Abstract: A tobacco drying machine of rotary cylindrical type having a steam pipe at the wall thereof and a heated air source at the lower side of a material supply inlet, comprises means for detecting the flow of tobacco raw material at a pretreatment process line of the drying machine; a water spraying nozzle at the raw material supply inlet into which pressurized air is supplied as a carrier; and a control circuit for providing a signal to the water spraying nozzle when a predetermined period of time has passed since said circuit received a signal representative of the passage of the front or rear end of the tobacco raw material through the detector.

Abstract: A current restriction device for alternate circuit with small size, low producing cost and low power loss has been found by using a ferro-electric body with rectangular hysterisis characteristics. Said device is used for instance as a ballast for restricting current in a fluorescent lamp. Said ferro-electric body has main component of B.sub.a T.sub.i O.sub.3, additive of S.sub.r or P.sub.b for substitution of part of B.sub.a and Z.sub.n or S.sub.n for substitution of part of T.sub.i, and a mineralizer of M.sub.n o or C.sub.r2 O.sub.3. The voltage-current characteristics of said ferro-electric body show non-linearity that the impedance ratio (Z.sub.2 /Z.sub.1) of the impedance Z.sub.2 measured with alternate field of 500 volts/mm to the impedance Z.sub.1 measured with alternate field of 5 volts/mm is less than 1/10.

Abstract: A D-E hysteresis loop of ferroelectrics known in the art has a square shape when the ferroelectrics are a BaTiO.sub.3 single crystal. Such ferroelectrics are used as a non-linear dielectric element of, for example a pulse generating device. The non-linear dielectric element according to the present invention consists of a polycrystal, which is mainly composed of BaTiO.sub.3 and has the chemical composition expressed by the formula A.sub.y B.sub.z O.sub.3, wherein the molar ratio of y/z ranges from 0.92 to 0.99. The non-linearity is excellent and the temperature dependence of the A.sub.y B.sub.z O.sub.3 composition is considerably low.

Abstract: A D-E hysteresis loop of ferroelectrics known in the art has a square shape when the ferroelectrics are a BaTiO.sub.3 single crystal. Such ferroelectrics are used as a non-linear dielectric element of, for example a pulse generating device. The non-linear dielectric element according to the present invention consists of a polycrystal mainly composed of Ba(Ti.sub.0.90-0.98 Sn.sub.0.02-1.00)O.sub.3 and having an average grain diameter of from 10 to 60 .mu.m. The non-linearity is excellent and the temperature dependence of the non-linearity is considerably low.