Patents Represented by Attorney Howard I. Podell
  • Patent number: 4937068
    Abstract: This invention relates generally to an improved medication and treatment to induce a "suntanned" appearance by tanning the skin of the user without the need for harmful exposure to the rays of the sun or to the rays of electrical lights that produce infrared and or ultra-violet light. This treatment may also serve to darken the color of some hair adjacent to the skin to which the materials of the treatment are applied. The treatment consists of application of topical tretinoin to the skin of a person combined with the application of a lotion containing ammonium lactate to the same skin area. When the treatment is continued on a basis of once or twice per day, the skin of the user assumes a uniform light brown color similar to the countenance of a suntanned appearance within a period of a few weeks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 1988
    Date of Patent: June 26, 1990
    Inventor: Jim Baral
  • Patent number: 4839934
    Abstract: The invention is an improved bed covering multiple component comforter formed with a container-cover unit containing removable and interchangeable insulator pad units enclosing heat insulating material such as down. The pads are each held in place in compartments or channels of the container-cover. The pad units may be removed prior to washing or dry cleaning of the container-cover. Similarly, the pad units may be washed independently of the container-cover, when removed. The container-cover may be made of one of a number of different decorative fabrics, with the user applying the pads units into the particular container-cover that is to be used at the moment. Each compartment opening through which a pad unit is to be inserted may be fitted with a flap that overlaps the opening of the compartment to prevent inadvertent removal of the pad. A flexible tape device may also be employed to fasten the openings of the compartments in use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1987
    Date of Patent: June 20, 1989
    Inventor: Robert R. Rojas
  • Patent number: 4783034
    Abstract: The invention is a shaped base plate assembly onto which one or more separate units may be detachably mounted. One common latch plate, bolted to the base plate, fixes all the separate units in place in fixed relation to each other and to the base plate. The invention may be employed to mount four separate transformers to a common base plate. Each transformer is fitted with appendages such as four cylindrical legs, each leg being shaped with a circular undercut of reduced cross-section adjacent the free end of the leg. The base plate is formed with sets of keyhole-shape or teardrop-shape holes, with each set of holes located to accommodate the legs of a given transformer. When all four transformers have been inserted and then slid into the latched position, a latch plate is fastened by one latch screw to the base plate. The latch plate is of a shape and size to abut against at least one leg of each transformer and to bias the undercut section of each transformer leg snugly against an edge of a base plate hole.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 8, 1988
    Assignee: General Datacomm, Inc.
    Inventors: Walter M. Ostrander, Andrew Hornak, Gregory Sorrentino
  • Patent number: 4753028
    Abstract: The invention is an inflatable portable decoy for attracting geese and other game fowl, in which wind serves to continuously maintain the body of the decoy in an inflated condition, with the decoy body fastened to a portable stake. The invention comprises a shaped stake unit and a wind-inflatable body unit which may be detachably fastened to the stake. The body unit is shaped as an open inflatable bag, made of flexible sheeting, and may be completely wrapped about the stake unit for transport and stowage purposes. Alternatively, the body unit may be a non-inflatable flexible sheet that is attachable to the stake unit and which is flared away from the stake unit by wind action to simulate a decoy body. A looped tie member which may be mounted to the body unit serves to fasten ballast to the body unit in the assembled mode, and alternatively to fasten the body member about the stake member when the unit is disassembled for storage purposes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 1986
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1988
    Inventor: Thomas E. Farmer
  • Patent number: 4717216
    Abstract: The invention is an enclosure for containing several printed circuit boards. Detechable brackets for mounting the enclosure to a rack, detachable latching door hinges and a combination of detachable members are assembled in an improved housing for detachably enclosing mounted printed circuit boards and other modular components and includes a base, a cover having a top and depending sides provided with slots; and vertical card guide brackets and a pivotable door. These detachable members are formed so as to to latch together into an integral assembly. The door when pivoted to the open position is held as a tray in the horizontal plane of the base and does not drop below the base, with a peripheral rim of the door serving as sides of the tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 1985
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1988
    Assignee: General Datacomm, Inc.
