US158636A - Improvement in electrical photometer-balances - Google Patents

Description

w. w G00 0 w N Elec tri cal Pho tometer Balances. N0.158,6\36.

Pate nted Jan. 12, 1875.

ml'nesses;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM W. eoonwin, or oAMnEn,-nEw. JERSEY.

' lMPROVEMENTlN ELECTRICAL PHOTOMETER-BALANCES.

- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 158,636, dated Jar uarv 12,1875; application then August 21, 1874'.

To all whom it may concern: r

Be it. known that I, WILLIAM W. Goon- WIN, of Camden, in the county of Camden and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Balance, of which the following is a specification:

Theobject of my invention is to produce a more readily adjustable and accurate balance for determining the number of grains. of the sperm of a candle consumed in a given time,

' in testing the quality of anyilluminatinggas by a photometer, and especially when the said photometer is iii-connection with an electric battery.

The peculiarities of my invention will be readily understood by the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of the balance in equipoise, supporting a test-candle,

on its fulcruros and hearings in the usual manner, supported on. thepost B, while its weight-points support the candle and its pendulous socket l). The said socket is provided with an adjustable ring, at", with the bearings for the weightpoints attached, and has also a slot, an inner slide, and a bindingscrew, d, whereby the height of the candle O can be readily adjusted to correspond with the height oi the usual gasburn'er of a photometer. The rimmed or Banged disk d, which is fixed by a stem to the lower end of the socket l), is intended to serve the double purpose of keeping said socket plumb, and at the same time aii'ording a suitable receptacle for shot or other weights, if at any time the le ver A, with "its attachments, should be too heavy to allow the lever to be brought into equipoise. The said powerarm of the lever -1 made about three times the-length oi the w ei ght-arrmand its extreme endpasses through a roomy slot, 6, in an upright, c. which is fixed post B being. fixed to rest upon the opposite end of said base-plate, which latter is insulated and fixed in a horizontal position upon any suitable part of the photometer to which grain. Above the straight upper edge of the longer arm of said lever, and parallel thereto, is a stiii' rod, a. Supported rigidly by and in posts 4. 4 at about half an inch. above thestraight upper edge of A, and so as to slide freely though accurately on said bar 01/, there is secured a small weight, 5, having a thin blade projecting downward therefrom on each side of the lever A, so as to correspond with the grain division marl: thereon beneath said weight 5 at whatever position, the said weight may be between 0 and 50, inclusive.

About an inch below the longer arm of A, and parallel with the upper straight edge of the same, there is fixed another. rigid bar, 6,'

by meansof two posts, Y and 8. On this bar 6 a microinetrical adjusting device, F, is placed, consisting of a sleeve, f, which has fine screwthreads out around on its outer surface, and a traversing; weight, f applied thereon. One end of the sleeve has a head, f which is titted with a small binding-screw, 9, so that the whole device F can he slid along in either direction upon the bar 6, and by means of said screw 9 fixed at any point on the bar between the posts 7 and 8, for the purposeof bringing the lever and its attachments into equipoise.

Directly below the post 8 there is fixed upon the base E a pair of electromagnet s, Gr,

one end of the coil-wire being connected to said base E by the binding-screw g, while the other end of said coil-wire is intended to serve as the returnwire to a battery, (not shown,) while the armatureg" of the coil-cylinders is upon the base-'plate E of the balance-Abe fixed to a projection of the post 8, so as to be at a short distance from the top of the electro-magncts Gr when the lever A is horizontal, substantially as shown in Fig. 1.

Projecting downward from the under side of the extreme end of the longer arm of le ver A, there is fixed a platinum stem, 10, and adjustably secured directly below said stem 10 is a glass mercury-cup, H, having a platinum wire extending down from the inner side of the same, through its bottom, into contact with adjustable supports, and thence into eon nection with a wire coming from a battery, (not shown;) and this cup H being nearly filled with mercury, a complete electric circuit will be formed between the balance and the battery whenever the platinum stem 10 comes down into contact with the mercury in the cup, the lever A, post B, and base E forming a part of said circuit.

