IMPROVEMENTS IN MAINTAINING THE LEVEL OF THE WATER OR OTHER LIQUID IN GAS METERS AND STEAM BOILERS, AND REGULATING OR CONTROLING THE ACTION OF SUCH APPARATUS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gilbert Sanders, of the City of Dublin, in Ireland,
Gas Engineer, and Richard Edward Donovan, of Courtduffe, at Castle-
knock, in the County of Dublin, in Ireland, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAINTAINING THE LEVEL OF THE WATER OR OTHER
LIQUID IN GAS METERS AND STEAM BOILERS, AND REGULATING OR CONTROLING
THE ACTION OF SUCH APPARATUS."
Sealed the 25th January 1856, and dated the 14th August 1855.
PROVISIONAL: SPECIFICATION left by the said Gilbert Sanders, and
Richard Edward Donovan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th August 1855.
We, GILBERT SANDERS and RICHARD EDWARD DONOVAN, do hereby declare
the nature of the said 'Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAINTAINING THE LEVEL
OF THE WATER OR OTHER LIQUID IN GAS METERS AND STEAM BOILERS, AND REGU-
LATING OR CONTROLING THE ACTION OF SUCH APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
We employ a float of such weight in proportion to its volume, or otherwise
so, loaded and balanced, that it is capable of remaining stationary or in equi-
librium, whether a greater, or lesser portion of it be immersed in the liquid,
provided the level of the liquid remain the same. If, however, the level be
raised, by the addition of a certain volume of liquid, the float rises until a
corresponding volume of the float has emerged from the liquid, and the level
has fallen to its proper place. If, on the other hand, the level be lowered, by
withdrawing a certain volume of liquid, a corresponding volume of the float
becomes immersed, and the level is again restored. One mode of arranging

page_text: .
the apparatus consists in constructing the float of semi-cylindrical or hemi-
spherical form, turning upon a horizontal axis, mounted at or near the level
of the liquid in the gas meter or boiler, or in a case or vessel communicating
with the gas meter or boiler. If the float be made of half the weight of an
equal volume of the liquid, or thereabouts, or if it be loaded or balanced to
a corresponding amount, it will produce the required effect; for when the
float is in its highest position, with its flat side or diameter horizontal, it
will balance itself on the axis. When the first quarter is immersed, it will
float up the second quarter, while the third and fourth quarters balance each
other on the axis. When the diameter is vertical, one half will be immersed
and will float up the other half. In a similar manner it will be found to
be in equilibrium in the other positions as long as the level of the liquid is
at the proper height, but the float will either rise or fall as soon as the level
varies until it restores it to the proper height. The float is connected to a
valve which closes. the passage for the gas in the gas meter when the float
reaches or approaches its lowest position; so that no more gas can pass through
until some more water or other liquid has been poured into the gas meter. We
also apply a similar arrangement of float with a valve which closes the passage
of the gas whenever the liquid rises very slightly above the proper level; thus,
the action of the meter can only take place when the liquid is at the proper
level, and the accuracy of its registration is thus insured. In the application
to steam boilers, when the water falls or is about to fall below the proper level,
the float can also be made to turn off the steam and stop the steam engine,
and it may also be made to open and shut the feed pipe as the water falls or
rises, or is about to fall or rise beyond the determined level. The form of the
float, and the modes of mounting, adjusting, and balancing it, admit of varia-
tion. The bulk or volume of the float is proportioned according to the variation
in the volume of liquid for which it may be required to compensate..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gilbert Sanders and Richard Edward Donovan in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 18th February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GILBERT
SANDERS, of the City of Dublin, in Ireland, Gas Engineer, and RICHARD
EDWARD DONOVAN, of Courtduffe, at Castleknock, in the County of Dublin,
in Ireland, Gentleman, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Gilbert Sanders and Richard Edward Donovan, Her special licence
that we, the said Gilbert Sanders and Richard Edward Donovan, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Gilbert Sanders
and Richard Edward Donovan, 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 MAINTAINING THE LEVEL OF THE WATER OR OTHER LIQUID IN GAS
METERS AND STEAM BOILERS, AND REGULATING OR CONTROLING THE ACTION OF SUCH
APPARATUS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Gilbert
Sanders and Richard Edward Donovan, our: executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Gilbert Sanders and Richard Edward
Donovan, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement. thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawing, and to. the figures and letters. marked thereon, that
is to say-
Our Invention relates to the maintaining the level of the water or other
liquid in gas meters and steam boilers, and regulating or controling the action
of such apparatus by means of one or more floats or compensators of peculiar
construction, that is to say:-A solid or hollow body capable of revolving on an
axis, and so loaded or balanced that it shall sink into the liquid only in pro-
portion as the liquid is withdrawn by evaporation or otherwise, and shall rise
above the level of the liquid in proportion as liquid is added; thus maintaining
a constant liquid level, notwithstanding the abstraction or addition of liquid
from or to the vessel in which the compensator or float is placed; but, as a
matter of course, the compensator will be effective only to the extent of its own
volume. Many, varieties of form may be employed for the compensator. We

