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Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, As Represented by the Minister

Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada (...)

Malcolm E Bell

Clayton G Coffey

John E McFee

Henry W Morewood

A fluxgate magnetometer with a linear array of three sensors equi-spaced along a support beam and accurately adjustable into the same spatial orientation for sensing magnetic field anomalies and/or for measuring a single axis component of a magnetic field at two or more points in space. The beam is mounted in an elongate housing provided with pairs of wedges, acting in opposition to one another at opposite ends of the beam, for flexing the beam to adjust the sensors, which have drive windings in containers secured to the beam, the drive windings being rotatably adjustable in their containers relative to sense windings and feedback windings.

Magnetometer array with magnetic field sensors on elongate support

A precision alignment apparatus for precisely orienting and stabilizing the orientation of a sensor, for example a magnetometer sensor, is disclosed. The simplest embodiment of the invention consists of a sensor support and a second support on which the sensor support is mounted with a trunnion. A wedge engages the two supports on one side of the trunnion axis so that advancement of the wedge will rotate the two supports relative to one another. A lead screw connected to the wedge serves to advance and retract the wedge relative to the supports. Rotation of the two supports is opposed by a stabilization mechanism that can be another wedge and lead screw assembly or a spring. In more complex embodiments an additional support and an additional wedge mechanism are employed for orienting the sensor about another axis. Three axis adjustment is likewise possible.

Precision alignment apparatus

A magnetometer having two or more sensor feedback systems provides improved accuracy by compensating for the effect of the feedback field in each system on the other systems. Each system has a sensor for sensing a magnetic field, a feedback coil associated with the sensor for providing a feedback field at the latter, a feedback circuit for energizing the feedback coil in response to sensing of the magnetic field by the sensor and thereby producing at the sensor a feedback field for cancelling the sensed field at the sensor, a differential amplifier for deriving from the feedback circuit a first electrical signal proportional to the feedback field, resistors of predetermined resistances selected for modifying the first electrical signal to electrical signals which are each proportional to the feedback field at the sensor of a respective other one of the sensor feedback systems, and circuitry for combining the first electrical signal from each of the systems with one of the modified signals of each of the other of the systems to provide, from each of the systems, a respective output signal corresponding to the magnetic field sensed by that system.

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Medicine Hat, Canada

Malcolm E Bell