Vintage ammeter - photos

[Altair]

Vintage ammeter.

Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...r_fullsize.jpg


Fullsize image: https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...1_fullsize.jpg



Previously:

Vintage German ohmmeter - photo
Explosimeter gauge - photo
Vacuum tube tester - photo
Spherical densiometer for measuring forest density - photo
Mitutoyo can seam micrometer - photo
Vacuum tube pin straightener - GIF

[rgsparber]

I once developed a negative 100.208K resistor. I used one of these fine meters that read 20 micro amps to test it with zero noise. Great instruments!

Rick

[DIYSwede]

I once developed a negative 100.208K resistor.

Sorry, Rick - but I just can't get heads or tails outta that sentence, but isn't that firstly a 100.208 MΩ resistor?
And then being "negative" also - "a resistor with a negative resistance" - hence simply a DC-to-light linear amp?

Reminds me of my DIY audio design years where I and some of my co-dependants kidded:
"just design an audio interconnect cable with a negative resistance, infinite input impedance and zero ohm source impedance,
no inductive or capacitive reactance, and we'll get rid of all those heavy, ugly amps entirely"...

[rgsparber]

Sorry, Rick - but I just can't get heads or tails outta that sentence, but isn't that firstly a 100.208 MΩ resistor?
And then being "negative" also - "a resistor with a negative resistance" - hence simply a DC-to-light linear amp?

Reminds me of my DIY audio design years where I and some of my co-dependants kidded:
"just design an audio interconnect cable with a negative resistance, infinite input impedance and zero ohm source impedance,
no inductive or capacitive reactance, and we'll get rid of all those heavy, ugly amps entirely"...

It was a -100.208K resistor. Put it in parallel with a +100.208K resistor and you get an open circuit:

Rtotal = (R1 x R2)/(R1 + R2) = (100.208K x [-100.208K])/(100.208K + [-100.208K) = (-10000K/0) = infinite which is an open circuit.

The resistor was accurate to +/- 20 parts per million per year and took up an 8 x 11 circuit board. The cost was around $10K back in the 1980's. It more than paid for itself. Oh, and it could survive an indirect lightning strike yet operate from +200V to -200V.

Yes, negative resistor are real and useful. In grad school I made negative capacitors, inductors, and even negative diodes for my Master's project. How does that bend your mind?

For those EE's out there, I once built an audio circuit with a driving point impedance that formed a circle as you went from 200 Hz to 3200 Hz. It used 3 transistors and was used in an analog phone connection to join three phone lines.

Rick

[DIYSwede]

Yes, negative resistor are real and useful. In grad school I made negative capacitors, inductors, and even negative diodes for my Master's project. How does that bend your mind?

-Thanks Rick. It doesn't bend my mind at all - that sentence just doesn't have any "explanatory value" to me
-it merely introduces a brand new and very subjective use of the word "resistor".

IMHO: In common usage of the word, a "Resistor" (but also "Capacitor", Diode" & "Inductor") denotes a passive component.
All passive components consume power (they're hence called "Passive") - but a "negative resistor" would produce power.

In my personal beliefs and daily use of the terms, a passive component cannot show static negative values
w/o violating "the law of conservation of energy" and/ or 2nd law of thermodynamics.

I can totally buy that you've designed and built active circuits showing negative resistance, capacitance and inductance.
That's a meaningful sentence having some explanatory value, at least to me...

Just my two cents - but perhaps you used to work for "Reversed Entropy Inc. -
where we simply and directly turn heat into current"?

Pardon me for my Megaohm mistake above, got confused by the decimal point...

Cheers
Johan