page_text: prefer to employ a portion either of a sphere or a cylinder, and of these the
most effective are the hemisphere and semi-cylinder.
The Diagrams, Figures 1, 2, and 3, of the accompanying Drawing, .will
serve to explain the action of the compensator.
A, B, is a vessel containing water or other liquid to the level A, B; C, D, E,
is the end view of a semi-cylindrical compensator, supported on its axis ant
the level of the liquid. In the position in which the compensator is shewn in
Figure 1, there is a portion of it C, a, f, below. the water level. The com.
pensator is so weighted.or..balanced; that one half of it being immersed in-the
liquid will support the other half above the surface, and the weighting is placed
symmetrically with regard to the axis; then the immersed sector. C, x, f, will
support the equal sector f, x, g.. Draw the line D, x, y, through.the centre of the
axis x, and perpendicular to the line A, B: this line will divide the remaining
sector g, D, E, into two equal portions D, g, x, and D, x, E, which it is obvious
will balance each other, and therefore the compensator will be in equilibrium,
and will have no tendency to move in either direction: If a quantity of the
liquid be now removed from the vessel A, B, the compensator will descend on
the side C below the water level A, B, in proportion to the quantity of liquid so
withdrawn; and it will be found that in every position of the compensator, until
its side C, E, shall coincide with the vertical line D, y, as shewn in Figure 2,
the immersed sector will support an equal sector above the liquid, while the
remaining portions on each side of the vertical mutually balance each other.
When the side C, E, coincides with the vertical D, y, as in the Diagram,
Figure 2, the whole of the compensator is on one side of the vertical, and the
quadrant which is immersed in the liquid supports the other quadrant above the
liquid level. Again, in Diagram, Figure 3, where by a further removal of
the liquid the point C has passed the vertical, the sector C, x, f, balances the
sector x, f, g, and of the remainder the immersed sector g, x, d, supports the
sector d, x, E, and so on, for every position of the compensator until it becomes
totally immersed with its flat side C, E, level with the surface of the liquid..
If the operation be now reversed,' by pouring more liquid into the vessel A, B,
the compensator will continue to rise in proportion to the liquid added until
the whole of it be above the liquid, and the side C, E, lies on the surface
of the liquid. In all these alterations of the actual quantity of liquid in the
vessel the liquid level itself will remain stationary and constant, provided the
extreme variation in the quantity of liquid does not exceed the volume of
the compensator.
We employ this property of a rightly balanced body rotating on a horizontal
axis to maintain the level of the water or other liquid in wet gas meters and

