Abstract: The improved incipient fire detector employs an ionization particulate detector in combination with a particulate collector to monitor selectively small particulates in the atmosphere which are indicative of an incipient fire condition. During an incipient fire condition, prior to ignition, a large mass of particulates less than 5 microns in size is generated by combustible material thereby increasing the concentration of such size particulates in the atmosphere. The detector is designed to collect particulates less than 5 microns in size, rejecting those above this size, and channel the collected particulates at a controlled rate of flow into an ionization chamber wherein the concentration of such particulates is measured.

Abstract: The incipient fire detector employs a particulate monitor for detecting particulates in the atmosphere. During an incipient fire condition, prior to ignition, a large mass of particulates less than 5 microns in size is generated by the combustible material which increases the concentration of such particulates in the atmosphere. The detector samples and responds to the rate of increase of such particulates to provide an alarm when such rate exceeds a predetermined rate indicative of a hazardous condition. The particle collector employed in the incipient fire detector is specially designed to collect particulates less than five microns in size and reject those above this size.

Abstract: The embodiment of the pollution monitor described in the specification uses the principle of ultraviolet-induced fluorescence to detect and measure gaseous pollution in air, smokestack exhaust and other fluids. Improved calibration or standardization is effected by the use of one or more calibration cells in which a non-gaseous material simulates the fluorescence of the gaseous species under investigation, by scattering the incident ultraviolet light into a spectral region similar to that of the fluorescence of the gaseous species. Examples of suitable materials have been found to be aluminum, gold, platinum and molybdenum, all of which scatter light in the appropriate spectral region at a level which stays substantially constant with time.In the preferred embodiment, the sample cell and the calibration cells are all formed in a single cell block by drilling holes into solid bar material which holes function as the individual cell cavities.