What better way to make a gauge easier to read in a dark boiler room than to illuminate it? I found one from around 1900 where the bulb was fixed behind the gauge, not always practical. Here's what Ashton Valve came up with
Rick: You have a very good collection and historical account of Ashton. I appreciated being able to see all this stuff that you have posted. Thank you.
Thanks Jeff. I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Rick, your indepth looking into this company is very good!
Dan Weinhold
I have found that there is a lot of information about the company on the web. Far more than I initially thought there would be. google books and archive.org are great places to do research.
I love threads like this one, very interesting history and a learning experience too on technical details. Thanks to Rick and all who contributed, I really enjoyed it.
Rick, How did you get interested in this company?
Amazing thread! That quartering gauge is awesome. I also like that deadweight pressure calibrator rig. I calibrate lots of contraptions for a living and love this stuff.
Thanks Norm. What type of calibrations do you do? Have you ever used the dead weight tester? I understand they are still in use today.
I calibrate all kinds of stuff along with all my other duties supporting mechanical testing systems. Mostly force and displacement but also angle, torque, pressure, strain and even temperature. Oh and acceleration. I work in the field but our metrology department back at the mothership has dead weight calibrators for our field standards we carry.
Pressure can be calibrated in the loop or manually with a strain gage pressure transducer standard. Our systems use pressure sensors for control and data acquisition, and also for control loop stabilization in high inertia systems.
Rick, How did you get interested in this company?
Hokie,
I had heard about the company over the years from my father, who would talk about his uncle who worked there and a building somewhere in Cambridge Mass. He knew very little about the company and it got my curiosity going. I had been researching my mother's side of the family and he asked why I wasn't looking into his side of the family. So I did and I started to find a lot of info online. He passed on shortly after I started researching but I did get to show him a picture of his great grandfather that he had never seen. I don't know where the "old" family pictures went to. Well, Ashton Valve has become an obsession of sorts over the last 4 years. I've had a great time doing it and have met some wonderfully supportive people in museums, etc. It's been fun! I've also accumulated a nice collection of Ashton products (gages, etc, color pictures used on posts) and catalogs where that I get most of the pictures I use on this forum.
Neat story, Your work is amazing and a ton of fun to look through. Good Job!
I calibrate all kinds of stuff along with all my other duties supporting mechanical testing systems.
Norm,
That's a mouthful! I've learned a lot about safety valves and gages over the last few years but I have to admit I don't have the science or engineering background many of the people I meet do.
I'm curious what a "strain gage pressure transducer standard" is. Keep it simple please.(insert smiley face icon)
Here’s a very common strain gage pressure transducer:
https://sps.honeywell.com/us/e...ransducers/model-tje
These are also used as standards to compare other transducers for calibration purposes.
My line of work has contributed to an ongoing fascination with all types of industrial control devices so seeing this thread lured me in.
Can you set these to any pressure you want? I see the one in the link is at 1500 psi. How do you read it?
They are typically spec'ed to full scale. Just being a sensor, it would need a signal conditioner (excitation supply and amp combo) to get a meaningful readout from it. When being used as a calibration standard, you would need some sort of device to apply pressure to it and whatever you are trying to calibrate. These sort of devices have been around forever, strain gages can be applied to almost anything that is subject to mechanical load.
Well thank you Norm. My daughter's boyfriend is a mechanical engineer and when I showed him the picture of the transducer on the link you gave me he told me he uses them all the time and answered a lot of questions I had. I feel like I have a better understanding of them now.
Trade shows have been around for a long long time. They are still the best way to show new product, connect with ones customers, and check out your competition. Almost everyone has been to a flower show, travel show, steam shows, etc. The Ashton Valve company participated in many shows each year. And a few World Fairs too. Here is an overview of some of the shows the Ashton Valve company were part of.
First brief history of the Trade Show.
https://www.qualitylogoproduct...y-of-trade-shows.htm
https://www.applerock.com/blog...try-first-trade-show
Most shows were held yearly at different cities. Below is a small list of some of the trade shows Ashton Valve attended.
Mass charitable mechanic association, Boston 1874
cincinnati Industrial expo 1881
national expo of railway appliances , chicago 1883
International maritime expo ,Boston 1889
Columbian Expo (world's fair) Chicago 1893
Paris expo, France 1900
Supply mens association convention, Boston 1902
Universal Expo (worlds fair) St. Louis 1904
National association of stationary engineers, Richmond 1904
International railway congress 1905
National engineer convention, Niagra Falls 1907
Air brake association convention 1917
International Textile expo Boston 1921
National exhibition of power and mechanical engineering, NYC 1922
The list goes on and on.... Next I'll highlight some of the shows that I was able to get pictures of Ashton Valve display booths or awards they received.
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