An apparatus for determining the torque imposed on a rotatable shaft. The
shaft has at least four paired probes, paired horizontal probes and
paired vertical probes. The horizontal probes are positioned 90 degrees
apart from the vertical probes. If the shaft moves horizontally, the time
of arrival detected by the first horizontal probes will be later than a
nominal value and the time of arrival for the second horizontal probes
will be earlier than a nominal value with the same amount of error.
Combining data from the first and second horizontal probes will then
automatically cancel out any error from horizontal motion. Similarly,
combining data from vertical probes will eliminate the error due to
vertical movement. Because any radial movement is a combination of
horizontal and vertical movements, the use of the probes removes errors
due to movement in any direction.