IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF METERS FOR WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Theodore Dann, of 32 Canterbury Road, Brixton,
"
in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF METERS FOR WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS Com-
municated to him from abroad by Albert Schmid, of Zürich, in the Republic
of Switzerland
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Theodore Dann
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th August 1882.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 32 Canterbury Road, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer, "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF METERS
FOR WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS." A Communication to me from abroad by Albert
Schmid, of Zürich, in the Republic of Switzerland,
This Invention has for its object to provide a mechanical means or appliance for
readily ascertaining the quantity of water or other liquid that passes or is conveyed
from one place to another, or is consumed or raised in or by prime movers, pumps,
or other machinery, and to do so in a simpler and more efficient manner than is
done in the usual description of fluid meters. To this end I provide two vertical
cylinders which communicate with each other by means of a series of passages or
orifices, of which each of the two cylinders has one at each end and four central
ones half-way in between the top and bottom ones; the two extreme orifices of
one cylinder communicating each with a central orifice in the other cylinder,
whilst the two remaining orifices of each cylinder serve as inlet and outlet passages
respectively, which I arrange in such a manner that the two inlet and the two
outlet passages may be combined with one another. Within each of the two
cylinders I place a piston furnished with such openings or orifices as on the one
hand to impart to it a double action and on the other make it act as a check and
as a slide valve upon the other piston. I furnish each piston with four horizontal
passages or apertures, of which two cross the piston at right angles to each other
and are set at an angle of forty-five degrees to the two others, which themselves
are parallel to one another. The two pistons are fitted in sach a manner that
when the one reaches the highest or lowest pitch of its stroke, the other occupies

page_text: exactly the middle of its stroke. To the top of each piston rod I fit a crank,
eccentric, or such other mechanism as will convert the alternate or rectilinear
movement of the piston into a rotatory motion in the usual way, such rotatory
motion being imparted to a suitable shaft; and the two cranks or equivalent
mechanisms being set at right angles to one another, I succeed in avoiding the
difficulty which in similar constructions is occasioned by the dead points. By
means of this arrangement I am enabled to cause the water or other liquid that
has entered one of the two cylinders and passed through its piston to proceed on
to the other cylinder and set the other piston in motion, and vice-versá; one
piston acting in each instance as a slide-valve upon the other and thus rendering
the use of a separate slide-valve and valve-gear unnecessary, thereby greatly
simplifying the apparatus constructed according to my Invention. Every revo-
lution of the shaft that is connected with each piston rod in the manner described,
corresponds to a certain specified and constant quantity or unit of water or other
liquid that passes through such cylinder; and by fitting the aforesaid shaft or
connecting it with a suitable counter of any one of the known descriptions,
I am enabled to ascertain the number of revolutions marked by such counter
and consequently the number of units of water or other liquid that have passed
through the cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Joseph Theodore Dann in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th February 1883.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 32 Canterbury Road, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF METERS
FOR WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS," a communication to me from abroad by Albert
Schmid, of Zürich, in the Republic of Switzerland,
.
The object of this Invention is to provide, in a simpler and more efficient
manner than is done in the kind of fluid meters at present in general use, a
mechanical means or appliance for readily ascertaining the quantity of water or
other liquid that passes, or is conveyed, from one place to another, or which is
raised or consumed by or within prime movers, pumps, or any other machines that
act upon, or are actuated by, water or other liquid. I provide to this end two
vertical cylinders that are placed in communication with one another by means
of a series of apertures or ports, of which each of the two cylinders has one at each
end and four central ones half way in between the top one and the bottom one.
Each of the two extreme apertures or orifices of one cylinder communicates with
a central port or aperture in the other cylinder, and of the two remaining orifices
of each cylinder one acts as an inlet and another as an outlet passage-these
orifices being arranged in such a manner that the two inlet and the two outlet
passages may be combined with one another.

page_text: In the accompanying sheet of drawings I have shewn an apparatus constructed
according to my Invention in the various positions occupied by the two pistons
and by the organs of motion; both cylinders being in each instance shewn in a
longitudinal section. In Figure 1 the piston of the first cylinder is shewn at half-
height, whilst that of the second cylinder occupies its lowest position. In Figure 2,
the piston of the first cylinder is in its highest position, whilst that of the second
cylinder is at half-height. In Figure 3, the first piston has reached the centre of
its stroke, and the second piston occupies its highest position. In Figure 4, the
piston of the first cylinder holds its lowest and that of the second cylinder holds
a central position. Figure 5 is a sectional plan of the central ports or orifices of
the two cylinders, and Figure 6 is a sectional plan of the orifices or passages at the
top, which are analogous to those at the bottom of the cylinder. Figure 7 is a
longitudinal section of a piston constructed according to my Invention, shewing
the configuration of the orifices through which the water or other liquid passes;
and Figures 8 and 9 represent cross sections of such piston, taken through the
lines M-N and P-Q respectively. In all these figures, the same letters of reference
denote identical parts or organs. A is the first and A' the second cylinder. B is
the piston of the cylinder A and B₁ the piston of the cylinder A¹. CC are the
piston rods, fitted with the links D D', by means of which the cranks E E' are set
in motion and the rectilinear movement of the pistons is changed into the circular
motion of the shafts F F'. The inlet or ingress of the water or other liquid into
the cylinders A A¹ is effected through the orifices or ports H, H' and H³, whilst
the outlet or egress takes place through the orifices or ports I, I¹ and 12; the
passages K, K, L, L' connecting the central orifices of one with the upper and
lower orifices of the other cylinder. M is the transversal and N N are the

page_text: longitudinal passages in the pistons B B', separated by the web OO. The travel
of the water or other liquid from its ingress H to its egress I, through the ports
and orifices provided in the pistons and between the cylinders, is shewn throughout
by lines either full or dotted-and arrows; the inlets and outlets H³ I¹‚ H² Iª
being, for the sake of clearness, shewn in juxtaposition in Figure 5, instead of
being shewn in superposition, that is to say with the outlets I' I beneath the
inlets H'H', in Figures 1 to 4.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and illustrated the
Bame in the accompanying sheet of drawings, I wish it to be understood that
I do not claim the constructions of cylinders and pistons generally for counting
the units or ascertaining the quantity of water or other liquid delivered through
such cylinders and pistons, arrangements of this kind having been in use heretofore;
but What I Claim is :-
First. The construction, and use or employment, of two cylinders so combined
together that each cylinder has six apertures or ports, one at the top, one at the
bottom, and four at half-height, two of the latter communicating with the top and
bottom aperture of the other cylinder, and the two others serving, one as inlet and
the other as outlet, in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth and illustrated
in the accompanying sheet of drawings.
Secondly. The construction, and use or employment, of double-acting pistons,
furnished with passages or orifices communicating with the apertures or ports
of the aforesaid two cylinders, in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth
and illustrated in the accompanying sheet of drawings.
In Witness Whereof I the said Joseph Theodore Dann have hereunto set
my hand and seal this thirteenth day of February in the year of Our Lord
One-thousand eight-hundred and eighty-three.