IMPROVEMENTS IN WET GAS METERS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Bruce Peebles at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
September 1862.
I, DAVID BRUCE PEEBLES, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid-Lothian,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WET GAS METERS," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention comprises improvements in various parts of wet gas meters,
and which may be used together or separately.
gas
A first improvement relates to the valve in the inlet chamber used to shut
off the when the water in the meter is too low. By the present Invention
the float which keeps this valve open is placed in a compartment open at its
upper part to the drum case, and separated from the front case by a partition
dipping down below the water. A bent wire passing under the partition
connects the float and valve. The result of this arrangement is, that a sudden
increase of pressure in the servico pipe will not close the valve, (as frequently
happens in ordinary meters,) its tendency to do so being counteracted by the
opposite tendency of the float, since the pressure in the front case will depress
the water therein, and thereby elevate it in the float compartment and the
float with it.
A second improvement is designed to prevent a sudden increase of pressure
from throwing water up into the compartment containing the counting
mechanism. Besides the tube usually surrounding the counter spindle

page_text: and dipping down below the water surface to seal the communication,
there is a second tube which may either encircle the first or be beside it.
These tubes communicate with a small chamber near the top of the case, and
within this chamber the spindle has fast on it a disk, and any water thrown
up one tube strikes this disk, and being deflected thereby runs back by the
other tube.
A third improvement relates to contrivances in connection with a closed
fountain chamber for compensating for the lowering of the water level in the
meter from ovaporation or otherwise. Gas is admitted to the top of the
fountain chamber to permit the egress of water therefrom by a pipe com-
municating with a small cylindrical or conical chamber, which is fitted with a
disk having an aperture at one side. This aperture communicates with the
inside of the drum case, and can be adjusted by means of a key to the proper
level. When the water falls below that level, bubbles of gas enter the aperturo
into the fountain, and a corresponding supply of water flows out either by the
same or by a separate aperture. To facilitate the filling of the fountain with
water and to prevent any rush of water into the meter when filling the
fountain a small valve is applied to the aperture, by which the water leaves
the fountain, such valve being actuated by a small blade placed in a position
to be acted upon by the incoming current of water, which is introduced by a
pipe dipping down to the bottom of the fountain, and having a turned-up
mouth.
In a modified arrangement the filling tube is made to dip down into a
larger tube closed at the bottom, and the water on entering has to rise up to
the top of this larger tube before filling the chamber.
In one modification of the general arrangement of the meter, the fountain
is situated at the back of the meter, and the float for shutting the inlet valve
is placed in it.
In another modification a portion of the front case is divided off by par-
titions to form a fountain space, and in a part of this space the float of the
inlet valve is placed. The inlet valvo chamber occupies one corner of the
front case, and communicates by a pipo or by a passage formed in the casting
with the central compartment of the case, which last compartment communi-
cates with the centre of the measuring drum in the usual way.