IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR REGISTERING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS OR FLUIDS FROM VATS, CASES, OR OTHER RECEPTACLES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Quartermaine East, of the Drummond
Hotel, Drummond Street, Euston Square, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND
APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR REGISTERING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS OR
FLUIDS FROM VATS, CASES, OR OTHER RECEPTACLES."
Sealed the 22nd December 1869, and dated the 6th July 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Quartermaine
East at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 6th July 1869.
I, WILLIAM QUARTERMAINE EAST, of the Drummond Hotel, Drum-
mond Street, Euston Square, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
OF AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR REGISTERING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS OR
FLUIDS FROM VATS, CASES, OR OTHER RECEPTACLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in means and appa-
ratus intended for the purpose of indicating or registering the quantity

page_text: of liquid or fluid withdrawn from vats, casks, or other receptacles
whereby the exact measurement of contents is constantly shewn, and
the measurement of withdrawal indicated.
I propose to form or construct a case of wood or other material,
having a front closing or locking lid, whereby the internal apparatus is
secured from being tampered with. This apparatus is an intermediary
application between the vat, cask, or receptacle containing the liquid to
be withdrawn, whether such liquid consists of malted, spirituous, or vinous
liquor or otherwise. Within the case or chamber, which may be of any
suitable dimensions according to the purpose intended, I arrange a
series of vertical cylindrical vessels of glass or other material having
longitudinal indications or scales, so that the level of the contents shall
always be the indication of the quantity therein. And I further propose
to reverse the scale from the uppermost level of the cylinders to the
lowest, in order to shew without the trouble of calculation the amount
withdrawn. These scales may be side by side or otherwise as required.
An inlet pipe from the cask or receptacle is provided to each cylinder,
and a tap is placed on each inlet pipe and within the case, so that from
time to time the cylinders may be filled. I also provide a vent of any
suitable arrangement to each cylinder to permit of the withdrawal of
the respective contents. From the lower part of each cylinder or
receptacle the outlet or supply tubes conduct the liquid to the taps, and
thus the liquid withdrawn from each is accurately registered. The
cylinders may be of various sizes or diameters according to the demand,
or if required two or more cylinders may contain the same description of
liquid in order to meet the supply. By these improvements not only
can the exact quantity drawn from the casks or vats be at any time
known, but also the value in money paid for the same. The licensed
victualler may thus safely leave his business for a certain period, having
first adjusted his apparatus and noted his quantities, and on his return
can at once by unlocking his apparatus know the exact amount of liquor
supplied from his stock, and consequently the value he ought to receive
from the money tills or drawers.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Quartermaine East in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 5th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
QUARTERMAINE EAST, of the Drummond Hotel, Drummond Street,
Euston Square, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Quartermaine East, Her special
licence that I, the said William Quartermaine East, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Quartermaine East, 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 THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR INDI-
CATING OR REGISTERING THE FLOW OF LIQUIDS OR FLUIDS FROM VATS, CASES, OR
OTHER RECEPTACLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said William Quartermaine East, 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. William Quartermaine East, 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 Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters.
marked thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in means and appa-
ratus intended for the purpose of indicating or registering the quantity

