IMPROVEMENTS IN METERS APPLICABLE TO MEASURING WATER
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Pryor Stockman, of No. 23, Abingdon
Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN METERS APPLICABLE TO MEASURING
WATER."
Sealed the 27th July 1869, and dated the 11th February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Pryor
Stockman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 11th February 1869.
I, BENJAMIN PRYOR STOCKMAN, of No. 23, Abingdon Street, West-
minster, in the County of Middlesex, Oivil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN METERS APPLICABLE
TO MEASURING WATER," to be as follows:-
This meter is for the purpose of measuring the quantity or flow of
water or other fluids passing through pipes or otherwise, as supplied
by waterworks companies or others, so as to ascertain the amount of
consumption or supply in a given space of time.

page_text: My water meter may be described as a "double piston meter," as it
consists of two cylinders and pistons combined and working with a
reciprocating action, namely, one piston up while the other is down.
The two cylinders are placed side by side on a base plate common to
both. The cylinders are bored out and the pistons are packed with
a cupped leather, or with any other suitable packing, to ensure
their working water-tight. Or the means of rendering them water-tight
may be bags of leather or india-rubber attached at one end to the
cylinder and at the other to the piston; when this method is adopted
it may not be necessary to bore out the cylinders. At the top of the
cylinders there is a capping plate upon which is seated the whole system
of gearing comprising the valve apparatus. Each piston has a toothed
rack attached to it in place of a piston rod, and the two racks pass
through holes provided for the purpose in the capping plate. Between
the two racks is a toothed wheel in gear with both, which gives the
reciprocating action to the pistons. A four-way valve is fixed on the
capping plate centrally with the toothed wheel, and from two of
the openings in the valve there is a communication with the bottom
of the cylinders by means of pipes or passages cast in the cylinders,
while the two other openings in the valve have the supply and discharge
pipes attached to them. At the back of the valve or between it and
the toothed wheel is a tumbling lever weighted working loosely on
the wheel spindle, and by means of pins on the face of the wheel the
tumbling lever is carried up over the vertical lino, when it drops
by gravitation, striking in its descent similar pins on a plate on the
axis of the valve sufficiently to reverse the communication with the
cylinders.
The action of the water meter may be better understood by the following
description:-Let the two cylinders be called "A and B," and when
the piston on A is down at its lowest position the piston in B will be
up at its highest position; then the cylinder A will be empty, and
to start with, assume the cylinder B to be full of water or whatever
fluid is to be measured. The position of the valve under these circum-
stances will be to afford communication between the supply pipe and
cylinder A, and between the discharge pipe and cylinder B, and supposing
the water to commence circulating by being drawn off all the supply
will enter cylinder A raising its piston, and all the discharge will be
from cylinder B allowing its piston to descend by the pressure on the

page_text: other side transferred by the wheel between the racks, and this arrange-
ment will continue until the piston in B has arrived at the bottom of its
stroke and the piston in A. has arrived at the top, when cylinder B will
be empty and cylinder A full. At this moment one of the pins on the
wheel will have carried the weighted lever upwards to the point at
which the centre of gravity overhangs, causing it to fall suddenly,
striking a pin on the valve on its way, turning it, and thereby reversing
the passages, making the supply communicate with cylinder B and the
discharge with cylinder A. This reciprocating action is constantly
going on during the time the water is flowing in and out of the
meter, and the quantity is indicated and registered by a "tell-tale "
apparatus of wheel work. The gearing on the capping plate may
be covered by a hood, or the whole machine may be enclosed in a
box.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th August 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
PRYOR STOCKMAN, of No. 28, Abingdon Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman, Her
special licence that I, the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Benjamin
Pryor Stockman, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN METERS APPLICABLE TO MEASURING WATER," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,

page_text: or their, or one of their hands and seals, snotud particmally descrive
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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This meter is for the purpose of measuring. the quantity or flow of
water or other fluids passing through pipes or otherwise, as supplied by
waterworks companies or others, so as to ascertain the amount of
consumption or supply in a given space of time.
My water meter may be described as a "double piston meter," as it
consists of two cylinders and pistons combined and working with a
reciprocating action, namely, one piston up while the other is down.
The two cylinders are placed side by side on a base plate common to
both. The cylinders are bored out and the pistons are packed with a
cupped leather, or with any other suitable packing, to ensure their
working water-tight. Or the means of rendering them water-tight may
be bags of leather or india-rubber attached at one end to the cylinder
and at the other to the piston; when this method is adopted it
may not be necessary to bore out the cylinders. At the top of
the cylinders there is a capping plate, upon which is seated the whole
system of gearing comprising the valve apparatus. Each piston has a
toothed rack attached to it in place of a piston rod, and the two racks
pass through holes provided for the purpose in the capping plate.
Between the two racks is a toothed wheel in gear with both, which
gives the reciprocating action to the pistons. A four-way valve is fixed
on the capping plate centrally with the toothed wheel, and from two
of the openings in the valve there is a communication with the bottom
of the cylinders by means of pipes or passages cast in the cylinders,
while the two other openings in the valve have the supply and dis-
charge pipes attached to them. At the back of the valve or between
it and the toothed wheel is a tumbling lever weighted working loosely
on the wheel spindle, and by means of pins on the face of the wheel
the tumbling lever is carried up over the vertical line, when it drops
by gravitation, striking in its descent similar pins on a plate on the

