped optical fiber cable as a one-way transmission line, and using a carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) method and a half dupl... | 02/28/1989 |
| 4727592 | Optical communication system An optical communication system including repeaters which return a preamble signal to the receive line as soon as it detects a carrier on the transmit line of a single line optical bus. Therefore, transmission equipment can confirm data transmission quick... | 02/23/1988 |
