A MERCURIAL LEVEL TO SHEW THE HEIGHT OF LIQUIDS IN ENCLOSED AND OPAQUE VESSELS, VASES, AND PRINCIPALLY FOR STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1858

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Michael Shanly at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration, on
the 24th July 1858, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act, 1852.-A communication from Edward Legris, of Paris.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
SHANLY, of 5, Meards Street, Dean Street, Soho Square, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "A MERCURIAL LEVEL
TO SHEW THE HEIGHT OF LIQUIDS IN ENCLOSED AND OPAQUE VESSELS, VASES, AND
PRINCIPALLY FOR STEAM BOILERS," (a communication from Edward Legris, of
Paris), and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and
have made solemn declaration that I verily believe myself to be the true and
first Inventor thereof:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Michael Shanly, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and scal, fully
describes and ascertains the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings (that is to say).
An empty sphere A hermetically sealed up, of a capacity calculated in such
a manner as that its greater diameter is always equal to the surface of the
water, made of brass or of any other metal, but of brass in preference to all

page_text: others, hooked and brazed, is introduced into the vessel or boiler, the level of
the liquid of which interiorly we want to know exteriorly. This sphere is
gone through in its centre by a polished iron rod I, which continues on
one side of the vessel in a cast-iron column J equally polished, which column
is in direct communication with the vessel or boiler, by the means of the
different orifices K, seen on the horizontal and vertical plane, (see the Design,
Fig. the 1st).
At the height G, H, of the vertical plane, a polished cast-iron tube O is
pinned to the iron rod I at a fixed point, in such a manner as to follow the
descending and ascending movements given to the sphere by the liquid on
which it floats.
A cylinder of cast iron L forms with the column J a reservoir containing
mercury, which is in direct communication with the crystal column M, fixed
to the exterior of the column J. This communication takes place by means
of the opening N, so that when the tube O rises or falls, O being the move-
ment which is communicated by the movements of the liquid in the interior
of the boiler, vessel, or no matter what may be the recipient, the mercury
causes a different movement in the reservoir in cast iron and in the crystal
tube.
The division made in the scale which accompanies the crystal tube indicates
the variations of the level of the liquid in the interior of the vessel; the divi-
sions are more or less distant according to the transversal consideration of the
surfaces of the mercury in the crystal column in the reservoir, and in the cast-
iron reservoir in the interior of the column J, with the transversal surface of
the plunging tube O.
The crystal tube and its accessories are entirely like in their dispositions and
functions to the tubes at present in use for shewing exteriorly the level of
water in the interior of boilers or vessels.
The two cocks P are to be simultaneously opened, whilst the liquid in the
interior of the vessel is boiling. To the superior part of the column J is an
alarm whistle acting in ordinary circumstances, and put in motion by the rod I
of the sphere.
Another disposition of the mercurial level, see Figure No. 2.
The column J the sphere. The rod I fulfils the same role as in the level
No. 1, to the superior part of the rod I is fixed in the centre of a round iron
or metal plate R, dyed blue, the diameter of which is not so large as that
of the column, in order that it may play freely in it. This metal plate R is
perforated by the orifices K, which allow the steam of the vessel to arrive as
far as the superior part of the column J.

page_text: In a certain point of the round iron plate R is fixed a little rod E, which
rod is either of iron or of steel, which plunges into the mercury contained in
the reservoir formed by the iron tube S. This iron reservoir is in communi-
cation with the crystal tube by the opening N, as in the level pointed to
No. 1. The cocks P are to be kept open whilst the liquid contained in the
vessel is submitted to the action of heat.
The principle on which the Invention is founded is always the same. This
second mercurial level does not differ from the other but in its form, the
advantages of which consist in a more economical construction.
The part dyed color grey represents the cast iron, that dyed blue represents
the iron, that dyed yellow represents the brass.
In the design No, 2, the empty sphere and the water have not been
marked out, because they are like to those of No. 1.
The Figures 1 and 2 are half the size of what they are to be, and repre-
sent the column J cut in the axis of the vertical height.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Shanly, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
MICHAEL SHANLY. (L.S.)