KENT'S TORSION BALANCE.
The United States Torsion Balance Company, of New York, has recently brought before the public a new form of balance which presents so many ingenious and excellent features that we illustrate it below, on the present page. The instrument in its simplest form is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of a beam, A, which is firmly attached to a wire or band, B, at right angles to it, and which wire is tightly stretched by any convenient means. Then, since the wire and beam are both horizontal in their normal position, and since the center of gravity of the beam is immediately above or below the middle line of the wire, the torsional resistance of the latter tends to keep the beam horizontal and to limit its sensitiveness. When the beam is deflected out of its horizontal position and the wire thereby twisted, the resistance to twisting increases with the arc of rotation. To counteract this resistance and to render the beam sensitive to a very slight excess of load at either end, a poise, D, is attached to the beam by a standard, C, which poise carries the center of gravity of the structure above the axis of rotation. This high center of gravity tends to make the beam "top heavy," or in unstable equilibrium. By properly proportioning the poise and its distance above the wire to the resistance of the wire, the top-heaviness may be made to exactly neutralize the torsional resistance, and when this is done the beam is infinitely sensitive.
KENT'S TORSION BALANCE. Fig 1.
The moment of the weight or its tendency to fall increases directly as the sine of the arc of rotation, while the torsional resistance increases as the arc, and for small angles the sine and the arc are practically equal.
When arranged as in Fig. 1, the scale is balanced only when the center of gravity of the structure is vertically above the middle line of the wire, and the support of the scale must be leveled in the direction of the beam, so as to cause the center of gravity to take this normal position. After the scale is thus leveled, if from any cause whatever, such as shifting the scale on a table, or shifting the table itself, the scale support is thrown out of level, the center of gravity of the poise and beam is shifted from the vertical line above the support, and its moment immediately becomes greater than the torsional resistance, and the beam tips out of balance, and cannot be used as a correct scale until the support is again leveled.
KENT'S TORSION BALANCE. Fig 2.