Apparatus for measuring sound speed and attenuation characteristics in liquid media

Claim 1

IN A FREE-FLOODING PRESSURE-RELEASE-WALLED SOUND REVERBERANT CHAMBER ADAPTED TO BE SUBMERGED IN A VARIETY OF LIQUID MEDIA TO ENCOMPASS A FIXED VOLUME OF THE PARTICULAR LIQUID IN WHICH IT IS SUBMERGED AND OPERABLE AT BOTH SONIC AND ULTRASONIC FREQUENCIES AS A RESONATOR, ACOUSTICALLY-OPERATIVE CHAMBER WALL STRUCTURE COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF COMPLAINT ELEMENTS SPACED FROM ONE ANOTHER, EACH OF SAID COMPLIANT ELEMENTS HAVING A COMPRESSIBILITY CHARACTERISTIC GREATER THAN THAT OF ANY OF THE LIQUID MEDIA IN WHICH IT MAY BE SUBMERGED, THE CENTER-TOCENTER SPACING OF ADJACENT COMPLIANT ELEMENTS IN EACH WALL BEING A FIXED DISTANCE WHICH MAY VARY FROM ABOUT $/10 TO ABOUT $/20, $ BEING THE WAVELENGTH OF SOUND PROPAGATION WITHIN SAID CHAMBER AND BEING DETERMINED BY THE NATURAL FREQUENCY OF VIBRATION OF THE SYSTEM COMPRISING THE ACOUSTICALLY-OPERATIVE WALL STRUCTURE OF SAID CHAMBER AND THE VOLUME OF THE GIVEN LIQUID SPECIMEN ENCOMPASSED BY THE WALLS OF SAID CHAMBER.