Home / Albums / Technology / Inventions 25
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At C is shown the carriage which revolves with pinion B carrying the escapement and balance around the stationary wheel G. (After G. A. Baillie, Watches, their history, decoration, and mechanism, London, Methuen, n.d.)
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Drawing from U. S. Patent 165831, showing Hopkins’ first design improvement, an arbor for the barrel and train to turn on and the balance displaced from center.
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showing the winding and setting mechanism very nearly as it was applied in the Auburndale rotary.
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The mainspring barrel E, of a very large diameter in proportion to the diameter of the watch, occupies nearly the full diameter of the movement. The spring itself, narrower and much longer than usual, is made in the patent model by riveting two ordinary springs together end to end. Over this barrel and attached to the stationary frame of the watch is placed a large thin ring A, cut on its inner diameter with 120 teeth. Near its edge the barrel E carries a stud g on which runs a pinion of 10 in mesh with the ring gear A. On this pinion is a wheel of 80 driving a pinion of 6 on the escape-wheel arbor. The 15-tooth escape wheel locks on a spring detent and gives impulse to the balance in one direction only, being a conventional chronometer escapement. The intermediate wheel and pinion, balance wheel, and balance cock have been adapted from a Swiss bar movement of the time.
72 visits
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Remaining Drawings from U. S. Patent 186838, showing the dial gearing used in the Auburndale rotary.
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If an electromagnet, a permanent magnet, and a pivoted armature be related to a pair of gongs as shown , a polarized ringer results. It should be noted that a permanent magnet has both its poles presented (though one of the poles is not actually attached) to two parts of the iron of the electro-magnet. The result is that the ends of the armature are of south polarity and those of the core are of north polarity. All the markings relate to the polarity produced by the permanent magnet. If, now, a current flow in the ringer winding from plus to minus, obviously the right-hand pole will be additively magnetized, the current tending to produce north magnetism there; also the left-hand pole will be subtractively magnetized, the current tending to produce south magnetism there. If the current be of a certain strength, relative to the certain ringer under study, magnetism in the left pole will be neutralized and that in the right pole doubled. Hence the armature will be attracted more by the right pole than by the left and will strike the right-hand gong. A reversal of current produces an opposite action, the left-hand gong being struck. The current ceasing, the armature remains where last thrown.
158 visits
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Conversion from Vibration to Voice Currents.
The figure illustrates a simple machine adapted to translate motion of a diaphragm into an alternating electrical current. The device is merely one form of magneto telephone chosen to illustrate the point of immediate conversion.
1 is a diaphragm adapted to vibrate in response to the sounds reaching it.
2 is a permanent magnet and
3 is its armature. The armature is in contact with one pole of the permanent magnet and nearly in contact with the other. The effort of the armature to touch the pole it nearly touches places the diaphragm under tension. The free arm of the magnet is surrounded by a coil
4, whose ends extend to form the line.
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Image 8078
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The trouble was that the knuckles, being necessarily oiled, held dust and dirt which interfered with their free movement. And again, a "five-cent" or "ten-cent" key would be used more than others, and hence would become more worn. As a practical result the tablets did not drop when wanted, and the whole operation was thrown into confusion. When one tablet went up the other tablet stayed up, leaving a false indication. The most valuable modification now made by these Dayton inventors was to cease to rely on the knuckle to move back the supporting bar, and to supply the place of this function by what became known as "connecting mechanism," especially designed for this purpose. This was placed at the other, or say the left, side of the machine as you faced it. Cut No. 2 shows this new connecting mechanism. The keys, when pressed, performed the functions as before, on the right side of the machine, viz. to ring an alarm-bell, etc.; but on the other, or left, side the key, when pressed, operated the connecting mechanism marked M, N, O, P, and Q. The key pressed down by its leverage pushed back a little lever (Q), the further end of which pressed back the supporting bar F, and released the previously exposed indicator G, without relying on the knuckle to perform this function.
366 visits
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The origin of the cash register is rather nebulous, because twenty-five years ago several men were working on the same idea. It first appeared as a practical machine in the offices of John and James Ritty, who owned stores and coalmines at Dayton, Ohio. James Ritty helped and largely paid for the first experiments. He needed a mechanical cashier for his own business, and says that, while on an ocean steamer en route to London the revolving machinery gave him the suggestion worked out, on his return to Dayton, in the first dial-machine. This gave way to the key-machine with its display tablet, or indicator, held up by a supporting bar moved back by knuckles on the vertical tablet rod.
