IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MEASURING FLUIDS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
SULLIVAN, of Morley's Hotel, Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of December, in the seventh year of His reign;
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, tho
said George Sullivan, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said George Sullivan, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said George Sullivan, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,- use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MEASURING FLUIDS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said George
Sullivan, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His 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, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Sullivan, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
The Invention consists in combining the motion of two flexible pistons or
surfaces (acted on by fluids) by means of certain levers and connecting rods, in
order to obtain continuous rotatory motion to a cock or valve through which
the fluid to be measured has to pass in order to the quantity being indicated,
as will be hereafter described.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shews a side view of a meter, having the improvements applied
thereto, parts being shewn as cut away in order to the internal arrangement
being seen. Figure 2 is a plan of the meter, the top plate or cover being
removed. Figure 3 is a plan of the meter, with the top plate or cover in its
place. Figure 4 shews a transverse section of the meter, by which the
position and nature of the flexible pistons or surfaces are applied and work.
Figure 5 is a plan of one of the flexible pistons or surfaces. Figure 6 is a
plan in section of pipes or ways for the passage of gas to and from the flexible
pistons or surfaces. Figure 7 is a plan or under side view of a revolving cock
or valve. Figure 8 is a plan or upper side view of the same cock or valve,
and Figure 9 is a side view of such cock or valve. In each of these Figures
the same letters of reference indicate the same parts; a, a being the external
chamber, which is, by preference, of a cylindrical form, as shewn in the Drawing.
This chamber a, a, is divided by a plate 6 into two equal parts, and these two
equal parts by means of flexible pistons or surfaces c, c. Hence the chamber a, a,
is divided into four equal compartments, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, which are separated
from each other, and the gas in one has no communication with another, but
they each have a communication through the cock or valve d into the chamber
No. 5, which is at the top of the meter, and each of the compartments
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, are by the aid of the cock or valve made to communicate with
the induction or gas supply pipe c, hence the gas coming in at e cannot pass to
the chamber No. 5 without having acted on the flexible pistons or surface c, c
all which will be readily understood when I describe the action of the meter
ff are the axes of the flexible pistons or surfaces c, c. They pass through the
top of the lower compartments, and are supported by suitable conical stuffing
boxes in order to prevent the gas passing from the compartments Nos. 2 and s
into the chamber. No. 5. The flexible pistons c, c, are attached to their axes f,f
by means of arms g, g, which being affixed to the axes f, f, as is shewn in the

page_text: Drawing, and the other ends of the arins g; g, being connected by a moveable
joint to the circular plates which forms the centres of the flexible pistons or
surfaces, these being attached by their edges to the interior sides of the case, as
herein-after shewn. The axes f, f, will be actuated by the movement of their
flexible pistons or surfaces c, c, as will readily be understood by an examination
of the Drawing. The flexible pistons or surfaces c, c, consist of any suitable
flexible material, which is securely affixed within recesses formed within the
chamber a, a, of thin sheet lead, there being a wire hoop to each recess; and
the edges of the flexible material of which the flexible pistons c are formed
being put around the hoop, the pistons are thereby made gas tight, the lead or
other thin metal of which the recesses are formed being turned down on the
flexible material, and thus binding the flexible material between the sides
of the recesses and the wire hoops; and in order to insure a gas-tight joint,
bees' wax or other suitable material may be used between the surfaces of the
recesses and the wire. The centres of the flexible pistons or surfaces are each
held between two circular plates of tin or other suitable material, which
plates are rivetted or otherwise affixed together, and to these plates the staple
or openings (for the connecting pins of the arms g, g to work in) are affixed.
The flexible material of which the pistons c, c, are made is of the best oiled
silk of commerce, which I have found to wear for a considerable length of
time, or it may be of thin deer-skin leather, or other leather or animal mem-
brane, saturated with bees' wax mixed with neat's foot oil, or any suitable
material which will offer the least possible friction in the bending thereof, and
be as little liable as possible to be injured by the chemical action of gas, and
at the same tiine of a close texture to prevent the gas passing from one com-
partment to another. At the upper end of the axes f.f, are affixed the
arms h, h, and to these arms h, h, are connected by pin joints the rods i, i,
as is clearly shewn, and the rods i, i, are connected together by the passage
of the cranked wire j, through an eye or opening formed in each of the
connecting rods i at the ends opposite to where they are connected to the
arms h, h. The cranked wirej moves in suitable bearings in a bracket k,
as is clearly shewn in the Drawing. At the upper end of the cranked wire j
is affixed a toothed pinion which actuates a series of wheels and pinions, by
which the number of revolutions of the cranked wire j are indicated, and the
quantity of gas which has passed through the meter will be registered, as is.
well understood to gas meter makers. It should be remarked that the
flexible pistons or surfaces c, c, should be so set in respect to each other as not:
to arrive at the end of their movement at the same time, but that one should:
be in full action at the time the other comes to the end of the stroke. This.

