IMPROVEMENTS IN Gio Mamang
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Daniel de Castro, of Mortlako, in the County of
Surrey, and Richard Burton, of Camden Town, in the County of
Middlesex for the Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN Gio Mamang"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Daniel de Castro and
Richard Burton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 6th May 1873.
We, DANIEL DE CASTRO, of Mortlake, in the County of Surrey, and
RICHARD BURTON, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS
METERS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to that form of gas meter known as the "wet"
gas meter, in which the indication of the quantity of gas passing through
the meter depends upon the accurate adjustment of the level of the
water which the measuring chamber contains, and consists, of improve-
ments in the method of constructing and arranging the parts of the
apparatus by which the level of such water is adjusted, by which

page_text: .
improvements the sensitiveness and accurate registration of the meter is
increased, much greater simplicity and cheapness of construction are
attained than in wet gas meters as heretofore constructed, while the
accuracy of the indication is less affected by the apparatus not being
placed in a perfectly level position.
For the purpose of causing an accurate adjustment of the level of the
water in the measuring chamber of the meter, we fix within the square
front of the meter a tube of suitable shape, preferably semicircular in plan.
The upper end of this tube is open, and is arranged so as to be near the
top of the square front, the lower end is closed, and an opening is made
from the drum case into the tube, the upper edge of which opening is
adjusted so as to be level with or very slightly below the level at which
the water should stand in the drum case.
When the level of the water falls a bubble of gas passes up the tubo
from the drum case into the square front which constitutes the water
reservoir, from which a corresponding compensating quantity of water
passes into the drum case through a suitable opening made between the
two. If the level of the water in the drum case is too high, we allow
the surplus water to escape through a bent tube, the inner end of which
is turned up within the drum case or drum to the exact level at which
the water should be, and the outer end is turned down and passes
through the bottom of the square front or reservoir nearly to the bottom
of the waste water box; and in order to adjust the height of this tube
accurately we arrange it so that it can be moved a sufficient distance
vertically, and when the proper level of the tube has been exactly
adjusted we screw or solder the tube into its place, and we also solder or
attach the tube to the bottom of the water reservoir, where it passes
through the latter.
д
The pipe or passage through which the supply of gas passes from the
upper part of the waste water chamber into the drum case, may be of
the same shape and parallel to the waste water pipe already described,
to which it may be fixed so as to pass through the same aperture into
the drum; or, the gas inlet pipe just described may be made and
arranged separately from the waste water pipe, and may be fixed in any
other convenient part of the reservoir sufficiently near the centre of the
drum, so as to communicate between the waste water cistern and the
interior of the drum above the water level, as above described.

page_text: By the arrangements described if the level of the water in the drum
case be too low gas passes from it through the tube first described into
the water reservoir, and by displacement allows a corresponding quantity
of water to enter the drum case from the reservoir, and if its level bo
too high the surplus water escapes through the bent and adjusted pipe
described into the waste water cistern.
It is not necessary to fit a gas-tight stopper to the pipo by which
water is supplied to the square front reservoir, since the water cannot be
blown out of it by any pressure of gas, which only has the effect of
increasing the depth of the water seal in the tube first described. A
loose or hinged cover may however be fitted, if desired.
Another improved method of arranging the apparatus as and for the
purposes above described is as follows:-We make the bottom of the
square front or reservoir as high as possible, so that only sufficient room
is allowed above it for the rotation of the worm or screw which drives
the registering apparatus of the meter in the method well understood
and practised.
We make the adjustable tube already described by which the gas is
admitted from the upper part of the waste water chamber to the interior
of the drum pass directly into the drum case and drum from the upper
part of the waste water chamber below the bottom of the reservoir,
without passing through the latter, and it is then turned up, being
curved so as to pass the axis of the drum, so that its open end is above
the level of the water in the drum.
The adjustable overflow pipe, as already described, may also pass
through the same aperture from the waste water chamber into the
drum, or through another separate aperture sufficiently near the centre.
of the drum, its lower end being brought down nearly to the bottom of
the waste water box, without passing through the reservoir, as in the
arrangements first described, and we thus avoid the necessity of making
any hole in the bottom of the reservoir.
Our improved apparatus, as above described, may be added to existing
wet gas meters at small cost.
The drum and drum case may be constructed in the ordinary method,
Lee is well understood and nrenticed

