Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating Speed by the Centrifugal Force of Fluid.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Dec., 1897-Accepted, 26th Feb., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Indicating Speed by the Centrifugal
Force of Fluid.
(A communication to me from CARL OETLING, of 37, Sedanstrasse, Dresden, in the
Kingdom of Saxony, Doctor of Philosophy.)
I, EDMUND EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 65 and 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
5 statement, and accompanying drawing, that is to say:-
This invention relates to apparatus in which the speed of a revolving shaft or
the like is indicated by the centrifugal action of fluid bodies directly set in motion
by the revolving shaft, and it consists substantially of a suitable hollow chamber
containing a heavy fluid which is caused, by centrifugal force, to pass from an
inner space to an outer one.
The accompanying drawing is in illustration of the invention.
The force
exerted in the space A or B can, by means of a lighter fluid medium, be trans-
mitted to any desired position. Between the heavy fluid medium and the lighter
one, a dividing partition may be arranged; and a device can also be used for:
5 bringing the indicator to zero.
In the accompanying drawing several forms of the directly driven speed indicator
acting by the centrifugal force of the fluid are shown. A indicates the inner space.
of a hollow centrifugal chamber, whilst the outer spaces or chambers are indicated
at B. A passage C connects together the two opposite chambers B, B, and also
communicates with the hollow axle or spindle D, which carries the apparatus and
revolves freely in bearings F in a suitable frame. E is a stuffing box, into which
the end of a flanged pipe H passes which is kept tight by packing E¹ (Figure 1).
An adjusting device K, which may be in the form of a tightly fitting screw, or
of an adjustable piston, or the like, is arranged on the chamber into which the
5 pipe H leads, or on the pipe itself, for the purpose of adjusting the indicator to the
zero point.
Movable divisions between the heavy and the light fluids are shown at L, in
the form of flexible discs, or movable pistons.
The heavier fluid, which fills the space A, as well as part of the chamber B,
is driven by centrifugal force from the inner space A into the outer chambers B.
The pressure thus produced can be either directly, as shown in Figures 4 and 5;
or indirectly, as, for instance, by a movable division (a flexible membrane or
diaphragm, in figures Figures 1, 2, and 3), pistons (in Figure 6), or the like, trans-
ferred to a lighter fluid medium, liquid or acriform. This medium transmits the
5 pressure to any desired position where the indicator is placed.
Or, the force may be used to operate by a vacuum, (as indicated in Figure 7),
and in this case any negative pressure (vacuum) existing in the inner space A is
transferred and indicated at the required place.
The force or pressure, either positive or negative, produced by the rotation
of the apparatus, may be indicated and measured, at the desired distance from the