New Patents XI

plane, independent of the roll position of the device. In accordance with still another feature of the technique, the roll angle of the boring device and the position of its off-axis jet are simultaneously monitored whereby to monitor the precise rotational position of the jet relative to its roll position.

4714598

M E T H O D S O F D E S U L F U R I Z I N G G A S E S

D Alan R Kay, William G Wilson, Burlington, Ontario, PA, Canada

4714352

E L E C T R O N I C D E V I C E P O W E R E D BY S O L A R C E L L S

Wolf gang Ganter, Schramberg, Federal Republic Of Germany assigned to Junghans Uhren GmbH

A small electric device powered by solar cells and by a capacitive charge storage element has stable actuation assured during startup with an as yet uncharged capacitor. Startup problems are avoided by control of the power supply with a threshold value circuit that allows power to be supplied to device components when the compo- nents' minimum actuating voltage level has been attained at the capacitor. A deactuating voltage value of the threshold value circuit that is lower than the actuating voltage level prevents inter- ruptions of operation similar to relaxation oscil- lation behavior due to temporarily increased actuating power requirements by causing deac- tivation of the components only if the capacitor voltage has dropped below a predetermined operational minimum. In this manner additional functions (such as radio watches with automatic hands setting devices or directional antennas, or ornamental pendulums or alarm or striking wat- ches) which have components with higher ac- utating power requirements may be supplied without batteries by solar cells without having to overdimension the storage capacitor for the high startup load and thereby unnecessarily delay ac- tuation of the device upon the exposure to radia- tion of the solar cells.

A method for desulfurizing gases in which the sulfur is mainly in the form of hydrogen sulfide by reacting with one of the forms of cerium oxide with the formation of a cerium-oxygen-sulfur compound, which method can be conducted at temperatures as high as the lowest melting point of either the cerium oxides or cerium-oxygen- sulfur compounds formed by the reactions. The method also includes a definition of the tempera- ture necessary for the regeneration of the cerium- oxygen-sulfur compounds back to cerium oxide which is capable of again reacting with the hydrogen sulfide of the gases being desulfurized whereby the emission of sulfur from the combus- tion of sulfur containing hydrocarbons is reduced to a level below that attainable with any other method when operated at the same high temperatures.

4714915

P O R T A B L E E L E C T R O S T A T I C F I E L D S A F E T Y M O N I T O R

Marcel Hascal, Sergio Lopez, Andre Danielski, Adrian Mihai, Willowdale, Ontario, Canada

A portable monitoring system for detecting a radiated electrostatic field and producing an audible warning when the detected field exceeds a selected value is characterized by a switching device which can be used to reset the threshold warning level and which is not affected by the hand proximity effect. An alarm is sounded when a signal corresponding to the detected field exceeds a value which is stored. The stored value can be reset by a manually operated switching circuit including a delay device operable to delay the storage of a reference level corresponding to the intensity of the field currently detected.