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Daniel de Castro and Richard Burton in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 6th November 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, DANIEL
DE CASTRO, of Mortlake, in the County of Surrey, and RICHARD
BURTON, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Daniel de Castro and Richard
Burton, Her special licence that we, the said Daniel de Castro and.
Richard Burton, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Daniel de Castro and Richard Burton, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Daniel de Castro and Richard Burton, our excecutors or admin-
istrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Daniel de Castro and Richard
Burton, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, and accompanying
Drawing (that is to say) :-
:-
Our Invention relates to that form of gas meter known as the "wet"
gas meter, in which the true measurement of the quantity of gas passing
through it depends upon the accurate adjustment of the level of the
water which the measuring chamber contains; and consists of improve-

page_text: ments in the method of constructing and arranging the parts of the
apparatus by which the height or level of such water in the measuring
chamber is automatically adjusted, by which improvements the sensi-
tiveness and accurate registration of the meter is increased, much greater
simplicity and cheapness of construction are attained than in wet gas
meters as heretofore constructed and used, whilst the accuracy of the
measurement and indication is less affected by the meter not being
placed in a perfectly level position.
In order to effect an accurate automatic adjustment of the height or
level of the water in the measuring chamber of the meter, we fix within
the square front of the meter (which serves as a reservoir for the supply
of water, in the method well understood and practised in the construction
of wet gas meters) a tube vertical or nearly so, and of any suitable
dimensions and shape, but preferably semicircular in plan. The upper
end of this tube we make open, and we arrange it so as to rise nearly to
the top of the square front or reservoir. The lower end we make closed;
but we provide an opening from the drum case into the tube (preferably
by forming the flat side of the tube, in plan, of the plate which separates
the drum case from the square front or reservoir, and making the
opening in such plate), and we adjust the upper edge of the opening so
that it is level with or very slightly below the height or level at which
the water should stand in the drum case when the meter is measuring
and indicating accurately.
A suitable passage or opening is also made between the drum case
and the lower part of the square front or reservoir (the upper part of
which is made air-tight), so that when the level of the water in the
drum case falls, from evaporation or any other cause, a bubble of gas
passes from the drum case under the upper edge of the opening first
described into the tube, up which it passes into the square front or
reservoir, and by displacement allows a corresponding quantity of water
to pass into the drum case from the square front or reservoir through
the opening last described. If, on the other hand, the height or level of
the water in the drum case becomes too high, from the accidental
admission of too much water or any other cause, we allow such surplus
water to escape through a bent tube, the inner open end of which is
turned up within the drum case or drum to the exact height or level at
which the water should stand when the meter is measuring and
indicating correctly, and the outer end of the tube is brought through

page_text: the plate separating the drum case from the square front or reservoir,
and is then turned down through the bottom of the latter, and is
brought nearly to the bottom of the waste water box, which may be of
the kind ordinarily constructed and used. In order to accurately adjust
the height of the tube last described, we arrange it so that it can be
moved a sufficient distance vertically, and when its proper height has
been exactly determined by experiment we screw, solder, or otherwise
fix it to the plate between the drum case and the square front or
reservoir, and also to the bottom of the latter where it passes through it.
The pipe through which the supply of gas passes to the measuring
chamber or drum from the upper part of the waste water box (into
which it is admitted from the inlet pipe, as is usual in such wet gas
meters as ordinarily constructed and used), may be of the same shape
and parallel to the waste water pipe already described, and both pipes
may be fixed together so as to pass through the same aperture into the
measuring chamber or drum.
Instead of the arrangement just described, we sometimes make and
arrange the gas inlet pipe separately from the waste water pipe, and we
fix it in any other convenient part of the reservoir sufficiently near to
the centre of the drum, so as to communicate between the upper part of
the waste water cistern and the interior of the drum or measuring
chamber (above the water level), as in the arrangement first described.
Sometimes instead of the arrangements described we make and
arrange the bottom of the square front or water reservoir as high as
possible, so that only sufficient room is allowed above it for the rotation
of the worm or screw or other mechanism which drives the registering
apparatus of the meter in the method well understood and practised;
and we make the adjustable tube already described (by which the gas is
admitted from the upper part of the waste water chamber to the interior
of the drum) pass directly into the drum case and drum from the upper
part of the waste water chamber below the bottom of the square front or
water reservoir, without passing through the latter, and it is then turned
up (being curved so as to pass the axis of the drum or rotating measuring
chamber), so that its open end is above the level of the water in the
drum.
The adjustable overflow pipe used as and for the purpose already
described may also pass through the same aperture from the waste water

