An apparatus for illuminating a license plate includes a reflector, one or more light emitting diodes mounted on a substrate, all positioned within a housing. The light emitting diode or diodes project light directed at the reflector. The reflector has a surface geometry for redirecting the light through a window in the housing such that it substantially uniformly illuminates the license plate. The apparatus preferably does not include a lens. The apparatus may include a light emitting diode or ...

A novel communication distribution system is provided. In one form, an automatic communication distributor manages multiple queues of calls waiting to be handled by agents. When a call is transferred to an agent's workstation, the workstation provides different ringing signals to the agent based on the automatic communication distributor queue from which the call is coming. In another form, a computer-readable medium is encoded with programming instructions that are executable by a processor to ...

An air-decant device for the aeration and decanting of liquids stored in containers, comprising a pump which can pump air through the device to the liquid in the container and/or pump liquid from the container over an exposed surface or through a special nozzle to create a dome shaped flow of liquid to aerate the liquid before returning it to the container. In addition, the pump can pump liquid from the device via decanting attachment to decant the same to another container.

A method of distinguishing between fluorescent light emitted by green fluorescent protein and fluorescent light emitted by auto-fluorescent molecules, the method comprising: using plane-polarised light to illuminate a sample containing green fluorescent protein and auto-fluorescent molecules; detecting the intensity of fluorescent light that is emitted with a first polarisation from the sample; detecting the intensity of fluorescent light that is emitted with a second polarisation from the sampl...

Method and apparatus for depositing a chemical over a body of water. In one embodiment the invention includes collecting and concentrating a floating contaminant between two floating booms pulled by one or more surface vessels. The booms define an aperture intermediate of their endpoints, and the towing of the boom results in the flow of concentrated contaminant through the aperture. One or more nozzles proximate the aperture deposit a chemical, such as a liquid dispersant, on the contaminant an...

A vehicle stand, particularly a kickstand for motorcycles, includes a support arm and a angularly turned portion of the arm. The angularly turned portion is rotatably received in the bore of a carrier block, and the block is pivotally mounted in a bracket. The bracket is mounted to a vehicle and includes a locking slot at the top portion. A corresponding locking bar is provided at the top of the angularly turned portion of the support arm. When the kickstand is in the vehicle supporting position...

A multi-function stalk switch that incorporates a pushbutton switch, a first rotary switch and a second rotary switch onto the end of a stalk, wherein further switching functions may be executed by moving the entire stalk in either of two orthogonal planes. The stalk switch incorporates many design features that enable it to be assembled at low cost from a small number of parts. One such feature is the use of plastic-on-plastic detents to control positioning of the rotary switches so that they w...

A portable carrier for paint roller, handle, and hose assembly includes a base, a post, a roller pocket on the base, a roller handle receiver bracket on the post, a hook arrangement for attaching to a paint can, hose storage means on the bracket and base, and hose tying means.

A belt retraction cam lock having belt retraction locking means disposed between a pivotal top member and a bottom member to lockingly but releasably engage the belt to counterbalance the spring biased retraction spool of an emergency locking belt retractor, and having belt unlocking means also disposed between the top and bottom members for releasing the belt from the locking engagement of the belt retraction locking means when the belt is forcibly tensioned. The belt retraction locking means i...

A transportation vehicle alert monitor incorporating a speech synthesizer for voice announcement of vehicle location by stop number. The monitor includes a radio receiver responsive to coded RF signals containing either current vehicle location data or data for programming the monitor. Current location data includes school system number, bus number, route number, and stop number. Programming data includes school system number, monitor serial number, student number, two route numbers for one bus ...