Popular Scientific Recreations: in Natural Philosphy, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, etc., etc., etc.Tissandier, Gaston
Science
Popular Scientific Recreations: in Natural Philosphy, Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, etc., etc., etc.
Tissandier, Gaston
Scientific recreations
Mr. C. Vernon Boys has exhibited and described a very ingenious
new integrating machine of his invention, and its application as a
measurer of the electric energy in the circuit of an electric lamp
or a dynamo-electric motor. Mr. Boys’ mechanical integrator belongs
to the class termed tangent machines, and consists essentially of a
small disc or wheel running along the surface of a drum or cylinder.
When the wheel runs straight along the drum parallel to its axis
there is no rotation of the latter, but when the wheel is inclined
to the axis the drum rotates, and the integral is represented by the
amount of rotation. Continuous action is secured in giving the drum
a reciprocating motion along its axis, so that when the wheel has
travelled to one end of the cylinder it can travel back again. The
new integrator is especially adapted for measuring forces which are
either delicate or variable. It is applied by causing the varying
force to be measured to vary in a corresponding manner the inclination
of the wheel to the axis of the rotating cylinder. In this way it
can be used to find the work done by a fluid pressure reciprocating
engine, or the energy transmitted by a shaft or belt from one part of
a factory to another. By making the wheel very small and light, the
strength of an electric current may be continuously measured, if the
disc is inclined by means of the needle of a galvanometer in circuit.
Mr. Boys has constructed on the same principle an electric energy
meter, which integrates the product of the strength of current and
the difference of potential between two points with respect to time.
In it the current is passed through a pair of concentric solenoids or
coils of wire, and in the annular space between these is hung a third
solenoid, the upper half of which is wound in the opposite direction
to its lower half. By the use of what Mr. Boys calls “induction traps”
of soft iron, the magnetic force is confined to a small portion of
the suspended solenoid, and by this means the attracting force of
the fixed solenoids upon it is independent of position. The middle
solenoid is hung from the end of a balance beam, and its motion is
retarded by a counterweight, which admits of regulating the meter to
give standard measure as a clock gives standard time. The motion of the
beam is caused to incline the integrating wheel, and the rotation of
the cylinder gives the energy expended in foot-pounds by means of an
indicator or diagram, as the case may be. The object in giving an equal
number of turns in opposite directions to the suspended solenoid is to
render the instrument insensible to external magnetic forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account