The cut shows the right side of this key register, the action of which is thus described by the National Cash Register Company. The key A, when pressed with the finger at its ordinary position—marked 1—went down to the point marked 2. Being a lever and pivoted to its centre, pressing down a key elevated its extreme point B. This pushed up the tablet-rod C, having on its upper part the knuckle D. This knuckle D, pushed up, took the position at E; that is, the knuckle pushed back the supporting-bar F, and was pushed past it and held above it. If the same operation were performed on another key, the knuckle on its vertical rod, going up, would again push the supporting bar back, which would release the first knuckled rod, and leave the last one in its place. This knuckled rod had on its upper end the display tablet, or indicator G
369 visits
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An extreme instance of the pedrail's capacity would be afforded by the ascent of a flight of steps . In such a case the three "peds" carrying the weight of an axle would not be on the same level. That makes no difference, because the frame merely tilts on its top and bottom pivots, the front of the rail rising to a higher level than the back end, and the back spokes being projected by the rail much further than those in front, so that the engine is simply levered over its rollers up an inclined plane. Similarly, in descending, the front spokes are thrust out the furthest, and the reverse action takes place.
148 visits
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The Pedrail, as it has been named, signifies a rail moving on feet. Mr. Diplock, observing that a horse has for its weight a tractive force much in excess of the traction-engine, took a hint from nature, and conceived the idea of copying the horse's foot action. The reader must not imagine that here is a return to the abortive and rather ludicrous attempts at a walking locomotive made many years ago, when some engineers considered it proper that a railway engine should be propelled by legs. Mr. Diplock's device not merely propels, but also steps, i.e. selects the spot on the ground which shall be the momentary point at which propulsive force shall be exerted.
93 visits
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The Instrument is this. I prepare a pretty capaceous Bolt-head AB, with a small stem about two foot and a half long DC; upon the end of this D I put on a small bended Glass, or brazen syphon DEF (open at D, E and F, but to be closed with cement at F and E, as occasion serves) whose stem F should be about six or eight inches long, but the bore of it not above half an inch diameter, and very even; these I fix very strongly together by the help of very hard Cement, and then fit the whole Glass ABCDEF into a long Board, or Frame, in such manner, that almost half the head AB may lye buried in a concave Hemisphere cut into the Board ...
198 visits
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We illustrate a high speed engine and dynamo constructed by Easton & Anderson, London. This plant was used at the Royal Agricultural Society's show at Doncaster in testing the machinery in the dairy, and constituted a distinct innovation, as well as an improvement, on the appliances previously employed for the purpose. The separator, or whatever might be the machine under trial, was driven by an electric motor fed by a current from the dynamo we illustrate. A record was made of the volts and amperes used, and from this the power expended was deduced, the motor having been previously carefully calibrated by means of a brake. So delicate was the test that the observers could detect the presence of a warm bearing in the separator from the change in the readings of the ammeter.
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The engine is carefully balanced to enable it to run at the very high speed of 500 revolutions per minute. The cranks are opposite each other, and the moving parts connected with the two pistons are of the same weight. The result is complete absence of vibration, and exceedingly quiet running. Very liberal lubricating arrangements are fitted to provide for long runs, while uniformity of speed is provided for by a Pickering governor. The high pressure cylinder is 4 in. in diameter, and the low pressure cylinder is 7 in. in diameter. The stroke in each case is 4 in.
281 visits
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The art of navigation, though still crude, had by the 15th century so advanced that the sailor was no longer compelled to skirt the shore, with only rare ventures across open stretches of sea. The use of the compass, originating in China, had been learned from the Arabs by the crusaders, and is first mentioned in Europe towards the close of the 12th century. An Italian in England, describing a visit to the philosopher Roger Bacon in 1258, writes as follows: "Among other things he showed me an ugly black stone called a magnet ... upon which, if a needle be rubbed and afterward fastened to a straw so that it shall float upon the water, the needle will instantly turn toward the pole-star; though the night be never so dark, yet shall the mariner be able by the help of this needle to steer his course aright. But no master-mariner," he adds, "dares to use it lest he should fall under the imputation of being a magician." By the end of the 13th century, the compass was coming into general use; and when Columbus sailed he had an instrument divided as in later times into 360 degrees and 32 points, as well as a quadrant, sea-astrolabe, and other nautical devices. The astrolabe, an instrument for determining latitude by measuring the altitude of the sun or other heavenly body, was suspended from the finger by a ring and held upright at noon till the shadow of the sun passed the sights. The cross-staff, more frequently used for the same purpose by sailors of the time, was a simpler affair less affected by the ship's roll; it was held with the lower end of the cross-piece level with the horizon and the upper adjusted to a point on a line between the eye of the observer and the sun at the zenith. By these various means, the sailor could steer a fixed course and determine latitude.
