Accession No

6167

Brief Description

Simmons shielded hot-wire anemometer, by H. Tinsley and Company Ltd., English, mid-20th Century

Origin

England; London S.E.25

Maker

H. Tinsley and Company Ltd.

Class

physics

Earliest Date

1940

Latest Date

1955

Inscription Date

Material

wood (teak); metal (stainless steel; galvanized steel); plastic (ebonite; pvc); rubber; glass; paper; leather

Dimensions

length 308mm; height 225mm; width 231mm

Special Collection

Provenance

Donated on or before 23/01/2003. The donor collected the instruments over many years, predominantly from private sales, some were obtained direct from the manufacturers who were going to throw them out.

Inscription

SIMMONS SHIELDED ANEMOMETER
TYPE 5115 F
N.P.L. PATTERN
H. Tinsley & Co Ltd London S.E.25
SWITCH PAT. No. 329445

Description Notes

Simmons shielded hot-wire anemometer. Detachable hot-wire sensor on stand. Reads in feet/second. Varnished teak box with metal buckle clip at the front and leather handle on top. Box sits on 4 rubber feet, and has label attached to front that reads “SIMMONS SHIELDED ANEMOMETER”

Lid to box is hinged at the back, and opens to stand in verticle position.

Exposed top surface of inner box consists of “ebonite” plastic surface, which contains at the front a small, long glass window with gradiated scale marked from 0 to 15. above this window is a number of dials and screw fittings for attaching wires. These include:
- 2 large black plastic dials for current control
- a metal switch for changing between “TEST” and “STD.”
- two pull plastic switches (on top of stainless stell drums), one marked “PULL ON”, the other “GALV. KEY”
- two large plastic knobs that rotate red metal connectors between a series of marked dials. One of these knobs is for “COARSE” control of current, while the other is for “FT. PER. SEC.”
- a small metal knob for control of “GALV. ZERO”
- six plastic screw attachments for wires, two for attaching “BATT. 2V”, two for “THERMO COUPLE”, two for “HOT WIRE”

Inside lid there is a holder which contains a tall thin, galvanised steel stand, atop of which is the “hot wire” about 3cm long, mounted in one bore of a very small twin bore silica tube, the other bore containing the thermo-couple (which is used to determine the temperature of the hot wire). This stand can be removed from the holder (and is held in place by a steel screw fitting), and has a length of 4 strand pvc-sheathed wire attached to it, which is stored in a cubby hole set into the top left of the box’s top surface.

Sitting behind the hot wire stand is a piece of paper with a circuit diagram of a correctly set up anemometer circuit. Also included within the box is the original sales leaflet for the device (dated October 1950), which includes a description of the uses and design of the object, plus a letter from H. Tinsley to Mr. C. Jones of the National Coal Board, Isleworth, dated 15/10/1952, from the Managing Director of H. Tinsley (A.C. Gall), giving a quote for the anemometer (£63.10.6).

References

Events