Improvements in and connected with the Prepayment Mechanism of Gas Meters.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 9th Jan., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 9th Nov., 1892-Accepted, 7th Jan., 1893.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with the Prepayment Mechanism of
Gas Meters.
We, THOMAS THORP of Whitefield near Manchester, Engineer, THOMAS
GARDINER MARSH of Lytham near Blackpool, Gas Engineer, and JOHN HAYNES
of 126 Duke Street, Liverpool, Gas Engineer, all in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the mechanism of prepayment gas meters or apparatus
delivering a proportionate quantity of gas to the number of coins or tokens inserted
and our improvements have for their object :--(1) to render additional valves to
those incidental to and usually employed in ordinary gas meters, for shutting off
the gas when a proportionate quantity to the coins or tokens inserted has been
delivered, unnecessary; (2) in dry gas meters, to secure a more reliable working
of the shutting off parts of the mechanism; (3) to enable persons interested to
easily and readily ascertain the number of coins or tokens which have been inserted
and, (4) to prevent coins or tokens which are too large or too thick, or which
have been bent, being inserted.
First. To render additional valves to those incidental to and usually employed
in ordinary gas meters, for shutting off the gas when a proportionate quantity to
the coins or tokens inserted has been delivered, unnecessary:-
In the case of wet meters, we interpose, between the "limiting part" (as herein-
after defined) of the prepayment mechanism and the usual float valve of the meter,
a rod or rods, or its or their equivalent, and so bring these parts into connection
or contact, that, when the proportionate quantity of gas has been deliverel, the
valve will be caused to close by the rod or rods. The gas supply is then shut
off. When or where the rod or rods, or its or their equivalent, passes or pass
through any part of the meter or apparatus, suitable stuffing boxes, mercurial seals,
flexible diaphragms, or the like, should be employed. In the case of dry meters,
we utilise the motion of the tangent armis in the meter to impart a rocking motion
to a rod, or its equivalent. For instance, this rocking motion may be obtained by
extending one or both of the connecting rods attached to the tangent arms, or, a
slotted and pivotted arm actuated by a stud on one or both of the tangent arms
or connecting links may be used, or, the rocking motion may be obtained by any
other suitable means.
Second. To secure a more reliable working of the shutting off parts of the
mechanism -
"
The free end of the above mentioned rocking rod, or its equivalent, has formed
thereon two or more teeth, or their equivalent, and adapted to the "limiting part
of the prepayment mechanism are corresponding teeth or their equivalent. As
the toothed end of the rocked lever is brought within the range of the "limiting
part" of the prepayment mechanism, its advance tooth, being of a suitable size for
the purpose, tilts the teeth adapted to the "limiting part," so that those teeth
engage the toothed end of the rocked lever, which eventually becomes locked, and
the passage of the gas through the meter will be prevented.
By "limiting part" is to be understood that part of the prepayment mechanism
of whatever kind which, when it has arrived at a certain point according to the
nature of the particular mechanism, is the active medium for shutting off the supply
gas.
of
Third. As regards enabling persons interested to, at any time, easily and readily
ascertain the number of coins or tokens inserted :-
-
We employ any suitable kind of indicator, such as a dial and pointer, and place,

page_text: in connection therewith and with the prepayment mechanism, a ratchet wheel or
its equivalent, so that for each forward movement of the prepayment mechanism,
the ratchet wheel or its equivalent moves forward the indicating mechanism one
point, thereby indicating or registering the number of coins or tokens inserted.
We are aware that devices for indicating the number of coins or tokens inserted
have heretofore been employed, such, however, only indicate at the time of inser-
tion of the coin or token, but according to our invention the number of coins or
tokens used can be ascertained at any time.
Fourth. As regards preventing coins or tokens of a certain kind being
inserted:-
We adapt, to the usual insertion slot, a hollow cylinder, one end of which is open,
and the other, preferably, has a finger hole. The internal diameter or contour of
this cylinder is made only just large enough to admit a coin or token of the proper
diameter or contour, whilst, as the slot is only the same width or thickness as the
coin or token, it will not take a coin or token which is too wide or thick. The
finger hole at the back of the cylinder may be employed for pushing out any coins
that may have got jammed in the cylinder owing, for instance, to their being bent
out of shape.
