Method and apparatus for continuously weighing material on a conveyor comprising a radioactive source and detector

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR MEASURING WEIGHT OF MATERIAL HAVING A CHANGING VOLUMETRIC OR DENSITY PROFILE ON A CONVEYOR, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING AN ELONGATED SOURCE OF RADIATION, MEANS SUPPORTING SAID RADIATION IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE SPACED FROM SAID CONVEYOR, THE SOURCE OF RADIATION EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF SAID CONVEYOR, AN ELONGATED DETECTOR, MEANS SUPPORTING SAID DETECTOR IN A HORIZONTAL PLANE SPACED FROM SAID CONVEYOR AND DISPOSED ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CONVEYOR FROM SAID SOURCE, SAID DETECTOR BEING DISPOSED IN THE SAME VERTICAL PLANE WITH SAID SOURCE AND PARALLEL WITH SAID SOURCE, SAID DETECTOR BEING SAID SOURCE BEING AT LEAST SUBSTANTIALLY AS LONG AS THE DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL ON SAID CONVEYOR, SAID DETECTOR BEING EFFECTIVE TO CAUSE A CONTINUOUS CURRENT FLOW CORRELATED WITH WEIGHT OF MATERIAL ON A UNIT LENGTH OF SAID CONVEYOR, AND MEANS FOR ELECTRICALLY INTEGRATING SAID CURRENT WITH TIME TO PRODUCE A SIGNAL CORRELATED WITH THE TOTAL WEIGHT OF MATERIAL ON SAID CONVEYOR.