page_text: chamber into the drum, or through another separate aperture sufficiently
near the centre of the drum, its lower end being brought down (if
desired) nearly to the bottom of the waste water box, without passing
through the bottom of the square front or water reservoir, and by this
arrangement we avoid the necessity for making any hole in the latter.
By the different arrangements described, if the level of the water in
the drum case and measuring chamber be too low, gas passes from the
drum case up the tube first described into the upper part of the square
front or water reservoir, and by displacement allows a corresponding
quantity of water to enter the drum case from the reservoir, and if its
level becomes (on the other hand) too high, the surplus water escapes
through the bent and adjustable pipe into the waste water box.
It is not necessary in the arrangements described to fit a gas-tight
stopper to the pipe by which water is supplied when necessary to the
square front or reservoir (which pipe descends nearly to the bottom of
such reservoir), but a loose or hinged cover may be fitted to it, if desired,
since the water cannot be blown out of it by any pressure of gas, which
only has the effect of increasing the depth of the water "seal" in the
tube first described.
The drum and drum case may be constructed in the ordinary method
well understood and practised, or our improved apparatus may be added
to existing wet gas meters at small cost.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of our Invention.
Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 a side view partly in section of
a wet gas meter constructed according to our Invention. a is a tube
within the square front or water reservoir o. The tube a is closed at its
lower end, but open at its upper end, and communicates with the drum
case W by an opening b, the upper edge of which is adjusted so as to be
level with, or very slightly below, the proper height of the water in the
drum case. When the level of the water falls too low a bubble of gas
passes up the tube through the opening b, and by displacement allows a
corresponding quantity of water to enter the drum case through the
opening 8. When the level of the water is too high, the surplus water
escapes through the bent tube p, which passes through the bottom of
the reservoir o, and nearly to the bottom of the waste water box 7. The
pipe p, where it passes through the drum case is fixed to a plate c, by
which it can be adjusted vertically until its inner turned up end is at

page_text: the exact height at which tho water should stand in the drum, and the
opening through which it passes is then closed up gas-tight. The pipe n
by which the gas passes from the box to the interior of the drum is
shewn parallel to the pipe p, and passing through the same opening and
plate c, but it may be made to pass through a separate opening. mis
the inlet pipe, and k the registering apparatus.
Figuro 3 is a front view, and Figure 4 an end view partly in section
of another of the arrangements described, in which a is a tube similar to
and for the same purpose as that shewn at a in Figure 1. Similar
pipes and are also shewn for the purpose of allowing the surplus
water to escape through the pipe p, and the gas to enter the drum
through the pipe n, but the bottom of the reservoir o is shewn as high
as possible, so that the pipes p and n may pass directly from the drum
case W to the waste water box without passing through the bottom of
the reservoir o.
The pipo p need not be carried down, as shown in the Figures, but
may end where it enters the waste water box from the drum casc.
Sometimes instead of making and arranging the pipe which carries
away the surplus water from within the drum case and drum in the
methods above described and shewn in the Drawing, we arrange such
waste water pipe inside the drum case at the back of the drum. We
make its inner open end stand at the height at which the water should
be when the meter is measuring and indicating accurately, and we carry
the pipe down vertically or nearly so to the bottom of the drum case,
and we then carry it forward horizontally through the front plate of the
drum case into the waste water box (the back of which is formed by the
front plate of the drum case); it is then turned up, and finally is
brought through the front of the water box, the waste water being
discharged through its open end, which may be closed by a screw or
stopper.
Or, sometimes we arrange its inner end, as just described, vertically
inside the drum case at the back of the drum, but instead of bringing it
down to the bottom of the drum case, we only bring it down far enough
to communicate with the inside of a strengthening stay which is fixed
across the back of the drum case, and part of which is made hollow for a
the purpose. The waste water is discharged through this hollow stay,
which may be closed by a screw or stopper.

page_text: Having now described our Invention, and the manner in which it is
o be performed, we claim, the methods of constructing and arranging
pparatus for the purpose of adjusting the height of the water in the
Irums of wet gas meters, and of admitting the gas to such drums, sub-
stantially as described and shewn in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Danicl de Castro and Richard
Burton, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Fifth day
of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-three.