IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF METERS OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Walter Chrimes Myers and Edward
Myers at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 10th March 1866.
We, WALTER CHRIMES MYERS and EDWARD MYERS, both of Millbank Row,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARRANGEMENT AND
CONSTRUCTION OF METERS OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS,"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to improvements in the arrangement and construction
of meters or apparatus for measuring water or other fluid wherein a drum or
cylinder (herein-after called the eccentric drum) furnished with hinged flaps
or valves is arranged to revolve in a vertical position eccentrically within a
drum case or chamber, to which arrangement however in itself we make no
claim, as we are aware that it has before been proposed to arrange apparatus
in this manner for the purpose of measuring water or other fluids.
Now according to one part of our improvements in meters of this con-
struction we arrange the inlet and outlet passages in combination with a
divided chamber formed below the measuring chamber, in which the eccentric
drum and valvular flaps revolve. The bottom of the measuring chamber is
pierced with a series of orifices communicating with the inlet and outlet
passages below, and the inlet passages to the measuring chamber are so
arranged that directly one of the flaps or valves of the eccentric drum has
passed the valvular flap fixed between the outer circumference of the eccentric

page_text: drum and the inner circumference of the drum case the water or other fluid
at once commences to flow up into the space as it is formed by the opening of
the flap between the revolving valvular flap and the drum case; and as the
valvular flap opens outwards from the drum other inlet passages are exposed
for the admission of the water to the measuring chamber thus formed. When
the space between two of such revolving valvular flaps has attained its extreme
capacity the bindmost flap will have passed the last orifice from the inlet
passage, and the outlet orifices will in succession become open for the discharge
of such measured quantity of water from the eccentric space between the two
flaps, and so on in succession as each flap revolves. Each valvular flap
according to our improvements is formed with an elastic expansion surface or
valve to compensate for the variation in the capacity of the eccentric measuring
space as the flaps revolve towards the discharge orifices. In fluid meters of
this construction we prefer to employ an eccentric drum furnished with at
least four hinged valvular flaps or valves, but a larger number of such hinged
flaps may be employed for meters of large capacity.
"Another part of our improvements consists in the mode of lubricating the
axis of the revolving eccentric drum previously referred to. For this purpose
the lower part of the axis or pivot upon which the eccentric drum revolves is
fixed to the bottom of the drum case or measuring chamber, such axis or pivot
passing up through a "bush" or collar into an oil chamber formed in the lower
part of the eccentric drum, the top of this chamber resting centrally upon the
fixed pivot or axis. The oil chamber is filled with oil or other lubricating
fluid, which cannot escape therefrom on account of its being of less specific
gravity than the water, but as it wastes away the water enters below and floats
the oil in the chamber up to the point where the parts revolve in contact, thus
ensuring their lubrication until the supply of oil is exhausted. The axis fixed
on the upper end of the eccentric drum. passes up through a bush or collar in
the cover of the measuring chamber into another chamber filled with oil, a
worm on the end of the axis giving motion to a train of wheels revolving in
the oil to actuate the indicating apparatus, the number of revolutions of the
eccentric drum being recorded by means of a dial plate and pointers, as is well
understood.
"
- Another part of our improvements consists in constructing or lining the
inner circumference of the measuring chamber or drum case with "lignum,
vitæ or other equally hard wood and of close texture; and also in making
the valvular flaps and other parts of fluid meters subject to friction of the same
material (by preference lignum vitæ), this part of our Invention being
applicable to the parts subject to friction of other fluid meters differing in their

page_text: construction and arrangement to the arrangement of fluid meter herein pre-
viously described. It is well known that the parts of fluid meters (when
constructed of metal) which are subject to friction are rapidly worn away by
the gritty impurities of the water, and we have found that when such frictional
parts are constructed of lignum vitæ or other equally hard wood they are
much less liable to wear away.