Moisture meter

Abstract

A moisture meter and method for determining moisture content in a mass of material is provided. A source of microwave radiation selectively produces radiation having a plurality of different frequencies and directs the radiation into the mass of material. A support is provided for the material, which is substantially transparent to the radiation. A detector determines the emergent intensity of the radiation of each frequency traversing the mass of material and the support. A signal processing unit, responsive to (1) an intensity level of incident radiation directed into the mass of material, (2) a level of the emergent intensity of the radiation after passage through the mass of material and the support, and (3) the selective radiation frequencies, determines a value characteristic of moisture content based upon a slope of a plot of attenuation representing a difference between the intensity level of the incident radiation and the emergent radiation versus each of the plurality of different frequencies.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.