Patent GB-693964-A (GB)
Title: Improved apparatus for showing the effects of financial and other business phenomena
Filed: 1949-11-28
Abstract: 693,964. Educational appliances. PHILLIPS, A. W. H. Feb. 28, 1951. [Nov. 28, 1949] No. 27728/49. Class 146 (ii). [Also in Group XXIX] An apparatus for showing the effects of financial and like phenomena involving flow of materials or money, comprises a liquid flow system including a tank 10, Fig. 1, having a liquid inlet 19, a liquid outlet 47, a valve 48 in the outlet arranged to control the rate of flow of liquid past it, a float device 38 responsive to variations in the level of the liquid in the tank, and a cam device 49 operatively connecting the float device to the valve so as to regulate the flow past the valve in accordance with a predetermined function of the depth of liquid in the tank. The apparatus is shown in Fig. 1 applied to investigating the variations in price of a commodity over a period of years. The level of liquid in the tank 10 represents stocks and the float device 38 is rigidly connected to a movable plate 32 which forms part of a cam device 22 which regulates the flow of liquid into the tank. The cam device 22, Fig. 2, comprises a frame 29 slidable vertically between fixed guides 30 and fitted with clips 31 for holding the plate 32. The plate 32 is provided with a groove 33, representing the relationship between price and production of the commodity. in which a pin 34 secured to a metering plate 25 slides. The plate 25 serves to control the flow through the inlet 19 and slides under a plate 23 fixed to the inlet 19 and having a longitudinal slot 24, Fig. 3, therein. The float 38 is also rigidly connected to the cam device 49 which is similar to the device 22 and controls the outflow of the tank by means of the valve 48 which is similar to valve 21. The cam device 49 has a movable plate with a groove 51 representing the relationship between price and consumption. A constant head of liquid is provided at the inflow by means of an outflow pipe 37 and at the outflow by means of a float 54. Movement of the cam disc 32 effects movement of a weighted pen 43 so as to record price variations on a chart 46 against time, the chart being moved horizontally to represent time variations. The horizontal time scale depends upon the amount of commodity represented by a given volume of water. A partition 16 is slidable in a liquid tight manner along the walls 11, 12 and bottom 13 of the tank 10 by means of a hand wheel 17. The partition 16 is curved to represent the relationship between the stock of the commodity and the price. By using several such tanks variations in other financial phenomena which are influenced by a plurality of factors may be investigated, as e.g. investigation of the variation of the active money balance of a country with such factors as taxation, government expenditure, savings, investments, imports and exports, Fig. 4 (not shown). In a modification the buoyant float 38 is replaced by an immersion sensitive member arranged to rise and fall in the tank, or a vessel connected therewith, a servomotor system controlled by the immersion sensitive member, the servomotor driving the cam device and also correspondingly operating the immersion sensitive member, Fig. 6 (not shown, (see Group XXIX). The outflow from a tank may also be constituted by a vertical slot, Fig. 5 (not shown), in the side of the tank, the slot being wider at the bottom than the top.