Abstract: A flow rate converter has a body with a cyclindric tube and an inlet and an outlet diffuser. The tube and body have inner annular conduits connecting with pipe connections disposed in the body. The body is also provided with a heating element. A replaceable cylindric body is inserted in the cylindric tube and is provided with first axial channels providing for a laminar flow and second axial channels of which at least one has a cross-sectional area at least two times larger than the cross-sectional area of the first channels. In both ends of the second channels are formed chambers while a replaceable cover with openings is fastened to the outlet diffuser.

Abstract: Method of and apparatus for sorting tobacco into two groups: a group of satisfactory leaves and a group of unsatisfactory leaves. Tobacco leaves, spaced so that they pass one by one along a conveyor, travel through a zone illuminated by pulsed polychromatic light and an optical sensor receiving light reflected from the tobacco leaves. In a manner which is synchronous with the pulsations of light there is measured the quantity of the light reflected by each of the leaves in the green, orange, red, and infrared areas of the spectrum. Sums are formed from the values corresponding to the reflected light in such areas of the spectrum and relations are obtained between sums corresponding to the green and orange as well as to the red and infrared ranges, of time in which the value of the reflected light in the infrared area is greater than a value preliminarily preset by the operator.

Abstract: Device for determining the reflective properties of objects in discrete spectral zones. The device has a housing in which there is disposed a diaphragm perpendicularly to the optical axis of the device and photosensors sensitive to light in a narrow spectral range that are connected with electronic amplifiers. The opening of the diaphragm coincides with the basic aperture of vision. Between the diaphragm and the object there are disposed supplementary diaphragms with openings coinciding with the basic aperture of vision. Each supplementary diaphragm lies in a plane determined by the intersection point of the parasitic aperture of vision of the diaphragm preceding it on the side of the photosensors and the housing. The device may be use to advantage in color discriminating systems, for example, the sorting of tobacco leaves according to their color.

Abstract: In order to track a distinctive line on a workpiece area to be followed by an operating implement, specifically a junction line between two workpieces to be welded by a torch advancing along that line, a narrow beam is trained generally perpendicularly from a pulsating source of luminous radiation--e. g. a laser--upon that area and is shifted parallel to itself around the implement so as to intersect the workpiece area along a closed trace substantially bisected by the line being tracked. The source of radiation is part of a photosensor including an objective with an optical axis inclined to the beam at a small angle to generate an image of the latter on a slanting straight line parallel to a central ray which passes through the point of intersection of the beam axis with the front focal plane of the objective, this image line starting at the intersection of the rear focal plane with a central ray parallel to the beam.