The quadrant electrometer for the measurement of dielectric loss

Walker, Skinner, Addenbrooke, Rayner, Orlich, Schultze, Thielers and others have given a great amount of useful information on electrometers for the measurement of dielectric loss. We have found instruments made somewhat after the design of Skinner and Rayner, so rugged and so useful as laboratory instruments, even when the instrument is subjected to severe jars and mechanical vibration, and capable of such great accuracy that we have spent considerable time developing methods of use and investigating the sources of error. Our instruments are essentially high-voltage instruments as the needle may have impressed upon it voltages up to about 8500 volts. One of these instruments has been in use almost continuously since 1913, a period of ten years, and for the last seven years it has been continually in use without needing repairs of any sort, in spite of breakdowns of the load being measured, and no adjustments have been made except an occasional turning of the quadrant leveling screws.