    Inventor: Andrew J. Hornak
  • Patent number: 4581442
    Abstract: The invention is a chemical process for complete destruction and safe disposition of hazardous organic chemicals such as Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB). The invention also comprises the process for production of an inert polymer formed of essentially equal parts of Carbon and Sulfur, and also comprises the new inert polymer, itself and articles made of the new polymer. This new polymer has many of the properties of refractory materials and is an inert non-inflammable cross-linked polymer that is relatively insoluble in all generally known solvents. In the process of the invention PCB and Sulfur are heated, in an atmosphere of Nitrogen at 500.degree. to 1500.degree. C. Waste gases including sulfur and sulfides are condensed, scrubbed and the sulfur recycled. The solids residue when analyzed by a mass spectrometer contains less than one (1) part per million (1 ppm) of unreacted polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 1984
    Date of Patent: April 8, 1986
    Inventor: Harold W. Adams
  • Patent number: 4563161
    Abstract: This invention resides in improvements in a toy and particularly in a toy which may, in use, cyclically rise and sink in water due to the change of buoyancy caused by bubbles formed in a lower internal chamber in which moistened baking powder or the like may be placed. An upper section of the toy is fitted with one or more hollow tubular sections that serve to suspend the toy in a generally erect position when initially fully immersed in water and which tubular sections serve as a pivot about which the toy oscillates as it rises and sinks. The tubular sections are generally formed with a hollow interior section that communicates to an open mouth section of a size to retain air within the interior when the object is immersed in water. The toy may be employed out of the water to slide down an inclined ramp as formed bubbles momentarily lift the toy off an inclined surface of the ramp.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1984
    Date of Patent: January 7, 1986
    Inventor: Jack I. Zimmerman
  • Patent number: 4531312
    Abstract: A baggage tag retainer adaptable to be permanently bonded to the exterior of a luggage container. The retainer is shaped so as to detachably retain a conventional airline destination baggage claim tag and is marked with a permanent identification number that is concealed from view when the airline baggage tag is mounted in the retainer. By means of my invention, baggage destination tags will be more securely fixed to luggage so as to prevent loss of the tag during the normal handling of the luggage on conveyor systems and the luggage will be permanently identified with the owner, while all such owner identification is concealed from view of unauthorized persons during transport of the luggage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 1981
    Date of Patent: July 30, 1985
    Assignee: Edward L. Gilkey
    Inventor: Raymond Stoddart
  • Patent number: 4475674
    Abstract: A goose or other fowl decoy unit may be assembled to simulate a sentinel or feeding bird. The head and neck of the unit is joined to a stake portion for staking into the ground. The body of the unit is provided with a slot through which the head passes and engages with a notch on the neck in such a manner that sideward rocking of the body due to wind is permitted to simulate a feeding bird. When disassembled, a plurality of units may be rested together in a stack which may be in the form of a back pack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 1982
    Date of Patent: October 9, 1984
    Inventor: Thomas E. Farmer
  • Patent number: 4414711
    Abstract: My invention consists of a single unitary shaped resilient rod formed with an open eye section at one end of the rod of a size to detachably fit permanently about a flexible electrical cord near the attachment plug of the cord. The rod extends at right angles to the attached cord for a first distance and then extends a second distance at right angles to this first distance for a length generally of the length of an attached plug and socket assembly. The rod then extends along a diagonal axis towards the cord to terminate in an open S or Z shape of a size to permit wrapping about a second flexible electric cord attached to a socket joined to the plug of the first cord. The invention thus serves to prevent disengagement of the plug from the socket, and prevents separation of two attached electrical cords.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1983
    Inventor: Merle H. Hubbard
  • Patent number: 4415081
    Abstract: A carrier album case for storing and carrying flat objects such as phonograph records and cassette tapes formed of a flat side panel having foldable upper, lower and outer tabs constituting three walls of the carrier and an inner tab hinged to a cover member terminating in a tab fitting over and fastened to the outer tab when the case is closed. A plurality of plastic envelopes is fixed through their middle to the outer tab near its fold line, with each envelope forming a holder for two flat objects. A similar set of envelopes is mounted on the inner tab near its hinge line with the cover, and handle means are secured to the outside of at least one tab member. Opening the cover member provides accessibility to the envelopes secured to the inner tab while opening the outer tab provides access to the envelopes secured thereto.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1983
    Inventor: Antonio Goncalves
  • Patent number: 4415100
    Abstract: A catchment basin for containing drips of liquid that flow about the spout opening and down the sides of a liquid container when the container is fitted with the pouring position. The basin is preferably in the form of a collapsible corrugated open pocket that is fastened to a side of a container directly below the pouring spout. Alternatively the basin may be in the form of a portable open pocket which is fastened below a flat flexible shield section, the upper end of which is fixed to a circular collar of a size to fit snugly about a neck of a pouring spout of a container. The invention prevents drips of liquid falling to the bottom of a container which liquid drips conventionally contaminate the shelf of which a liquid container is stored and contaminates materials below such a shelf where the shelf is in the form of an open grill, such as in a refrigerator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1981
    Date of Patent: November 15, 1983
    Inventor: Robert S. Hutchinson
  • Patent number: 4397633