528 visits
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Lime Boil.—In this operation, which is also known as bowking (Ger. beuchen), the pieces are first run through milk of lime contained in an ordinary washing machine and of such a strength that they take up about 4% of their weight of lime (CaO). They are then run over winches and guided through smooth porcelain rings (“pot-eyes”) into the kier, where they are evenly packed by boys who enter the vessel through the manhole at the top. It is of the greatest importance that the goods should be evenly packed, for, if channels or loosely-packed places are left, the liquor circulating through the kier, when boiling is subsequently in progress, will follow the line of least resistance, and the result is an uneven treatment. Of the numerous forms of kier in use, the injector kier is the one most generally adopted. This consists of an egg-ended cylindrical vessel constructed of stout boiler plate and shown in sectional elevation in the figure.
490 visits
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After bleaching, the cloth is next passed over a mechanical contrivance known as a “scutcher,” which opens it out from the rope form to its full breadth, and is then dried on a continuous drying machine. The figure shows the appearance and construction of an improved form of the horizontal drying machine, which is in more common use for piece goods than the vertical form.
454 visits
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In the modern processes of bleaching cotton pieces the lime boil is entirely dispensed with, its place being taken by a treatment in the kier with caustic soda (or a mixture of caustic soda and soda ash) and resin soap. The best known and probably the most widely practised of these processes is one which was worked out by the late M. Horace Koechlin in conjunction with Sir William Mather, and this differs from the old process not only in the sequence of the operations but also in the construction of the kier. This consists of a horizontal egg-ended cylinder.
470 visits
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The pieces are now run through a continuous washing machine, which is provided with a plentiful supply of water. The machine consists essentially of a wooden vat, over which there is a pair of heavy wooden (sycamore) bowls or squeezers. The pieces enter the machine at each end, as indicated by the arrows, and pass rapidly through the bowls down to the bottom of the vat over a loose roller, thence between the first pair of guide pegs through the bowls again, and travel thus in a spiral direction until they arrive at the middle of the machine, when they leave at the side opposite to that on which they entered. The same type of machine is used for liming, chemicking, and souring.
475 visits
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Portable Steam Engine, 1877. Portable steam engines provided belting power on farms to run threshing machines, circular saws, etc. This Frick model steam engine operated regularly from 1877 to 1949.
814 visits
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Edison with his Phonograph
In 1878 Mr Edison made a number of phonographs, which were exhibited in America and Europe, and attracted universal attention. The records were made in these on soft tinfoil sheets fastened around metal cylinders. For a while Mr Edison was compelled to suspend work on this invention, but soon returned to it and worked out the machine as it exists practically to-day. It occupies about the same space as a hand sewing-machine. A light tube of wax to slide on and off the cylinder is substituted for the tinfoil, which had been wrapped round it, and the indenting stylus is replaced by a minute engraving point. Under the varying pressure of the sound-waves, this point or knife cuts into the tube almost imperceptibly, the wax chiselled away wreathing off in very fine spirals before the edge of the little blade, as the cylinder travels under it. Each cylinder will receive about a thousand words. In the improved machine Mr Edison at first employed two diaphragms in 'spectacle' form, one to receive and the other to reproduce; but he has since combined these in a single efficient attachment.
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Breech loading Gingal (Chamber out)
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Image 103
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The string telephones which for several years have been flooding the boulevards and the streets of the different cities of Europe, and whose invention dates back, as we have seen, to the year 1667, are very interesting apparatuses by them themselves, and we are astonished that they did not appear rather in the physics cabinets. They consist of cylindrical-conical tubes of metal or cardboard, one end of which is closed by a stretched membrane of parchment, in the center of which is fixed by a knot the string or cord intended to bring them together. When two tubes of this kind are thus joined together and that the wire is tight, as shown, it suffices for a person to apply one of these tubes against the ear and for another person to speak very close to the opening of the other tube, so that all the words spoken by the latter are immediately transmitted to the other, and one can even converse in this manner in an almost low voice.
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