Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia, T., Tell′tale.

Home Collections/Texts Perseus Catalog Research Grants Open Source About Help

Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:

This text is part of:

19th-Century American

View text chunked by:

chapter : entry
entry

Tell′tale.

1. A device for counting, indicating, detecting, or verifying.

2. (Nautical.) a. See Telltale-compass.

b. An index in front of the wheel, or in the cabin, to show the position of the tiller.

3. (Music.) A movable piece attached to an organ to indicate when the wind is nearly exhausted.

4. (Gus-making.) A device attached to a stationmeter to point out any irregularity in the production of gas.

Telltale.

It consists of a circular plate placed centrally in the dial-field and carrying a paper disk, and connected by gearing with the wheel which turns the hand belonging to one of the dials of the meter. Above it is a clock, to whose minute-hand is attached an arm carrying a pencil pushed against the paper disk by a spring. If the paper disk were stationary, the pencil would thus be caused to make a vertical stroke up and down each hour, but as the disk slowly turns with the dial-wheel, to which it is connected, the pencil traces a series of curves which are closer together or farther apart in proportion to the quantity of gas passing through the meter. If the quantity of gas produced has been uniform, the apexes of the curves will be equidistant from each other at the margin of the disk; if otherwise, their distances will vary, being nearer together when less than the usual quantity passes through the meter, and farther apart when the normal amount is exceeded.

Tellurium.

5. (Horology.) A clock attachment for the purpose of causing a record to be made of the presence of a watchman at certain intervals. Aresa's is provided with a rotating paper dial, showing the hour and minute at which the watchman touched a projecting button having a point which punctures the paper dial.

Smith's has a rotating circular frame, fitted with springs and pins; the operative mechanism must be touched at certain definite intervals in order that these shall appear in their proper places when inspected in the morning.

A telltale clock is described in English patent No. 1,502 of 1856. See also watchman's time-detector.

6. A turnstile having mechanism which indicates the number of passengers.

1877.

Tufts University provided support for entering this text.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar:

Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia
Knight, Ed.

This text is part of:

View text chunked by:

Table of Contents:

Tell′tale.

Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia Knight, Ed.

This text is part of:

View text chunked by:

Table of Contents:

Tell′tale.

Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia
Knight, Ed.