Dated this 8th day of January 1892.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with the Prepayment Mechanism of
Gas Meters.
We, TножAS THORP, of Whitefield near Manchester, Engineer, THOMAS
GARDINER MARSH of Lytham near Blackpool, Gas Engineer and JOHN HAYNES
of 126 Duke Street, Liverpool, Gas Engineer, all in the County of Lancaster,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:—
This invention relates to improvements in coin freed or coin actuated mechanism
intended mainly for use in connection with gas meters, such as described and shown
in Patent No. 13,368 of 1891.
These improvements have for their objects:
1st. To render unnecessary additional valves to those incidental to and usually
employed in ordinary wet gas meters for shutting off the gas when a proportionate
quantity to the coins inserted has been delivered:
2nd. To enable persons interested to easily and readily ascertain the number of
coins inserted :
3rd. To prevent bent coins or coins which are too large or too thick being
inserted in the money slot.
The accompanying drawings illustrate the aforesaid improvements, along with
such parts of Patent No. 13,368 as are necessary to make the invention clearly
understood.
Figure 1 is a front elevation, with parts broken away, of a wet meter showing
some of the improvements :
Figure 2, a plan view, partly in section, of the same:
Figure 3, a back view of part of the mechanism shown in Figures 1 and 2:
Figure 4, a section through xx, Figure 1:
Figure 5 a plan view of part of the shutting off mechanism employed in dry
meters, and
Fig. 6 a section through y y Fig. 1.
In carrying out the first improvement, which is represented in Figures 1, 2

page_text: and 3, we interpose, between the limiting part (which, in wet meters, such as shown
in Figs. 1, 2 & 3 of the accompanying drawings is simply a stud or projection) and
the usual float valve of the meter, a lever a suitably pivoted to the apparatus
having one of its ends attached to a spindle a¹ which passes through a stuffing
box, mercurial or water seal, or the like to the aforesaid float valve of the
meter A, and the vertical arm a² engaging the limiting stud or projection a³
Figures 2 and 3. When the ratchet wheel B is rotated by means of the pawl f,
(as fully described in the aforementioned Patent) the stud a³ is removed from
engagement with the vertical arm a' of the lever ax, which is then free to turn
on its pivot, thereby allowing the float valve of the meter to be raised, and the
gas to flow through, until the stud a³ returns to the position shown in Figure 3,
when the lever presses the spindle a' down on the valve and closes it, thereby
stopping the further flow of gas through the meter.
We do not confine ourselves to the exact form of lever a*, as the spindle a' can
be passed through other parts of the meter than that shown, which would necessitate
a different form of lever, the principal idea being that of connecting the limiting
part such as stud a³ with the usual float valve of the meter thus dispensing with
additional valves.
In the case of dry meters, this is effected (as described in the aforementioned
Patent) by a stop a, which receives a rotary movement from the diaphragm or
measuring chamber of the said meter.
Now another of our improvements consists in giving this stop a rocking movement
instead of a rotary one, which can be effected in a variety of ways.
For instance,
the links E, Figure 5, may be extended, to one of which the stop is fixed, as shown
or a slotted and pivoted arm actuated by a stud on one or both of the connecting
links may be used, or the rocking motion may be obtained in any other suitable
manner.
To enable persons interested to at any time easily and readily ascertain the
number of coins inserted in the receptacle formed in the meter, we employ any
suitable device whereby, on the insertion of a coin or coins, the amount or number of
such will be exhibited or shown on a dial, scale, or the like. A convenient way
(and the one we prefer as applied to the mechanism of the aforementioned Patent)
of carrying this out is as follows, but it must be clearly understood that we do not
confine ourselves to this way only, as it is evident that many other ways of accom-
plishing our purpose may be adopted without departing from the spirit of the
invention:
Loosely mounted on the sleeve J' carried by the ratchet wheel B as described in
the aforementioned Patent, is a second ratchet wheel C which carries a pointer c,
adapted to move in front of a dial, preferably the same dial which the pointer,
showing the quantity of gas to be consumed, moves round: or the dial may move
and the pointer be stationary, in which case a separate dial and pointer or pointers
may be necessary. The dial is left out of Figs. 2 & 6 for clearness.
