Appeal No. 95-3566 Application No. 07/950,802 the present application, stands withdrawn from consideration as being non-elected. Claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A transportable oil skimmer comprising: a) a frame including a motor support section near one end of the frame, the one end being the top end of the frame when the skimmer is in use, the frame including a depending stabilizer adapted to extend into a volume of liquid when the skimmer is in use; b) a motor carried by the support section and including an output shaft; c) a head pulley drivingly connected to the shaft; d) an endless belt in drivingly supported engagement with the head pulley; e) a tail pulley supported by the belt and adapted to be immersed in such liquid volume when the skimmer is in use; and f) restraining means operatively interposed between the stabilizer and the tail pulley to limit axial and radial movement when the skimmer is being transported and to allow when in use floating movement over a range of movement free of engagement between the tail pulley and the restraining means while allowing self alignment of the belt and tail pulley and sufficient vertical motion when the skimmer is in use to assure that belt tension is provided substantially only by the weight of the belt and the pulley. In the rejection of the appealed claims, the examiner relies upon the following references: Mecham 3,055,229 Sep. 25, 1962 Spurr et al. (Spurr) 4,067,438 Jan. 10, 1978 Combrowski 5,223,128 Jun. 29, 1993 (filed Nov. 20, 1991) -2-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007