Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882
Various
Science -- Periodicals
We herewith illustrate an exceedingly simple form of detecter, to show
if the night watchmen perform their visits regularly and punctually.
In the case, C, is a clockwork apparatus driving the axle, S, at the
end of which is a worm which gears into the wheel of the drum, D. The
rotation of D, thus obtained unrolls a strip of paper from the other
drum, D. This paper passes over the poles of as many electro-magnets
as there are points to be visited, and underneath the armatures of
these electro-magnets. Each armature has a sharp point fixed on its
under side, and when a current passing through the coils causes the
attraction of the armature, this point perforates the paper. The
places to be visited are connected electrically with the binding
screws shown, and the watchman has merely to press a button to make
the electric circuit complete. It has been found in practice that
plain paper answers every purpose, as the clock giving an almost
uniform motion enables the reader, after having seen the perforated
slips once or twice, to determine fairly well the time which elapses
between each pressure of the button.--_The Engineer._
[Illustration: WATCHMAN'S DETECTER]
* * * * *
INTEGRATING APPARATUS.
At a recent meeting of the London Physical Society, Mr. C. Vernon Boys
read a paper on "Integrating Apparatus." After referring to his
original "cart" machine for integrating, described at a former meeting
of the society, he showed how he had been led to construct the new
machine exhibited, in which a cylinder is caused to reciprocate
longitudinally in contact with a disk, and give the integral by its
rotation. Integrators were of three kinds: (1) radius machines; (2)
cosine machines; (3) tangent machines. Sliding friction and inertia
render the first two kinds unsuitable where there are delicate forces
or rapid variation in the function to be integrated. Tangent machines
depend on pure rolling, and the inertia and friction are
inappreciable. They are, therefore, more practical than the other
sort. It is to this class that Mr. Boys' machines belong. The author
then described a theoretical tangent integrator depending on the
mutual rolling of two smoke rings, and showed how the steering of a
bicycle or wheelbarrow could be applied to integrate directly with a
cylinder either the quotient or product of two functions. If the
tangent wheel is turned through a right angle at starting, the machine
will integrate reciprocals, or it can be made to integrate functions
by an inverse process. If instead of a cylinder some other surface of
evolution is employed as an integrating surface, then special
integrations can be effected. He showed a polar planimeter in which
the integrating surface is a sphere. A special use of these
integrators is for finding the total work done by a fluid pressure
reciprocating engine. The difference of pressure on the two sides of
the piston determines the tangent of the inclination of the tangent
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