The pointer c or dial, if the pointer be stationary, can be connected with a
moving part of the mechanism in a variety of ways, according to the type of
mechanism adopted for the other portion of the apparatus, but, as applied to the
Patent No. 13,368, we have found the following method to be suitable :-
The ratchet wheel C, carrying the pointer, is actuated by a pawl c', which is
again actuated by a stud or pin on the pawl carrier F. This pin or stud c² fixed
thereon engages a slotted plate c³, which is attached to a rotatable spindle c*
carrying the aforesaid pawl c¹.
It will be understood, and as is fully described in the aforesaid British
Patent No. 13,368" that the pawl carrier F makes its full traverse, forward
and back again for each coin inserted, that is to say, for each coin the carrier
makes one movement. The pointer c also, under the influence of the ratchet
5 wheel C and the pawl c¹ (which latter as has just been shown, is indirectly con-
nected with the carrier F) will, on each movement of the carrier, make or register

page_text: a degree on the dial and thus a check is kept of the number of coins inserted in the
apparatus.
As shown in the drawings, the ratchet wheel C will be moved round one tooth,
and the pointer c one division on the dial, for each coin or token inserted, but it
will be evident that the mechanism can be so arranged that the said pointer can
be moved two or more divisions for each token, or one division for two or more
tokens.
It will also be evident that more than one pointer and scale may be used, and
that the scales may be graduated to show up to considerable amounts, as in the
case of the ordinary meter indices and clock dials.
The pointer c, shown black on the drawing, may have a peculiar shape or colour
to distinguish it from the other pointer which indicates the amount of gas to be
consumed, and, as they both move in opposite directions round the dial, the
divisions, in this case, may also be numbered in opposite directions, as shown on
Figure 1.
Figs. 2 & 6 is a toothed wheel which gears with the ordinary index gearing
and receives its motion therefrom, and C₁ is a fixed spindle.
We are aware that devices for indicating the number of coins or tokens inserted
have heretofore been employed, such, however, owing to the retrograde movement
of the indicator or pointer which sets in when the gas has commenced to pass
through the meter, only indicate at the time of insertion of the coin or token, but
according to our invention the indicator moves on always in one direction only,
and thus the number of coins or tokens used can be ascertained at any time.
Lastly, to prevent bent coins or coins or other articles that are too large or thick
being inserted in the slot of the meter, a gauge or detector is placed over the entrance
to the said slot and formed, as shown in Figures 1 and 4, with a vertical circular
recess D, just large enough to admit a coin of the proper diameter or contour.
Leading down from this recess is a slot d of such a width that a bent coin or any-
thing thicker than a proper coin will not pass through.
The finger hole d' is for the purpose of pushing out any coin or other article
which may have got jammed in the recess aforesaid.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is―
1. The improvement in and connected with the prepayment mechanism of gas
meters, which consists in a check device for the purposes described, consisting of a
pointer and scale or dial, the pointer or dial, whichever one of them moves, being
connected to a moving part of the prepayment mechanism, so that, on the insertion
of a token or tokens, the pointer or dial is moved on a distance corresponding to
the number of the tokens, substantially as described.
2. In prepaid mechanism of gas meters, a device (ax) such as described whereby
the limiting part of the mechanism is connected with the usual float valve of the
meter, thereby rendering additional valves to those incidental to and usually
employed unnecessary, substantially as described.
3. In coin freed or coin actuated mechanism, a gauge or detector such as described,
placed at the entrance to the usual insertion slot, whereby bent coins, or coins or
other articles that are larger or thicker than the proper coins, are prevented from
passing down the aforesaid slot, together with a finger hole to enable coins or other
articles that may have got jammed in the aforesaid gauge to be pushed out, sub-
stantially as described.
Iated this 7th day of November 1992.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and London, Patent Agents.