Abstract: Disclosed is a vapor-jacketed cooking kettle having a compact, self-contained, gas-fired combustion system. The tiltable kettle includes a gas-fired cylindrical power burner which fires radially into a combustion chamber below a jet plate which in turn is closely spaced below the bottom wall of a water-containing jacket. Hot combustion gases produced by the burner heat and jet plate to temperatures at which it radiates large amounts of heat to the jacket wall. The hot gases also pass through holes in the plate to form high velocity jets which impinge on the jacket wall and transfer heat by convection. Heat transferred by the jet impingement and radiation vaporizes water in the jacket and the resulting steam cooks food products in the kettle. Thermal efficiencies of 70 percent or higher are achieved by the tilting kettle system.

Abstract: A watt-hour meter is disclosed which includes: a microprocessor coupled to a solid-state Hall-Effect sensor; an electrically alterable ROM coupled to the microprocessor; a power supply; a power outage timing means using the discharge characteristic of a capacitor; apparatus for supplying a 60 Hz clock signal to the microprocessor; a readout device coupled to the microprocessor to provide an indication of the power consumed; an output on the microprocessor for controlling a circuit breaker; and a switch for overriding the microprocessor controlled circuit breaker.

Abstract: The power outage timer (36, 136, or 236) forms a part of an electronic watt-hour meter (10) having a microprocessor (22), a real time value memory and a real time clock signal input from a voltage supply (23). The power outage timer (36, 136, or 236) is coupled to the microprocessor (22) for generating a signal when, after a power outage, power is restored, such signal being indicative of the time duration of the power outage and being input to the microprocessor (22) so that the microprocessor (22) can update the real time value in an EAROM (32) to reflect the correct real time.

Abstract: The non-linear alternating current transducer includes a current transformer core (14, 50 or 80) comprising a yoke (14, 50 or 80) for receiving a line conductor (20 or 110) and a secondary winding (22 or 86). The yoke (14, 50 or 80) has an air gap (19, 56 or 101-105) configured to provide a non-linear magnetic circuit response for changes in current through the line conductor (20 or 110). The non-linear magnetic circuit response provides a logarithmic voltage output across the secondary winding (22 or 86). The current transformer (12) is used in a control circuit (10) for sensing, monitoring and interrupting current in the line conductor (20 or 110) such that a trip coil is energized to open the circuit whenever current is sensed above a predetermined current. Also, the logarithmic response provides for high gain at low currents and low gain at high currents to that a very uniform percentage-of-reading accuracy is obtained with a meter operating off of the secondary winding.

Abstract: A voltage regulating transformer utilizing a microprocessor and a versatile multipurpose set of hardware modules and software modules it is described. A standard tap changing mechanism is driven in response to an analog control signal to change the output voltage of the transformer in response to digitally sampled values of voltage and current which have been transformed from the time domain to the frequency domain through a software program using Fourier transform techniques. The output current is also transformed and digitally processed to determine the power factor and the direction of power flow through the transformer. By inserting the digital values of the line characteristics to the load, line drop compensation is provided for. The difference in voltage across the input and output transformers is transformed to a digital signal and internally processed to provide an indication of the position of the tap changing mechanism without relying upon mechanical devices.

Abstract: A boiler for heating liquid which combines a source of hot gases directed first along the inner wall of an annular tank in a tortuous path formed by fins disposed upon the inner wall and then along the outer wall of the tank through a jet-impingement heat transfer system.