Bodemer’s Patent Model of an Indirect-Acting Governor – 1876
date: label: date made
content: 1876
label: patent date
content: 1876-04-25
name: label: inventor
content: Bodemer, Johann G.
notes: label: Description
content: This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 176,591 issued to Johann Georg Bodemer of Zschopau, Saxony, Germany on April 25, 1876. The patent was for a speed governor capable of reducing to a minimum variations in the speed of a hydraulic turbine. The patent model as seen in the image is an exquisitely detailed example of the model-maker’s art. The design itself represents great mechanical ingenuity, perhaps at the expense of practicality of use.
label: Description
content: The patent design was based on a loaded fly ball which can be seen at the top of the image of the model. Loaded fly ball type sensors had the advantage of quickly responding to small changes in speed. The patent claimed innovation was a regulator mechanism that would be disengaged while the speed was at the desired point. The regulator would be put into action immediately upon the loaded fly balls sensing small speed deviations and would remain in action until the governor sensed speed returning to normal. At that time, the regulator would again be disengaged and stay disengaged, assuming the machine would reach steady state at the desired speed. If it did not, the regulator would again be engaged in the proper direction to make additional corrections.
label: Description
content: A governor of the Bodemer design was shown at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. A Simplified version was used to regulate the turbines of the inventor’s own plant.
label: Description
content: The patent model is constructed of brass, steel and wood. A small brass plate on the base is marked “Modell von Bock & Handrick Dressden 550.”All of the key elements of the patent are illustrated by the model. It includes a small hand crank to permit demonstration of actual operation. A full description of the operation of the governor along with complete diagrams of the patent can be found in the patent document online at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, www.uspto.gov.
place: label: place made
content: Germany
label: associated place
content: Germany: Saxony, Zschopau
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: See more items in
content: Patent Models
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
label: Related Publication
content: Mayr, Otto. Feedback Mechanisms
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.309243
label: catalog number
content: 309243
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: patent number
content: 176,591
objectType: label: Object Name
content: governor, indirect acting, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, governor, indirect-acting
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 11 in x 6 in; 30.48 cm x 27.94 cm x 15.24 cm