IMPROVEMENTS IN INDEX PLATES OF SPIROMETERS
Year: 1886

page_text: I JOHN WILLIAM WADDINGTON of 33 Abingdon Street Bradford in the County.
of York Anthropometerist do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN INDEX PLATES OF SPIROMETERS and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
It is well known that a quantity of air at one degree of heat, measures to a
different quantity at another degree. I find that when the atmospherie air is
breathed by man in very cold, or very hot weather, that the air in the mouth, as
breaths from 30 to 40 breaths, rises the thermometer to 94 degrees (Fahr).
One way to prove this is to make a mark on the tube of a thermometer, at the
place indicating the 94th degree of heat, and hold its tube in the hollow of your
fists, one fist at the end of the other, so as the hollow will resemble a tube; place
the bulb in your mouth without the bulb or tube touching the sides of the mouth,
inspire up the nostrils and expire through the mouth, and through the hollow of
the fists, the number of times stated, and the mercury in the thermometer will
rise to the mark on the tube, providing your hands are also at the 94th degree
of heat.
Now, if the temperature of a spirometer and its tubes were the same as that of
a: person's breath, & he were to breathe into it through the tubes at the time, there
would not be any condensation of that air after it left his mouth in going into
the spirometer, but if they were at a lower temperature when he breathed into
them, there would be some condensation of the air, & if there were a number
representing as many cubic inches as the air had condensed added to the measure-
ment, it would be then as if measured at the breath temperature. Or the breath
may be measured as if at some other temperature below that of the breath, by
deducting a sufficiency from the quantity measured. Improvements in index-
plates of spirometers are for to find readily what number is to be added to or
deducted from a measured quantity of air at one degree of heat, to make it appear
what it would measure to at another degree. Its mechanism consists principally
of curve-lines which represent different degrees of heat, on which are serials of
numbers representing cubic inches, so arranged as the index will indicate at the
same time its point indicates a measured quantity of air at one degree of heat,
which of the numbers should be added to or deducted from the measured quantity,

page_text: to make it what it would be at the temperate degree of heat. I deem it preferable
to measure the air of a breath of a person, at that temperature which is most
common in our climate; viz 55°; because there will be generally, the least to add
or deduct in measuring air to be as if it were at the temperate degree, than at any
other degree. I find that when a spirometer at different times is at different
degrees of heat below the breath temperature, and a quantity of air at the breath
temperature be conveyed into it, the air condenses at different ratios, according to
the different degrees of heat of the spirometer at the different times. When my
patent spirometer N° 7466, June 19th 1885, and the elastic tube connected thereto,
are at the temperate degree, & 200 cubic inches of air at breath temperature be
conveyed therein, the 200 becomes 183 cubic inches, that is a condensation as 17 is
to 200. At 92° the condensation of the 200 is at the ratio of 16-1282 in 200 & BO
the ratios being less and less by 8718 for every 2° of heat lower to 55°.
OD,
.
To prove this a gasometer should be provided. The water to supply it should
be at 94° of heat, and in a room at the same temperature, so that all the pipes
excepting the elastic tube to be breathed through, must be of the same temperature
(94°). There may be, say, 200 c. inches of air at 94° drawn into the gasometer, or
breathed therein by a person.
Then in another room whose temperature is 55° of
beat, my aforesaid patent spirometer & the elastic tube with one end fixed thereto
ready for use, are to be there until they are at 55° too, and then brought into the
hotter room wrapped up in warm woolen cloth, just so much exposed as it can be
operated with, & the loose end of the tube applied to the pipe of the gasometer,
then the 200 inches of air at 94° conveyed into the said spirometer, and it will be
seen that the 200 inches of air will be condensed to 183, that is a condensation
of 17 c. in, equal to a ratio as 17 is to. 200. 200 +17 = 11-7647 therefore for
whatever a quantity of air measured by this spirometer, when it is at the breath
temperature, there should be one cubic inch deducted for every 11.76 contained in
the measured quantity, to make it appear what it would be at the temperate
degree. The temperate degree of heat being 55° & the breath temperature
being 94°, the latter is higher by 39°. If a difference of 39° thus contract a
certain quantity of air 17 cubic inches, a difference of 37 degrees will contract
the same quantity to 16-1282, the difference in the degrees of temperature from
39 to 37, or from 94 to 92, as marked on the thermal scale is 2, and the difference
in the quantity of condensation of the air caused by the difference of the 2 degrees
is 8718. Therefore for every two degrees lower than 94° to 55° deduct 8718 for
condensation. Thus the quantity of condensation 17-8718 equals 16-1282; the
quantity of condensation in the 200 at 92° of heat, the 200+16-1282 = 12.4,
equal in value to one cubic inch, & therefore, for every 124 contained in a
measurement taken at 92 degrees of heat, there should be as many ones as there
are 12.4's deducted to make the measurement what it would be at the temperate
degree.
.
The quotients in the following table are obtained by the above method to as
low as 58 degrees.

page_text: breathe at once at any degree of heat of the weather. Within the circle of the
index numbers there are a number of curves, which I call thermal curves or
curvelines, of various colors or shades for distinction, representing the degrees of
heat differing by two degrees for each curve, from 94 to 16 degrees, each curve
having a series of numbers which I call compensating numbers, to represent the
number of times a quotient is contained in a given indexed number; the indexed
number, & the appropriate compensating number, being indicated at the same time,
by the direction of the index. . For instance, in the drawing of the index plate on
the curve which represents 94 and 16° of heat, there is number 5, for 5 times
the quotient 11.764 in 58.8, & which is pointed at by the index, there is number 6
opposite 70-56; 7 opposite 82.32 signifying, that there are respectively 5, 6,
& 7 times the 11-764, contained in the respective index numbers, and so on to the
end of the curve to 26 times. The series on the other curves, nearer to the centre
are numbered accordingly. When a measurement is taken at a temperature above
the temperate degree, these compensating numbers. are to be deducted from the
measurement, or when a measurement is taken at a temperature below the
temperate degree, these compensating numbers are to be added to the measure-
ment, to make it appear what it would be when taken at the temperate degree.
For example:-in a measurement of 240 c. in of air at 70° of heat, the com-
pensating number is within the space allotted to 8 inches. 240-8 = 232,
equalling what it would measure at the temperate degree of heat. A measurement
of 240 at 32 degrees of heat, the compensating number is the same as when taken
at 70°, but in the latter, the 8 inches have to be added to make the measurement
appear what it would be at the temperate degree.
To be as if it were measured at the temperate degice of heat 240 at midsummer
heat (76 degrees) will have to have 11 deducted. In the depth of winter,
240 measured at 26 degrees will have to have 15 added: difference of 26 cubic
inches.
.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1st. I claim thermal curves or curvelines on index-plates of spirometers to
represent different degrees of heat, as and for the purpose herein before described
and illustrated in the said drawing.
'
2nd. I claim compensating numbers which are on thermal curves or curve lines,
as and for the purpose herein before described and illustrated in the said drawing.
3rd. I claim numbers on spirometers as substantially hereinbefore described for
the purpose of being added to or deducted from a measured quantity of air at one
degree of heat to make the measured quantity of air appear what it would measure
to at another degree of heat.
Dated this 9th day of August 1886.