Microwave warning device

• US 4,301,406 A
• Filed: 04/23/1979
• Issued: 11/17/1981
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/1979
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Walter Shriner
• Original Assignee: Walter Shriner
• Inventors: Shriner, Walter
• Primary Examiner(s): Karlsen, Ernest F.
• Application Number:
  US06/032,264
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 324/95, 324/122, 340/600, 343/703, 343/701, 361/297, 361/275, 361/278, 250/472, 250/474, 63/1, 362/104
• US Class Current: 324/95
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/145 Indicating the presence of current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 29/0857 Dosimetry, i.e. measuring the time integral of radiation intensity; Level warning devices for personal safety use nuclear radiation dosimetry G01T

Abstract

A device for warning a person carrying or wearing it of the presence of dangerous microwave radiation is fully powered by the radiations being detected. A very low-wattage gas-discharge lamp is energized by a broadly or a sharply tuned receiver circuit including dipole antennas or one antenna and a "grounding" casing element. The casing may be largely and uniformly transparent or have different areas gradedly light-transmissive to indicate varying radiation intensities. The casing can be made in the shape of a pocket watch, fountain pen, bracelet or finger ring, etc.

Claims

1. A device for warning a person of the momentary presence of a dangerous intensity of microwave radiation, comprising:

an at-least-partly-translucent housing member of the size and shape of a pocket watch, a low-wattage gaseous-discharge light-emitting element in said housing member, antenna means carried by said housing member and operatively coupled to said light-emitting element to cause it to variably glow responsively to dangerously intense radiations detected by said device, said antenna means comprising a pair of wires constituting a dipole and connected to opposite terminals of said light-emitting element, at least one of said dipole wires having induction-coil-forming tuning convolutions in its end adjacent said light-emitting element, a pair of short flexible insulation-covered wires helically intertwined and with one end of each connected to a different terminal of said light-emitting element to constitute a variable capacitor bridging said light-emitting element, and means exterior to said casing for twisting said intertwined wires to vary the capacitance of said capacitor.

2. A warning device according to claim 1 wherein said housing member has translucent areas of differing translucence to further indicate different intensities of radiation.