We're using a $25 data acquisition board (hooked to $50, 1 psi pressure
transducers) to input flow bench data directly into an Excel spreadsheet.
If you could replace the mercury with some (any) other less hazardous
fluid and attach the pressure transducer where the "column" is supposed to
be... you could make a "virtual" column onscreen using Excel's graphing
capability. You can record, calibrate, graph and e-mail the data like any
other Excel worksheet.
Any old piece-of-junk pc will work... Windows95 or better.
The daq is he http://www.dataq.com/194.htm
The sensors are he
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/us/dk...?keywordsearch click
"technical/catalog info".
I honestly can't picture exactly what you have there, but if you just
need to record the pressure exerted by the leather bag, convert it to
engineering units, and display or record it.... you should be able to do it
for about $75 plus the old PC.
Just a thought,
David


"Glenn Cramond" wrote in message
om...
Jack Erbes wrote in message
. ..
On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 16:19:50 GMT, steamer wrote:

--What the heck is this thing measuring anyway?

Thanks for the links they were useful.
The Hounsfield was issued to Australian High Schools and Technical
Colleges in great numbers in the days when governments were prepared
to spend money on education. Most schools still have one but keep it
well hidden (mercury). The most common use of the machine is to plot
stress strain curves of various samples of materials.
The test piece is placed under tension with a manual or motor driven
screw (both available), attached to one end of the test piece (uses
chineese finger trap type clamp). The amount of tension applied
causes the end anchoring the test piece to operate a lever that
compresses a leather bag and forces the mercury from the bag along a
horizontal capilliary tube. The tube runs axially beside a rotating
drum (rotated by the screw). By manually marking the length of the
column of mercury, one can plot a stress strain curve, examine
elasticity, determine UTS, yeild point etc.
Other attachments come with the machine to allow similar compression
and shear tests.

Most school budgets don't allow for upgrading or replacement so we
need to find a DIY method of converting these machines. In a school
of 650 kids I have a total budget of $7,500 PA (all tools materials
consumables etc.)

Really appreciate your efforts to help.
Glenn