page_text: steam boilers, which may be accomplished thus:-The vessel or reservoir A, B,
with the compensator, may be placed at any convenient distance from the gas
.meter or boiler, having a tube of communication to the meter or; boiler below
or at the level of the liquid in both vessels, which levels must agree. The
reservoir should be covered, and the pressure of the steam or gas should be
communicated to the surface of the liquid within the reservoir by a pipe of
communication or other known means.
For gas meters we prefer placing the compensator within the meter case,
and we consider the best position to be at the back part of the case, for the pur-
poses herein-after described. In this instance the form of compensator which
we prefer is a thin section of a semi-cylinder, made of tin plate or other suitable
material, and of as large a radius as the meter case will allow. To make room
for the compensator, the case must be made deeper than usual from front to
back, or a ring of sufficient width may be added to the old case.
The Diagram, Figure 4, represents a vertical longitudinal section of the back
part of the case of the meter; Figure 5. represents a back view of the meter,
with the end of the case removed, and with the compensator approaching its
highest position; Figure 6 is a similar view, with the compensator approaching
its lowest position, and also showing the outlet pipe H, which is omitted in
Figure 5; Figure 7 is a sectional plan of the meter; and Figure 8 is a front
view, with a section of the front box of the meter. The same letters refer to
similar parts in each of these Figures.
F, F, is the case of the meter; E is the drum, which is constructed in the
ordinary manner; w is the back centre of the drum, which is supported by a
plate or bar'y, which also carries one end of the axis a of the compensator C..
The other end of the axis is supported by the back of the case F. This axis a
is placed at or near the water line A, B. At p is a pin projecting from the
compensator towards the drum, and the bar y is cranked at the upper part to
allow the pin to pass, the use of which is herein-after described.
When water is poured into meters of the ordinary construction up to the
adjusted water, line A, B, no more can be added without raising the water
line above the adjusted line, neither can water be taken out without lowering
it; in the one case defrauding the consumer of his just ineasure, and in the
other case defrauding the vendor of his just account; but with the addition of
the compensator to the ordinary wet gas meters, a considerable quantity of
water may be added after the meter is supplied to the adjusted water line,
and again withdrawn without altering the actual water level, and consequently
without interfering with the correctness of the measurement and indication of
the meter..
:

page_text: Practice requires that the ordinary meter should be capable of working
with the water line too high or too low within certain limits, and it is there-
fore incorrect more or less on one side or the other, as the water level varies
from the adjusted line within those limits. It is rarely quite correct, but such
a meter provided with our arrangement and compensator will be kept con-
stantly correct, while there is a considerable reserve of water to compensate
for the loss continually going on by evaporation.
To prevent the abstraction or addition of too much water, we employ two
contrivances, one of which will cut off the supply of gas just as the whole
of the reserve has been expended, and before the water line can fall; the
other will stop the supply just as the full reserve has been added, and before
the water line can rise. The first is accomplished by fixing a valve on the
end of the flat side of the compensator, as shewn at Z, which will come
against the end of the exit pipe H, as shown in Figure 6, and shut off the
gas when too much water has been removed by evaporation or otherwise. For
this purpose the exit pipe H is placed as shewn in Figure 6. To prevent the
addition of too much water, we fix a pin on the compensator at p, projecting
towards the drum. The crank on the upper part of the bar y allows this pin
to pass.
On the drum is fixed a catch v, which will strike the pin p whenever
it falls on the circle of rotation of the catch, and as the pin and the catch
revolve round different centres they can meet only in two places, as will be
seen by reference to Figures 5 and 6. The extent of motion of the compen-
sator is so adjusted, that when it approaches its highest position, as shewn in
Figure 5, the catch v comes in contact with the pin p and is arrested by it; or
if the gas has sufficient power, it carries on the compensator a little farther,
until it is arrested by a stop fixed to the meter case at 8. The supply of gas is
thus stopped. By curving the catch v it may be made to lock against the pin p,
and in that. case the stop & is not necessary. In order to put the meter again
into action, sufficient water is to be withdrawn to allow the compensator to fall
back and carry the pin p out of the influence of the catch v. By blowing into
the fittings, and thus forcing the drum back a little, the catch v is released, or
removed from pressing upon the pin, and the meter will then be in proper
working condition.
In lieu of placing the compensator at the back of the meter case, it may be
placed in the front box, and made to close the inlet pipe by a valve in lieu of
closing the outlet pipe, as herein-before described. Two or more floats or
compensators may be employed in lieu of only one, and various modifications
may be made in the details.
J, in Figures 7 and 8, is the float in the front box, which carries the inlet

