Abstract
RECENTLY the U.S. National Bureau of Standards has announced the development by W. A. Wildhack of a new highly sensitive mechano-electrical transducer in which small mechanical displacements are transformed into large changes of resistance, current or voltage. Displacements as small as 10-5 in. can be measured directly without the use of auxiliary electrical amplifying devices. A nickel-alloy wire, chosen because of its high resistivity and small change in mechanical properties with temperature, is coiled into a close helical or conical spring such that the initial tension varies along its length. Thus, when the ends of the spring are pulled apart, the turns separate one by one, the electrical resistance varying from that with the spring completely closed (approximately a cylindrical metal tube) to that with the spring entirely open (total uncoiled length of wire). The spring transducer is a very sensitive means of conversion, for any small stretching of the spring results in a correspondingly large change in resistance. Used in combination with other transducers, or in a four-arm bridge of which each arm is a spring-transducer, the new transducer should have many scientific and industrial applications.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
A New Mechano-Electrical Transducer. Nature 163, 242 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163242b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163242b0