Importance

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Abstract

An electronically controlled water clock designed to visually display the passage of hours, minutes and seconds by the gravitationally induced flowing away of liquid material inside transparent vessels, with each unit of time displayed in a separate vessel. Each vessel consists of an upper and lower chamber and an air tube connects the 2 chambers to equalize air pressure between them and to serve as an overflow drain for the upper chamber. The bottom end of the upper chamber has a small drain tube through which the liquid drains out. The front of the upper chamber is inscribed with a uniform scale and its interior shape is such that the upper surface of the liquid drops in equal vertical intervals over equal time spans throughout the entire time required to drain the upper chamber from the top to the bottom end of the scale. The lower chamber is either used as a reservoir to contain the draining liquid or it can be an inverted version of the upper chamber to show the passage of time as the liquid rises in the lower chamber. Time is indicated on the clock by the numbers on the uniform scales which correspond to the level of the liquid inside the vessels: the hour is given by the level of the liquid on the scale of the vessel measuring hours, the minute is given by the level of the liquid on the scale of the vessel measuring minutes and the second is given by the level of the liquid on the scale of the vessel measuring seconds. An electronic pump controlled by an electronic timer is attached to an aperture on the bottom of the lower chamber and it pumps the liquid out of the lower chamber and back into the upper chamber at a predetermined time so that the liquid can drain out of the upper chamber again. This cycle of slow draining followed by rapid refilling by the pump is repeated indefinitely. In order to maintain constant viscosity of the liquid, an electronic temperature controller is utilized. The controller uses a thermocouple in contact with the liquid to measure its temperature and an electric heating/cooling device attached to the outside of the vessel to supply or remove heat as needed to keep the liquid at a given temperature.

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First Claim