An apparatus for aerating grain stored in an enclosure by mechanically moving a stirring apparatus therethrough. The apparatus comprises a vertically disposed element which is rotatably mounted on a carriage movable itself back and forth on a flightless, smooth tubular member which is rotated about its own axis as it is moved over the stored grain. The tubular member is supported above the grain by means connected to the enclosure and a motor is provided for both rotating and moving the tubular ...

A portable shear device comprising pivotally mounted blades normally biased toward a closed or cutting position. Handle means is provided to move the blades relative to one another toward an open position and is releasable whereupon the blades close and perform a cut.

A transducer for converting mechanical energy to electrical energy is described. The transducer utilizes the charge trapping characteristics of a silicon-oxide silicon-nitride interface to create an electric field between a solid conductor and a flexible conductor. As the flexible conductor changes due to mechanical forces applied thereto, the dimensions of the gap correspondingly change and the voltage thereacross changes, thereby providing a voltage corresponding to the mechanical motion of th...

A device for injecting a gas into bulk material stored within a vessel to enhance the flow characteristics of the material. The device includes a housing to be mounted within an opening in the wall of the vessel and having a connection to a source of gas under pressure. The housing supports a porous metal filter element which permits the flow of gas into the material confined within the vessel but prevents the escape of the material into the pressurized gas system. The housing is designed so tha...

Fixed modules carry a plurality of slides which, in turn, form a plurality of side-by-side storage compartments. The slides are selectively extracted along their longitudinal axis from the modules and an article is removed from a selected compartment by aligning the compartment with an evacuation device, which preferably passes through part of the compartment at right angles to remove the article.

A fluid storage vessel for containing cryogenic fluids including an auxiliary chamber within the storage vessel. The auxiliary chamber is connected in fluid communication with the main storage vessel by means of a jet nozzel. The wall of the auxiliary chamber is heat cycled to produce a corresponding expansion and contraction of the fluid within the auxiliary chamber to produce heating and mixing of the stored fluid by means of jetting the expanded fluid to and fro relative to the stored fluid c...

Virtual image readout of relatively high intensity is obtained by employing two readout beams, one following the path of the reference beam and the other following the path of the object beam, and modulating at least one of the beams. Amplitude, intensity or phase modulation may be employed.

A device for injecting a gas into bulk material stored within a vessel to enhance the flow characteristics of the material. The device includes a housing to be mounted within an opening in the wall of the vessel and having a connection to a source of gas under pressure. The housing supports a porous metal filter element which permits the flow of gas into the material confined within the vessel but prevents the escape of the material into the pressurized gas system. The housing is designed so tha...

A microprocessor with a hierarchical PLA control arrangement with a relatively rich function capability is achieved by applying the same subsection of the bit field of the output register of a control PLA to the inputs of each of the controlled PLA's. In addition, routing bits in the output register of the control PLA are applied to gate the clocks at the inputs of the controlled PLA's. Significant increase in PLA function, relative to PLA size, is achieved.

A mechanized system distributing the access, test and communication functions to the point of testing, typically the centralized switching facility serving the telephone loops and equipment to be tested. Computer (200) stores information about each subscriber loop in the geographical area served by a system. Front-end computers (220,221) interact with computer (200) to retrieve pertinent data regarding loops to be tested. Each switching facility in an area includes a loop testing system (e.g., 1...