page_text: of liquid or fluid withdrawn from vats, casks, or other receptacles
whereby the exact measurement of contents is constantly shewn and
the measurement of withdrawal indicated.
I propose to form or construct a case of wood or other material
having a front closing or locking lid, whereby the internal apparatus
is secured from being tampered with. This apparatus is an intermediary
application between the vat, cask, or receptacle containing the liquid
to be withdrawn, whether such liquid consists of malted, spirituous, or
vinous liquor or otherwise. Within the case or chamber, which may
be of any suitable dimensions according to the purpose intended, I
arrange a series of vertical cylindrical vessels of glass or other material
having longitudinal indications or scales, so that the level of the
contents shall always be the indication of the quantity therein. And
I further propose to reverse the scale from the uppermost level of the
cylinders to the lowest, in order to shew without the trouble of calcu-
lation the amount withdrawn. These scales may be side by side or
otherwise. as required. An inlet pipe from the cask or receptacle is
provided to each cylinder, and a tap is placed on each inlet pipe and
within the case, so that from time to time the cylinders may be filled.
I also provide a vent of any suitable arrangement to each cylinder to
permit of the withdrawal of the respective contents. From the lower
part of each cylinder or receptacle the outlet or supply tubes conduct
the liquid to the taps, and thus the liquid withdrawn from each is
accurately registered. The cylinders may be of various sizes or diameters
according to the demand, or if required two or more cylinders may
contain the same description of liquid in order to meet the supply. By
these improvements not only can the exact quantity drawn from the
casks or vats be at any time known, but also the value in money paid
for the same. The licensed victualler may thus safely leave his business
for a certain period, having first adjusted his apparatus and noted
his quantities, and on his return can at once by unlocking his appa-
ratus know the exact amount of liquor supplied from his stock, and
consequently the value he ought to receive from the money tills or
drawers.
Having thus set forth the nature of my Invention, I will now
proceed more particularly to describe the manner in which it is to be
performed, for which purpose I shall refer to the accompanying Sheet of
Dramings

page_text: Figure 1 shews a front elevation of the before-described apparatus;
Figure 2 shews a sectional plan thereof, and Figure 3 shews a transverse
section of the same; and Figure 4 shews a modified arrangement of the
registering vessels. Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts
in each of the Figures.
A, A, is a case of wood or other material having doors A', A', capable
of being locked. Inside such case are arranged a number of closed
vessels or receptacles B, B, B, of metal, glass, earthenware, or other
suitable material. In Figures 1 to 3 they are assumed to be of metal
(preferably tinned copper), while at Figure 4 the vessel is of glass.
These vessels are all of an exact measured capacity, which capacity is
a multiple of the smallest volume of spirits or other fluid required to
be withdrawn at one time. Each vessel is provided with a glass gauge C
communicating with the upper and lower end of the vessel, the height
at which the fluid stands in such gauge indicating consequently the
level of the fluid in the vessel. As for every such aforesaid smallest
quantity of fluid withdrawn from the vessels the level of the fluid
therein will descend to a corresponding extent, it will be evident that
by affixing a graduated scale D near the gauge C, the divisions upon
which scale correspond with the aforesaid different levels of the fluid for
each volume withdrawn, the number of such aforesaid smallest volumes
of fluid, or, in other words, the total quantity of fluid that has been
withdrawn from the vessel, may at any time be read off from the divisions
on the scale situated above the level of the fluid, while the number of
such volumes still contained in the vessel may be read off from the
divisions below the level of the fluid, a reversed scale being of course
provided for the latter purpose. Each such registering vessel is put in
communication with a cask, vat, or other receptacle E (containing the
fluid to be measured) by means of a tube F, through which the fluid
flows from the latter into the former, and which is provided with a
cock G for closing the communication between the vessel and the vat
when the former has been once filled. The tube F is by preference
carried down inside the vessel nearly to the bottom of the same, in
order that the fluid shall pass in without causing too much commotion,
and thus allow of the rise of the level to any desired height in the vessel
being correctly observed. To allow of the escape of the air from or its
entrance into the vessels B as the fluid enters or is drawn off from the
same, cither a pipe H connected to the upper end of the gauge is carried

