Collaboration
ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Vacuum Gauge: Flattened Curved Tube Driving an Index (Bourdon, US 9,163)
A vacuum gauge shows how far a line or vessel has been pumped below atmospheric pressure. Eugène Bourdon (US 9,163, 1852) found that a thin metal tube, flattened and bent into a curve, straightens a little under internal pressure and curls up more when the air is drawn out of it.
One end is open to the line through a cock; the closed end drives a lever on a spindle that carries the index. With the air withdrawn the index moves the opposite way to a pressure gauge, "and the instrument is then a vacuum gage."
Source: E. Bourdon, "Pressure-Gage", US Patent 9,163 (1852). Picture: its Figs. 1-6.
Advanced
Unknown
Instructions
1
1
Read Bourdon
Read Bourdon
"If the air be withdrawn from the interior of the tube A by means of an air pump or otherwise the curvature of the tube is increased and the index moves in the opposite direction and the instrument is then a vacuum gage."
2
2
Make the tube
Make the tube
Flatten a thin metal tube so its section is no longer round (Bourdon draws oval, flat, cross and Y sections) and bend it into a near circle. Close one end (how is not given) and leave the other open. Bourdon: the wall depends on the size, motion, pressure and metal; his only figure is brass about 1/100 in. thick for a barometer about 4 in. across. The metal, wall and size for the vacuum gauge are not given.
Materials for this step:
Unknown Metal1 tubeTools needed:
Unknown Forming Method
Unknown Dimensions3
3
Fit the movement
Fit the movement
Fix the open end of the tube in the case, connected through a cock to a pipe to the line or vessel. Join the closed end by a link to a short lever on a small spindle that carries the index (or drive the spindle by a toothed sector and pinion, or by a silk thread wound round it and kept tight by a spring). The lever multiplies the tube's movement at the index.
Materials for this step:
Unknown Valve1 cockUnknown Metal1 link, lever, spindle and indexUnknown Metal1 caseTools needed:
Drill Press
Drill Bit Set
Files (Hand File)4
4
Graduate the dial
Graduate the dial
Fit a dial behind the index. Bourdon graduates the arc by submitting the instrument to known pressures alongside an ordinary mercury gauge and marking each on the dial; equal steps of pressure give nearly equal degrees. Connect the gauge to a pump drawing the air out: the tube curls more and the index moves the opposite way to a pressure gauge. The reference used to mark a vacuum scale is not given.
Materials for this step:
Unknown Material1 dialTools needed:
Vacuum PumpMaterials
3- 1 casePlaceholder
- 1 cockPlaceholder
- 1 dialPlaceholder
Tools Required
6- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- 1 vendor sell this, none ship to you yetPlaceholder
This blueprint makes
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.