IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Clegg, of Dover Cottage, Putney, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS."
Sealed the 18th June 1858, and dated the 22nd April 1858
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Clegg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
April 1858.
I, SAMUEL CLEGG, of Dover Cottage, Putney, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in gas meters. For these.
purposes the interior of the meter consists of a series of excentric chambers
(by preference four), which in rotating are filled and emptied in succession.
The excentric measuring chambers rotate in a vessel which contains water,
and the rotating parts of the meter are buoyed up by a central air vessel, by.
which the pressure and friction on the axes are reduced.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Clegg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st
October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
CLEGG, of Dover Cottage, Putney, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Clegg, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Clegg, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Clegg, 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 GAS METERS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Clegg, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Clegg, 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 Invention has for its object improvements in gas meters. For these
purposes the interior of the meter consists of a series of excentric chambers
(by preference four), which in rotating are filled and emptied in succession.
The excentric measuring chambers rotate in a vessel which contains water,
and the rotating parts of the meter are buoyed up by a central air vessel, by
which the pressure and friction on the axes are reduced.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.

page_text: DESCRIPTION Or
Figure 1 is a transverse section of a gas meter constructed according to
my Invention; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the same taken at the
line A, A, Figure 1; and Figure 3 is another vertical section taken at the
line B, B, Figure 2. a, a, is the exterior case of the meter, which is partially
filled with water, as is shewn by the Drawing, and contains a drum made up of
four excentric chambers b, c, d, and e, closed on all sides, but open at both
ends; this.drum is mounted on an axis f, supported at each end in bearings
carried by the outer case; g is an air vessel fixed on the axis of the drum,
which by its power of floatation sustains the weight of the drum, and reduces
the friction of the action f in its bearings. There is a passage through the
centre of the air vessel g to allow the water to have free access to the interior
of the drum. The gas enters the meter by the pipe h, and enters the gas
space i, the aperture through which it enters having over it, as is usual, a
valve which descends to close it, should the water be drawn out of the meter,
the valve being mounted on a float j, as is shown by the Drawing. From the
space i the
gas passes from the pipe k to the interior of the drum, and from
thence it passes in at the open end of one of the excentric chambers b, c, d,
or e, which at the time is above the level of the water, and the pressure of
the gas causes the drum to revolve. By the time that the mouth of one
chamber becomes closed by passing below the water, the mouth of the next
chamber will by the revolution of the drum become uncovered, and the gas
will in a similar way enter it; after a time the smaller end of the first chamber
at the exterior of the drum will rise above the water in the case a, and will
commence discharging the gas it has received into it, and before this chamber
is completely submerged and emptied another chamber will commence dis-
charging, and so the operation continues. Z is a pipe by which the gas passes
from the case a to the burners. In order to prevent any splashing being
produced by the exterior ends of the chambers b, c, d, and e, as they leave the
water, they are formed in the manner shewn at Figure 4, which is a front
view of the revolving drum, and in order that the gas may not partially
escape from the chambers by bubbling through the water as the mouths of
the chambers approach the surface of the water, which, were it allowed to
take place, would cause the lights in connection with the meter to flicker.
The small tubes m, m, are employed, which connect, as the Drawing shows,
each of the chambers b, c, d, and e with the chamber in advance of it, and by
these tubes a portion of the gas in the chambers, sufficient to relieve the

page_text: pressure is enabled to escape before their ends rise above the surface of the
The recording apparatus is similar to that at present employed in
gas meters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Clegg, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
W. LAW,
of Dover Cottage, Putney,
Surrey.
SAMUEL CLEGG. (L.S.)