Automatic plotting of perturbation measurements in electromagnetic wave structures

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY RECORDING THE RESONANT FREQUENCIES OF A RESONANT ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE STRUCTURE AS A FUNCTION OF THE POSITIONS OF A FIELD-PERTURBING OBJECT THAT IS PASSED THROUGH THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD OF WAVES SUPPORTED BY SAID STRUCTURE, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING, MEANS FOR COUPLING FREQUENCY MODULATED ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES TO SAID STRUCTURE, THE FREQUENCY OF SAID WAVES BEING SWEPT WITHIN A GIVEN TIME INTERVAL THROUGH A RANGE OF FREQUENCIES THAT INCLUDES THE RESONANT FREQUENCY OF SAID STRUCTURE, MEANS FOR PASSING A FIELD-PERTURBING OBJECT THROUGH THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD OF WAVES ON SAID STRUCTURE AND FOR PROVIDING A DISPLACEMENT SIGNAL THAT VARIES IN AMPLITUDE AS A FUNCTION OF THE DISPLACEMENT OF SAID OBJECT THROUGH SAID STRUCTURE, MEANS COUPLED TO SAID STRUCTURE FOR PRODUCING A SERIES OF TIME-MODULATED PULSES WHOSE TIMES OF OCCURRENCE ARE A FUNCTION OF THE RESONANT FREQUENCY OF SAID STRUCTURE WITH SAID PERTURBING OBJECT IN THE FIELD OF THE WAVES SUPPORTED BY SAID STRUCTURE, MEANS FOR GENERATING RECURRING WAVEFORMS OF UNIFORMLY-VARYING AMPLITUDE IN SYNCHRONISM WITH THE FREQUENCY SWEEPS OF SAID FREQUENCY MODULATED WAVES, MEANS COUPLED TO RECEIVE SAID TIME-MODULATED PULES AND SAID VARYING-AMPLITUDE WAVEFORMS AND OPERATING TO PRODUCE OUTPUT SIGNALS WHOSE AMPLITUDE ARE A FUNCTION OF THE TIMES OF OCCURRENCE OF THE TIMEMODULATED PULSES, MEANS COUPLED TO RECEIVE SAID DISPLACEMENT SIGNAL AND THE OUTPUT SIGNALS OF SAID LAST-NAMED MEANS TO PROVIDE AN INDICATION OF A WAVE PROPAGATING CHARACTERISTIC OF SAID STRUCTURE AS A FUNCTION OF THE POSITION OF THE PERTURBING OBJECT AS SAID OBJECT IS PASSED THROUGH FIELD OF WAVES SUPPORTED BY SAID STRUCTURE.