CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING GASOMETERS OR GASHOLDERS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
KNAPTON, of the City of York, Iron Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of January, in the
twelfth year of Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William
Knapton, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Knapton, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said William Knapton, my
exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in Her
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING GASOMETERS OR GASHOLDERS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso requiring that I, the said William
Knapton, shall particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Knapton, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by this present Instrument in writing, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and in which said Drawing similar
parts are marked and referred to by similar letters or figures, that is to say:-
My Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of the
apparatus commonly called a gasometer or gasholder, used for storing or con-
taining gas, and consists of combining flexible or pliant material (such as
cloth, leather, or other substances suitably rendered impervious to gas at
ordinary pressures, as is well understood, by being prepared with a solution of
india rubber, vulcanized india rubber, gutta percha, or otherwise,) with
wrought-iron plates, or other rigid or inflexible materials, by which a gaso-
meter or gasholder constructed according to my Invention is made to work
without the use of tanks or vats for holding water. Expence and inconvenience
are also avoided, and a gasometer or gasholder can be constructed of a cylin-
drical or other suitable form.
In the Drawing which is annexed, Figure 1 represents an elevation of a
gasometer or gasholder made and constructed according to my Invention
when the same is full of gas. A represents the top formed of wrought-iron
plates or other suitable metal. B represents the upper part of the gasometer
or gasholder made and constructed according to my Invention, formed of
wrought-iron plates, or other suitable metal or material. C represents the
lower part of the gasometer or gasholder made or constructed according to
my Invention, formed of cloth, leather, or other suitable flexible or pliant
material, prepared as herein-before mentioned, and united to the metal or
upper part of the said gasometer or gasholder by iron hoops and bolts, as
shewn at D. This Figure 1 also represents the method of suspending the
gasometer or gasholder made according to my Invention. a, a, are pillars
formed or composed of cast iron. b, b, pulley wheels. c, c, chains. d, d, ba-
lance weights. e, e, friction wheels or guide pullies. f.f.f, f, represent four
cast-iron columns or pillars, used for supporting the bottom of the said gaso-
meter or gasholder, described in Figure 3, and which said columns or pillars
are fastened to the angle iron. 9, 9, represent the supply and discharge
pipés.
Figure 2 represents a section of the gasometer or gasholder, made and
constructed according to my Invention, and one of the suspension columns
thereto, with pulley, chain, and balance weight attached.
The parts are
lettered to correspond with Figure 1. E represents the angle iron supporting

page_text: the top of the said gasometer or gasholder, and F, F, represent the angle
irons of the bottom thereof, to which the four pillars or columns represented
at ffff in the Figure 1 are fixed with bolts. By raising the bottom, or
placing the bottom on the columns or pillars, as represented in this Figure
and in Figure 1, the complete working of the gasometer or gasholder is
effected by the use of the flexible or pliant materials, as before mentioned, and
therefore a tank or vat for holding water is not required, and consequently
a very considerable expense is thereby saved. Figure 2 also represents the
gasometer or gasholder, as prepared according to my Invention, when the same
is nearly empty of gas, C, C, shewing the flexible or pliant material hanging
down, which, when the said gasometer or gasholder is empty or nearly so, it
will do all round the same to within about six inches of the ground.
Figure 3 in the Drawing hereto annexed represents a horizontal section
or plan of the bottom of the gasometer or gasholder made and constructed
according to my Invention, and of the side or circular rim of the upper part
thereof when lowered in position, so as to be in the same horizontal line with
the bottom, and also of the three cast-iron columns and guide pullies.
G, G, G, G, in Figure 3, represent the plates and rivets, and the other parts
of this Figure are lettered so as to correspond with similar parts in Figures
1 and 2.
Figure 4 represents a section, on an enlarged scale, of a part of the side and
bottom of the gasometer or gasholder made and constructed according to my
Invention, and shews the method of uniting the flexible or pliant material to
the metal plates with hoops and bolts, the hoops having the edges rounded off
so as to prevent their cutting the flexible or pliant material, all the parts of
this Figure being lettered so as to correspond with the other Figures in the
Drawing annexed hereto.
My Invention also consists of constructing a gasometer or gasholder of four
or more parts or portions, two or more parts or portions being rigid, and two
or more parts or portions being flexible or pliant, the rigid and flexible or
pliant parts or portions following each other alternately, and may be united
together in the manner herein-before described, by which means a greater
depth may be obtained and a larger quantity of gas stored, without increasing.
the diameter of the gasometer or gasholder. For this construction the parts
are to be so made as to enter one within the other when the gasometer is
empty.
The Figures in the Drawing are drawn to a scale of half an inch to a foot,
with the exception of Figure 4, which is drawn to a scale of one inch to
Lafont

page_text: I do not claim as part of my Invention any of the individual parts, nor
do I confine myself to the details shewn and described; but my Invention
consists of manufacturing gasometers or gasholders, by combining flexible and
inflexible materials, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Knapton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
XIT TTAM
KNAPTON
Signed and sealed in the presence of
NICHO CHA GOLD, Sol",
York.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid William Knapton came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification.afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Second day of July, in year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-nine.