ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,281,710, issued on April 22, was assigned to ROLLS-ROYCE plc (London).

"Butterfly valve" was invented by Zahid M. Hussain (Derby, Great Britain) and Robert C. Pearce (Derby, Great Britain).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A butterfly valve for a conduit defining a passage for a flow of a fluid therethrough in a flow direction. The butterfly valve includes a shaft rotatably mounted to the conduit and defining a longitudinal axis along its length. The butterfly valve includes a valve body coupled to the shaft, such that the valve body is rotatable along with the shaft about the longitudinal axis between a closed position and a fully open posit...