IMPROVEMENTS IN WET GAS METERS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Myers at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th May
1865.
I, EDWARD MYERS, of Millbank Row, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WET GAS METERS," to be as follows:-
The first part of my Invention relates to improvements in the arrangement
of the inlet passage for the gas to the measuring drum in combination with
the waste water chamber. In various arrangements of wet gas meters it has
been usual to pass the gas from the inlet pipe or passage into the upper part
of the waste water chamber, and from it the gas passes through a pipe or
passage into the measuring drum, and it is well known that in meters so con-
structed when the water is drawn off the unmeasured gas can be readily
passed through the overflow orifice without passing through the measuring
drum. Now the object of the first part of my improvements in wet gas meters
is to prevent any such fraudulent abstraction of unmeasured gas. For this
purpose the inlet pipe or passage conducts the gas into an internal chamber
or passage formed in the upper part of the waste water chamber, and this
internal chamber is in communication with and conducts the gas to the
measuring drum. A pipe descends from the internal chamber to considerably
below the water line in the waste water chamber, such pipe serving to carry
off any condensed water from the inlet passage. A bent pipe is applied to the
overflow orifice, which is at the upper part of the waste water chamber; the

page_text: lower end of this bent pipe is surrounded by another pipe or cylinder closed at
the bottom, but open at the top to permit the waste water to flow into it and
up the overflow pipe. By this arrangement the waste water line can never
descend below the upper edge of the pipe or cylinder which surrounds the
overflow pipe, thus ensuring the constant sealing of the lower end of the pipe
which descends from the inlet passage or internal chamber previously
described.
The second part of my improvements is applicable to wet gas meters such
as were described in the Specifications of Patents granted to William Esson,
dated August 27th, 1858, No. 1942, to myself and William Richard Williams,
dated June 24th, 1868, No. 1592, and described in the Provisional Specification
of a Patent granted to me, dated December 8th, 1864, No. 3059, and to other
meters of a similar character; and these improvements relate to the arrange-
ment of the passages which form communications between the water reservoir
the measuring drum, and the chamber in which the "fountain" is situated,
and in the arrangement of the outlet passage for the gas in order to maintain
one uniform level of the water line in the measuring drum of wet gas meters
of this description.
In the arrangement of compensating apparatus employed for adjusting and
maintaining the proper level of the water described in the. Specifications of the
Patents before referred to, no provision was made to prevent the frequent
unsealing of the air tube caused by the agitation of the water line during the
revolution of the drum as each quarter or division thereof descends. This
frequent unsealing of the air tube causes an unnecessary loss or discharge of
water from the reservoir or water supply chamber through the overflow tube
into the waste water chamber, by which the reservoir becomes rapidly and
wastefully exhausted, thereby defeating the object for which such an arrange-
ment of apparatus is required. An opening of considerable size between the
measuring drum and the air tube or fountain chamber (extending above and
below the water line) served not only as the means for maintaining the level
of the water in the drum and air tube chamber, but also for the measured gas
to pass away through from the drum to the outlet pipe, so that any agitation
of the level of the water line in the measuring drum at once affected the level
of the water in the air tube or fountain chamber, thereby causing the frequent
unsealing of the orifice in the air tube, and consequent discharge of water
from the reservoir to readjust the level of the water line in the measuring
In order to obviate this defect, I form two openings between the
measuring drum and the air tube or fountain chamber, one orifice being com-
paratively small near the bottom of the chamber below the water line com-
drum.

page_text: municating with the water in the measuring drum, an opening or orifice of
corresponding size being formed between the drum and the reservoir or water
supply chamber to adjust the level of the water in the two chambers. Another
opening of suitable size is formed in the upper part of the air tube or fountain
chamber above the water line for the escape of the measured gas to the
outlet pipe. By this arrangement of the passages the agitation of the water
line in the fountain chamber and the consequent unsealing of the orifice in the
air tube is prevented.