3B Scientific Watt’s Governor User Manual

3B SCIENTIFIC

Watt’s governor (centrifugal regulator) U8403115

Instruction sheet

12/10 ALF

®

PHYSICS

1 Axle
2 Movable cylinder
3 Lever arm
4 Coil spring
5 Flyweight arms with counterweights

1. Safety instructions

Danger of injury owing to the action of large cen­trifugal forces. Therefore:

• Before starting the experiment, check whether

the

counterweights are attached firmly to the

flyweight arms.

• Insert the axle deep into the chuck of the ex-

periment motor and clamp it tight.

• Always maintain a safe distance.

• Gradually increase the angular velocity.

• Do not touch or try to hold the rotating body.

• Before dismantling, disconnect the equipment

from the mains power supply.

Long hair, loose clothing as well as jewelry could
get caught in the rotating parts and result in injury.

• To avoid this hazard, persons with long hair

should wear a hair net.

• Inappropriate clothing or jewelry should be

removed.

2. Description

Watt’s governor is used to demonstrate centrifugal
force and the principle of centrifugal speed control,
for instance in steam engines.

Two flyweight arms are centrally fitted onto an
axle. The arms are held in a state of rest by a coil
spring. When the axle rotates, the weights work
their way upwards to a degree dependent on the
speed. This movement has technical applications
for control and regulatory tasks (centrifugal regula­tor).

3. Technical data

Maximum diameter: 350 mm

Height: 250 mm

Axle diameter: 10 mm

Weight: 0.4 kg approx.

1

4. Experiment procedure

In order to conduct the experiment, the following
apparatus is additionally required:

1 Experiment motor with
transmission U10375

1 DC power supply 0–20 V (230 V) U33020-230
or
1 DC power supply 0–20 V (115 V) U33020-115

1 Stand base: U13271

Experiment leads

• Set up the experiment motor on a stand base.

• Insert the axle of the Watt governor deep into

the chuck of the experiment motor and clamp
it tight.

• Connect the experiment motor to a power

supply.

• Initially set the output voltage to 0 and then

turn on the power.

• To increase the speed, gradually increase the

output voltage and observe how Watt’s gov­erner changes its angle.

Fig. 1: Experiment set-up for Watt’s governor

Elwe Didactic GmbH • Steinfelsstr. 5• 08248 Klingenthal • Germany • www.elwedidactic.com

3B Scientific GmbH • Rudorffweg 8 • 21031 Hamburg • Germany • www.3bscientific.com

-

+

Subject to technical amendments

© Copyright 2010 3B Scientific GmbH