I think you might be wrong about being a continuation patent. From the 148 patent:
This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application No. 08/484,918, filed Jun. 7, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,336 which is a divisional of U.S. patent application No. 07/389,334, filed Aug. 3, 1989 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,231.
Apparently someone got the patent number wrong. Application 07/389334 is for the 749 patent. Doesn't anyone look at this stuff?
And the definition of Divisional patent
A "divisional application" also claims filing date priority from the parent, but differs from a "continuation application" in that a divisional application claims a distinct or independent invention based upon pertinent parts "carved out" of the parent application's specification.
Opty