page_text: up to the level of the fluid in the vat, or a contrivance is applied which
will be presently described. From the lower ends of the vessels B
pipes I, I, also provided with cocks J, J, conduct the fluid to the various
taps at the counter or other locality where the fluid is to be delivered.
In operating with this apparatus all the vessels B are in the first
instance filled with fluid (the cocks J having been previously closed),
and the cocks G are then closed and those J opened, after which the
case A is locked up, so that the apparatus cannot be tampered with.
On desiring to ascertain at any time the quantity of spirits or other
fluid sold, and consequently what amount of money should have been
taken at the bar, the proprietor or superintendent unlocks the case and
reads off from the scales on the several vessels the exact quantities that
have been withdrawn, and for still further facilitating the operation the
money value of such quantities may also be marked against cach division
on the scale or on a separate scale, so as to be directly read off. At such
times when the proprietor or superintendent is constantly in attendance
in the bar or other locality where the spirits or other fluid are dispensed,
and the above-described controlling apparatus is not required, it is put
out of action by simply leaving all the supply and outlet cocks open, so
that the spirits or other fluid can flow uninterruptedly from the vats
through the vessel B to the taps at the bar. In the modification shewn
at Figure 4 the vessel B being of glass the separate gauge is dispensed
with, and the scale is marked upon or fixed against the glass vessel.
In this arrangement the supply pipe F from the vat enters the side of
the pipe F which passes right through the vessel, and also constitutes
the outlet pipe I, as shewn, side openings being provided in the pipe F
inside the vessel for entrance and exit of the fluid into and from the
latter. This pipe communicates at the upper end with a small chamber K
containing a disc or float L having side apertures 1, 1, above which disc
is a fixed diaphragm M having a central aperture m communicating
with the atmosphere through the perforations of the chamber. On the
entrance of the fluid into the vessel B the air in the same escapes
through a side aperture in the pipe F¹ into a small pipe f shewn in
dotted lines; and thence it passes into the chamber K, whence it escapes
through the apertures in the float and through the aperture m in the
diaphragm into the air. Should however on the filling of the vessel
the cock G not be closed soon enough to prevent the rising of the fluid
into the chamber K, the fluid on entering the chamber will raise up the
float L until the convex surface thereof fits against the corresponding

page_text: concave surface of the diaphragm, whereby the aperture m of the latter
will be closed, and consequently the further passage of the fluid into
the chamber will be prevented. On the withdrawal of fluid from the
vessel B the small quantity contained in the chamber K will descend
into the same, and the float L in sinking down into the position shewn
in the Drawing will allow of the entrance of air into the vessel B. The
pipe is provided with a cock N to shut off the communication with
the chamber K if desired.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner it is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
limit myself to the precise arrangements thereof shewn on the accom-
panying Drawing, as these may be variously modified without departing
from the nature of my Invention; thus it is not necessary that the
measuring vessels should be enclosed, as described, so long as the cocks
to the supply pipes are enclosed or capable of being locked so as to
prevent their being tampered with, neither do I claim generally the use
of vessels of a certain capacity communicating by means of a pipe with
vats or receptacles for the purpose of measuring the quantities of fluid
as they are withdrawn from the vats, as I am well aware that such
arrangements have before been proposed, neither do I claim as part of
my present Invention the contrivance for allowing of the escape of air
from the measuring vessels herein-before described with reference to
Figure 4 of the Drawings; but what I claim under the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is,-
Firstly. The construction and employment of apparatus for indicating
or registering the quantity of fluid withdrawn from vats or other
receptacles wherein a closed vessel communicating by means of a supply
pipe with the vat or receptacle containing the fluid, and by means of an
outlet pipe with the tap through which such fluid is drawn off, is pro-
vided with a scale or with graduated marks, by means of which the
quantity of fluid withdrawn from the vessel may be read off, the supply
pipe to such vessel being furnished with a cock or valve capable of
closing the communication between the vat and the said vessel and of
being locked up or otherwise secured from being tampered with wlien
in the closed position, substantially as herein-before set forth.
Secondly. I claim in combination the general arrangement of the
graduated measuring vessels B enclosed in the case A, and provided
with supply pipes F and cocks G and with outlet pipes I and cocks J

page_text: operating substantially as and for the purposes herein-before set forth
with reference to the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Quartermaine East, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Fifth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.