page_text: axis of the valve sufficiently to reverse the communication with the
cylinders. The gearing on the capping plate may be covered by a hood,
or the whole machine may be enclosed in a box.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings hereunto annexed show a meter constructed as above
described.
Figure 1 is a front view of the meter with portions shown broken off
for the purpose of clearer illustration, the outer casing in this Figure
is shown in section; Figure 2 is a plan, in this Figure the "tumbling
weight" (to be described hereafter) is not shown, its lever only being
shewn, the outer case is shown in section; Figure 8 is a section taken on
the stepped line A, B; Figure 4 is a vertical section of the valve; Figure 5'
is a sectional plan of the same; Figure 6 is a view of the back face of
the valve shewing its crank and pins for turning it. The same letters.
of reference apply to all the Figures.
1
A and B are the two cylinders, a and b their respective pistons;
C, C, the two racks attached to the pistons; D, a reciprocating wheel
in gear with both racks and transferring the upstroke of one to the
downstroke of the other; E is the "tumbling weight," which falling
by gravitation turns the valve. The lever of the tumbling weight is
centred on the wheel spindle on which it turns freely. F is the valve
with four ways through it; G, a crank on the valve spindle; H, H, pins
projecting from the crank G upon which the tumbling weight lever E-
alternately falls; K, K, two similar projecting pins on the wheel D,
which on alternate sides lift the lever E and carry it up until the
tumbling weight overhangs the vertical line passing through its centre
of gravity, when it falls, and the lever strikes a pin H and turns
the valve; L, the inlet pipe from the supply communicating directly
with the valve; M, the outlet pipe or discharge from the meter; N, N,.
are buffers of india-rubber or other suitable material placed in sockets
provided in the stopping piece to break the blow of the tumbling weight;
8, 8, are passages cast on the cylinders; W, W, are nozzles cast on the
cylinders for the purpose of securing the outer case, they are tapped
with a screw thread, and pins are screwed into them through holes in

page_text: the outer case; X, X, are the pins for fastening the outer case, they
have looped heads and when in place a bar is put through both and pad-
locked; P is the tell-tale apparatus which registers the quantity of fluid
passing through the meter.
The action of the water meter is as follows:-Assume that water is
circulating through the meter, that is, being let in at the pipe L and
drawn off at the pipe M, and taking the position of the pistons a and b and
the gearing as shown on the Drawing, the piston a is rising and nearly
at the top of its stroke; the water as it passes through L takes the
direction o, p, q, through the valve (Figure 4), and thence by the
passage S (Figure 1) enters cylinder A, at the same time the discharge
from M first passes up the passage S (Figure 3) from cylinder B, as
shown by the dotted arrows, through u, t, and down r (Figure 4) into M.
But when the piston a has arrived at the extreme top of its stroke its rack
has so far turned the wheel D that the left-hand pin K (Figure 1) has
pushed the lever E just over the vertical line, and it falls with its tumbling
weight onto the right-hand pin H, turning the crank G sufficiently
round to reverse the passages of the valve, when L at once communicates
with cylinder B, and M with cylinder A. This reciprocating action
constantly goes on while the water circulates through the meter and
the pressure is equalized in both cylinders. The upward pressure upon
one piston due to the head of supply is transferred by the wheel between
the two racks to the descending piston. The racks O, C, have at their
back surfaces other finer pitched racks attached to them for the purpose
of communicating motion to the tell-tale apparatus, of which each of
the first motion wheels in gear with the fine racks has a ratchet, one
right and the other left handed, so that the up or down stroke of either
rack effects a continuous motion in one direction only to the train of
wheels in the tell-tale.
The Drawing shows the general form of the water meter and illustrates
my Invention, but the working details may be varied from those shewn;
for example, the pistons, instead of being packed as shewn, may be
packed with metal or some indestructible material rendering the meter
applicable to boiling as well as cold fluids, or for low-pressure uses
instead of packed pistons working in smoothly bored cylinders collapsible
bags may be used, one end of which being fastened to the piston and
the other to the cylinder. It may be дccessary, too, in some cases to
use stuffing boxes to the cylinders, for which purpose the rack stems

page_text: would be made sufficiently long to prevent the teeth of the racks
descending into the cylinders at the down stroke, as they are now shewn.
The valve also may be packed by means of stuffing boxes or otherwise.
The water meter may be used either with or without an air vessel as
required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Pryor Stockman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.