Cell for collecting and mixing fluids

Claim 1

Sample collecting cell comprising: a. a cylinder having a free piston coaxially aligned therein, b. a head plug in one end of the cylinder and a tail plug in the other end thereof, said piston being located between the plugs, each of the plugs having a passageway for fluids which leads from the interior of the cylinder to the outside, the head plug having a flat inner face and the piston having a flat face which opposes that of the head plug, c. an agitator inside of said cylinder which is located between the head plug and the piston, said agitator being adapted to slide coaxially back and forth within the cylinder when said piston is separated from the head plug, said agitator having an outer cylindrical skirt aligned coaxially within the cylinder of the collecting cell, said skirt having an outer diameter smaller than the inside diameter of the cylinder, normally expandable but collapsible agitatoR blades which collapse and conform to opposed faces of said plug and piston when the faces are approximated by moving the piston toward the head plug, said blades being attached to said skirt and extending inwardly toward the central axis thereof and which when collapsed between the faces of the piston and head plug become flattened to form a disc which occupies practically all of the crosssectional area inside of the skirt, and d. an annular receptical into which the skirt of the agitator is inserted when the piston is driven toward the flat face of the head plug, the void volume of the receptical being equivalent to the inserted volume of the skirt.