page_text: valve j, as in ordinary meters:
which drives the toothed wheel
to the wheel-work in the index box for registering the quantity of gas, as in
ordinary meters. S, S', is the spout or bent pipe by which the gas passes
from the front box into the drum.
kis an endless screw on the axis of the drum,
on the spindle m, which passes up the pipe n
Wet gas meters provided with our compensator, and the bent pipe T, T,
herein-after described, are protected from fraud by what is termed "tilting."
The method usually adopted by fraudulent gas consumers to effect this purpose
is to tilt the meter forwards till the sealing of the meter is uncovered, and the
gas will then pass through unregistered and without turning the drum. If
our compensated meter be so tilted, the water line at the back will fall, and
the compensator will descend, and long before the sealing is uncovered the
valve will close the exit pipe. If the meter be tilted backward, the valve j on
the inlet will close the entrance of the gas, as in ordinary wet meters; in
addition to which the pin of the compensator will fall upon the circle of the
catch, and the revolution of the drum will cease. To provide against diagonal
tilting, we connect to the spout at some distance below the water line a curved
or bent tube, with one or more arms stretching across the front box, as shown
at T, T, in Figures 7 and 8. The open ends of these arms stand as much
above the water line as does the top of the spout S.
Figures 9 and 10 are detached views on a larger scale of the spout with the
arms connected to it. In lieu of the arms T, T, a continuous trough may be
employed, as shown at T, T, in Figure 11. The use of this pipe or trough is
to run the water from the side of the front box out of the meter into the spout
and choke it. If the water be run off at the overflow screw q, so as to clear
the spout, either the inlet valve or the outlet valve will be effectually closed.
It being desirable that the compensator shall at all times have a tendency to
fall back or descend, we prefer to place the valve so that it shall press against
the exit pipe when about a ninth of the other side of the compensator is above
the liquid, and in like manner that the pin shall fall within the influence of the
catch whilst about a ninth of the opposite side of the compensator is still under
the water line. The working pressure of the meter may in some instances be
more than usual, and the difference of pressure between the inlet and outlet of.
the meter will cause a corresponding depression of the water in the front box
below that in the body of the meter. The water so thrown into the body. of
the meter (though making no change in the liquid level there) might unduly
elevate the compensator. In order, therefore, to reduce the amount of water
so thrown in, we fill up with wood or any other suitable material all the use-
less space within the front box from the water level downwards for the depth

page_text: of about an inch or more.
The quantity of water then thrown into the body
of the meter even by one inch differential pressure will have little or no
perceptible effect on the compensator.
The form of compensator best suited for steam boilers is a regular semi-
cylinder with flat or curved ends, which is placed within the boiler, and
provided with a valve which closes tho steam pipe, and thus shuts off the steam
from the steam engine whenever the level of the water within the boiler falls
below the proper line. Or the compensator may be placed in a separate closed
reservoir in connection with the feed pipe, and so arranged that the steam
may pass through it from the boiler to the engine. In either case the com-
pensator may be made to close and open the cock or valve of the feed pipe as
it turns upon its axis, and to shut off the steam, as already described. Accidents
arising from the water getting too low may thus be avoided, as the engine will
be stopped for want of steam before the water can get too low, and the engine
cannot be again got to work until sufficient water has been introduced into
the boiler or reservoir.
The apparatus admits of some variations in the construction. Thus we have
described the action of the compensator as though it were of uniform weight;
but its action is the same if the chief part of its weight be concentrated near
its centre of gravity a, in Figures 1, 2, and 3, situated on its centre line, or
distributed over its surface or interior. Thus the compensator may be made of
thin sheet metal, and may be considerably lighter than half its bulk of water,
and it may be loaded by a weight at a; or a smaller weight may be placed
on the centre line at a proportionately greater distance from the centre x,
or a larger weight may be placed nearer to ; or the compensator may be
made heavier and counterbalanced by a weight. In lieu of placing the weight
on or in the compensator itself, the weight may be placed on a lever attached
to the spindle of the compensator, which may pass through a stuffing box in
the side of the steam boiler or other vessel which contains it; or in lieu of
fixing the weighted lever upon the spindle of the compensator, it may be fixed
upon another spindle, which is connected with the spindle of the compensator
by means of toothed wheels or pulleys and a band or bands or otherwise, so
that the weight may act in a similar manner to that in which it would act if it
were connected directly to the compensator. The form of the compensator
may be varied. Thus it may consist of a sector or half of a cone, or of a
paraboloid or ellipsoid, or other solid of revolution.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
what we claim is,-

page_text: Firstly, the construction and application of a compensator, arranged aud
acting in manner herein-before described, for the purpose of maintaining the
level of the water or other liquid in wet gas meters and in steam boilers.
Secondly, the construction and application of a compensator, arranged and
acting in manner herein-before described, in combination with a valve or
valves, for maintaining the level of the water or other liquid in, and regulating
or controling the action of, wet gas meters and steam boilers.
In witness whereof, we, the said Gilbert Sanders and Richard Edward
Donovan, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eighth day
of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
Witness,
GILBERT SANDERS.
(L.S.)
RICHARD EDWARD DONOVAN. (L.S.)
GEORGE M. BLACKWOOD,
2, Foster Place, Dublin.