    Abstract: Apparatus for heating the fuel oil exiting from an oil supply tank and in the supply pipe leading to an oil burner furnace. The return oil line, from the pressure relief valve in the oil burner unit, is led to a coil fitted about the furnace stack leading from the oil burner furnace. The outlet of this heating coil is then led into a metal tempering box, mounted below the tank, through a pipe banded to the supply pipe so as to warm the oil in the supply pipe and the oil in the tempering box. Supply oil is fed from the oil supply tank into the tempering box, to mix with the heated oil in the tempering box, with the mixed warmed oil led from the tempering box into the supply pipe leading to the oil burner of the furnace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 1981
    Date of Patent: August 9, 1983
    Inventor: Charles G. Rowlee
  • Patent number: 4397104
    Abstract: A shoe fitted with an inflatable sole. One or more air valves joined to the shoe permit inflating the interior of the sole to a desired pressure of air proportional to the weight of the wearer of the shoe. The sole is formed of an upper liner joined to a lower liner along their respective common periphery, with a plurality of spaced resilient pegs joined between the said liners in the interior so as to maintain the said liners in alignment with the sole inflated, and to provide a uniform air pressure throughout the interior of the sole. Alternatively the sole may be formed of a solid section of flexible or elastomeric material formed with a plurality of intersecting through longitudinal and transverse cylindrical air passages joined to one or more valves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 1981
    Date of Patent: August 9, 1983
    Inventor: Clayton R. Doak
  • Patent number: 4396094
    Abstract: A guided lift cage which is pivotally mounted to a pair of fixed side rails by a suspension trolley so that the cage is always suspended on a vertical axis, regardless of the axis of the side rails. The path of the side rails may curve from a vertical axis within a shaftway to a horizontal axis above and outside of the shaftway to permit the storage and unloading of the cage, above the shaftway, at a position horizontally offset from the shaftway, to thus provide uninterrupted vertical access to the shaftway in the stored position of the cage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1981
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1983
    Inventors: Robert J. Charlton, George J. Frich
  • Patent number: 4395265
    Abstract: Pellet material and a process for producing such pellet material, which pellet material is suitable for use as an improved fuel that is particularly suitable for use in automatic stoker furnaces and kilns, and for home heating. The pellets are formed of a mixture of particulate peat and coal fines, with the peat serving both as a binder to retain the shape of the pellets and as a fuel material. The process of forming the pellets consists of air drying and then milling or grinding peat, mixing this particulate matter with coal fines or ground sludge material, and then pelletizing the resulting mixture in a pelletizer such as a pellet mill, with the pellets then air-dried to reduce the moisture content to a range of about 10% to 15% by weight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 1981
    Date of Patent: July 26, 1983
    Inventors: Charles Reilly, Richard G. Bailey
  • Patent number: 4389132
    Abstract: A cleaner for eyeglasses and other transparent surfaces is provided in the form of a felt tipped pen, and consists of two containers, one holding the felt tip in communication with cleaning solution and the other container serving as a cap and dispenser for wiping material containing a supply thereof and having an opening in one side through which such material may be withdrawn for use in wiping lenses dabbed by the solution-wet tip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 1977
    Date of Patent: June 21, 1983
    Inventor: Alfonso L. Valadez
  • Patent number: 4386714
    Abstract: A snap cover hinged to the neck of a collapsible tube such as a tube of toothpaste. The cover is hinged by a plurality of hinge members located to apply spring bias to the cover in both the open and closed positions of the cover so as to maintain the cover in the manually set position. A sleeve collar projects from the top inside face of the cover of a size to fit about the neck of the tube in the closed position so as to restrain contents of the tube from spreading along the inside face of the cover beyond the sleeve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 1982
    Date of Patent: June 7, 1983
    Inventors: Louise Roberto, Stephen Casale
  • Patent number: 4385478
    Abstract: A machine for wrapping a pair of pantyhose and sealing it in a pouch. The machine comprises a tray upon which a length of pantyhose may be laid, a rotating shaped hollow spindle extending transversely through an opening in the tray, with openings in the spindle through which air is drawn in so as to grab an intermediate section of each of the two legs of a length of pantyhose resting on the tray, and rotate the pantyhose into a compact cylindrical bundle about the spindle. A shaped pusher unit is loosely fitted about the spindle with the pusher unit serving, when activated, to push the bundle off the end of the spindle and into an outlet tube which is located so as to drop the pantyhose bundle into an open packaging envelope suspended below the tube. The envelope, when loaded with the pantyhose bundle is then heat sealed by conventional heated clamps and dropped onto a delivery conveyor belt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 1980
    Date of Patent: May 31, 1983
    Assignee: Hosiery Corporation of America, Inc.
    Inventor: Bernard H. Veerkamp
  • Patent number: 4384512
    Abstract: A unit for independently storing liquids and heating and cooling in separate liquid containers that is adaptable for mounting in a vehicle, and preferably shaped to fit over the transmission hump of a vehicle floor. The heating and/or cooling means is a separate thermoelectric junction unit mounted to each container and powered by the electric supply of a built-in battery of the vehicle. The spigot of each container is connected to the outlet of a separate pump so that the spigot may be located above the bottom of the container. The thermoelectric junction of two tanks may be connected so that the passage of electricity through the connected junctions serves to cool one tank and heat the other. Alternatively, each junction may be fitted with a separate heat sink or cold sink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 1981
    Date of Patent: May 24, 1983
    Inventor: Glenn R. Keith