page_text: may be done by making the arms k, k, i, i, of such length that the arms i, i,
when their ends are united, free from the crank, and are brought or placed
for this purpose over the centre of the valve, these ends will form with each
other a right angle. This is the test of the proper length of these arms.
I will now proceed to trace the manner in which the parts act in order to
produce rotatory motion to the cock or valve, and consequently an equal or.
nearly equal and continuous flow of gas into the chamber No. 5, and from
thence to the outlet pipe. It will be seen that the lower end of the cranked
wire rests against either of the projections k, k, of the valve in Figure 8,
and by the rotatory motion of the cranked wire j caused by the working of the
flexible pistons c, the valve d will be moved round in the direction of the arrow
thereon, and thus obtain rotatory motion, the part e of the cock or valve
acting as an axis. In tracing the action of the parts it will be desirable to
call attention to the nature of the cock or valve, and to the pipes or ways
shewn in Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9, these being well understood, the working of
the other parts and the operation of one part on the other will be quickly seen.
On the pipes or ways m, n, is affixed what may be called the seat o of the
cock or valve; this seat has four openings, 1, 2, 3, and 4, corresponding with
the compartments Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4. The gas supply pipe 9 passes under
and is connected with the central opening p of the seat o, hence all the gas
from the pipe q passes up through at p, and the short tube or part e of the
cock or valve working within the opening p, the gas flows into the upper
portion of the cock or valve, which consists of the following parts, the circular
plater, which rests on the plate o, the plate o, and the plate r, being ground
together to produce an even gas-tight surface or joint. The plater has two
openings s, t, each of them equal to covering two of the openings 1, 2, 3, 4,
in the seat or plate o. On the plate r is affixed the projecting ring v, which
surrounding the openings and the end t, divides the plate ṛ into two parts;
and the projecting ring v, being covered by the plate w, produces a chamber
into which the gas flows from q before it enters either of the openings 1, 2, 3, 4;
hence, whichever of the openings 1, 2, 3, 4, over which the opening 8 is, those.
two openings will be open to the supply of gas to their respective chambers;
and it will be seen that the opening t of the plate opens into the chamber
No. 5; hence, whichever of the openings 1, 2, 3, 4, over which the opening t
at any time stands, will permit the passage of the gas or fluid from their
respective compartments to flow into the chamber No. 5. Thus supposing
the opening s to be over the openings 1 and 4, the gas will be flowing from the
pipe q into the compartments Nos. 1 and 4, and the opening t will at the same
time be over the openings 3 and 2, by which means the gas in the compartments.
8

page_text: Nos. 3 and 2 will be permitted to flow from those compartments into the
chamber No. 5, and from thence to the burner or point of delivery; and
the flowing of the gas into the chambers Nos. 1 and 4 will propel the
flexible pistons or surfaces c, and by the connecting rods, and by the
cranked wire j the cock or valve will be caused to perform a continuous
rotatory motion, and thus open a way into each of the compartments
Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, for the flow of gas from the pipe q, and from these
compartments into the chamber No. 5, and so on continuously as long as the
gas or fluid runs. The meter here shewn is of a proper size for indicating the
passage of one-fifth of a cubic foot from the pipe q to the chamber No. 5 for
every revolution of the cranked wire j.
Having thus far confined the description of the Invention to gas meters,
I would now remark that it will be evident that if water or other fluid were to
be permitted to flow through the pipe q, and flow off from the eduction way,
the quantity passing would in like manner be indicated; and when the meter
is used to measure water or other solid fluids the pistons may be constructed of
any cloth material of close texture convenient for such purpose. The mode of
regulating this instrument so as to make some aliquot portion of a cubic foot
be measured by each complete revolution of the valve, is by making the arm
of the crank of such length by experiment in the construction of each size of
these meters, as that with the aid of a test gasometer the requisite quantity
will be passed, be it a fifth or a sixth, or other part of a cubic foot, it being
obvious that the smaller the diameter of the circle which the ends of the
arms i, i, describe, the less is the range of the pistons, and the less is the
quantity of fluid they suffer to come into the compartments in which they
respectively move, and vice versa. It is also plain that the quantity passed in
each meter by each operation must also depend upon the size of the induction
and eduction tubes, and of the holes in the valve seat and valve.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the mode of com-
bining the various parts in the best manner I am acquainted with, I would
remark that I am aware that gas and other meters have been before made
having flexible pistons or surfaces similar to those above described, but acting
very differently so far as their action is communicated to the cock or valve
through which the fluid passes; I do not, therefore, claim as a new Invention
the application of flexible pistons or surfaces generally for such purposes.
But I do declare that the Invention for which these Letters Patent have
been obtained consists in the combination of two flexible pistons or surfaces
acting by means of jointed and connected pitmen as aforesaid upon a rotatory
valve constructed substantially as aforesaid in a case with compartments

page_text: substantially as aforesaid, whereby gas or other current fluids entering into the
case or metre are allowed to pass through, and on being drawn off from it
the current will work the meter, and all the fluid that passes through it will
be measured substantially as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Sullivan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.