The adjustable weight K, above the line of the bearing-points of the lever A, is fixed by' the manufacturer at the proper height to bring the center of gravity of the lever and its fixed appendages at a point a very little below the center of its motion, to produce delicacy in the vibratory motions of the said lever, as is well known to manufacturers of such apparatus.

The mercury-cup and its supports are insulated, in respect to the balance, by means of a layer of vulcanite between the same and its supportingbracket l1; and the whole bal ance is insulated upon its support by means of a layer of vulcanite between the latter and the base E of the balance.

The adjustable support forthe mercury-cup ll consists of a post, I. on the bracket 11, (with a layer of vulcanite, 12, between,) and a post, 1., having astem which enters a socket-hole in the post I, and can be raised, lowered, and turned around, as occasion may require,'and can'also be fixed at either position by means of a binding-screw, 13. The movable post z" carries the mercury-cup H by means of a bent arm, 14, which is attached to said post i by means of a rotary thumb-and-finger stem, 15, which passes horizontally through the said post and screws into connection with the arm 14, and is held in any required fixed position by means of a binding-screw, 16. By means of this adjustable support the mercury-cup H can be readily raised, lowered, or swung around, as occasion may require.

The wire comin gfrom the battery (not shown) enters a hole in the lower part of post I, and is secured therein in the usual manner by a bindin g-screw, 17, and the posts, arm, and platinum wire through the bottom of the cup, all being mad-e of conducting metal, will form, with the mercury, part of the electric circuit which is to pass from the battery-to and through the balance, as will be explained.

In the upper end of the post 0" there is a sliding stem, 18, the lower end of which is fixed to a cross-bar, 19, which also slides in the opening 6 above the arm of the lever,

hold the sliding stem 18 down upon the arm of the lever.

The whole balance, includ ng its base E and its connections, except the mercury-cup and the insulating vulcanite layers, is made of conducting metal, so that when the platinum stem 10 comes into contact with the mercury in the cup H an electric current will pass from a battery through the mercury, balance,

and the electro-magnet Gr, back again to said battery. I

In testing as to thenumber of grains of the sperm of a candle that will be consumed in, say, ten minutes time after the candle has been ignited. the operator places the-indicat ing-weight 5 at 0, moves the, mercury-cup aside, ignites the candle, and then slides the adjusting device F along on the bar 6 until the lever A of the balance comes to nearly a horizontalposition, and fixes the said device F by means of the binding-screw 9. He now rotates the micrometrical weight f'on the screw-cut sleeve f, until the index-pointer a nearly coincides with the middle mark on the scale a, and'thus indicates that the lever A is in nearly a horizontal position; then brings the mercury-cup H directly underthe platinum stem 10, and adjusts its height so that the surface of the mercury therein will' he, say, the twentieth of an inch below the point of stem 10. The candle havingassumed its nor-- mal burning condition when the index-pointer a coincides with the middle markof scale a,

he slides the weight 5 to 20', starts the clock of the photometer, and the test proceeds to theend of the ten minutes test.

The wires leading from and to the. battery through :t-he balance, it will readily'be seen that, at the instant twenty grains of the sperm of the candle C have been consumed, the point of the platinum stem 10 will come into contact with the mercury in the cup H, and an electric current be produced through the balance, and that the said contact will be steadily maintained by the armature g, which has at the same time been brought into contact with the electromagnetic coil-cylinders G.

It will readily be seen that, if the circuitwire returning from the balance be put in connection with a valve which will be opened thereby, so as to cause a puff of air to blow out the candle at the instant the platinum stem touches the mercury in the cup H, the exact amount of the sperm of the candle consumed in the ten minutes specified will be accurately known.

The said connection and air-valve arrangement is shown and described in a separate specification and drawings, and w l be under stood by a reference thereto.

I claim as m y invention-- 1. The combination, in a balance for hotometeis, substantially as described, of the platinum stem 10 in eenteet with the mercury mierometiical adjustingaveight F and the bar in the cup H, as set forth.

6 with the power-arm 0f the lever A. v i T 7 2. The eleetro-magnet G and the armature- ILLIAM GOOD bar g", 1-21 combination with thepewer-arm 0f Witnesses: the lever A, arranged as described, fer the I BENJ. MORISON, purpose of holding down the lever A, with its WM. 11. MORISON.

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