AN IMPROVED INDEX OR REGISTERING APPARATUS FOR GAS AND WATER METERS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Bolton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
June 1875.
I, FREDERICK BOLTON, of Weaste, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
INDEX OR REGISTERING APPARATUS FOR GAS AND WATER METERS," to be as
follows:-
Instead of the ordinary dials and pointers as at present used in gas
and water meters, which have to be reckoned up in hundreds, thousands,
tens of thousands, and more of feet, and then cast out at the price at
which the gas or water is supplied in order to arrive at the amount con-
sumed, I make an apparatus which will record the value of the gas or
water which has passed through a meter up to any moment, so that a
person may see at a glance and without any calculation the cost in money
figures of the amount of gas or water consumed; and, moreover, that
the periodical amounts charged by the company supplying the gas or
water shall be recorded on the index for reference at any future time.
To accomplish this I employ an index cylinder or drum of a suitable
size for the meter, which is actuated by wheels and pinions or wheels and

page_text: screws, so as to revolve at any required rate, say, for example, at such a
rate that one-sixteenth of an inch or other ratio of motion on the surfaco
of the index cylinder shall represent one hundred fect of gas as having
passed through the meter.
A scale of charges is marked on the top of the face of the index
cylinder calculated according to the rate at which the index cylinder is
made to revolve and the price charged, or several scales may be marked
to allow for any variation in the price. Thus, for example, take the
rate of motion of one-sixteenth of an inch on the cylinder to represent
fifty feet of gas, and that the price of the gas is five shillings for one
thousand feet, the first space of one-sixteenth of an inch would be
marked 3d., the second sixteenth of space 6d., and so on.
'
Parallel with the index cylinder is a screwed shaft, on which is a nut
moving in a slide parallel to the shaft, and on the top of the latter there
is a ratchet pinion acted upon by a spring employed for preventing the
shaft from turning except in the proper direction.
The nut is provided with a tube, in which there is a spring pencil or
marker in contact with the periphery of the index cylinder, so that it
shall mark a line as the cylinder revolves. Thus, supposing two hundred
and fifty feet of gas to have been consumed, the marker will have drawn
a line on the cylinder five-sixteenths of an inch in length, and the end of
this line will be under the figures 18./3d., showing at a glance the value
of the gas consumed.
The index cylinder rests on the upper surface of a wheel toothed on
its edge so as to gear into the driving mechanism, which has also
scrrated or V teeth on the outer edge of its upper surface, which are
acted upon by a spring having similar teeth at one end and the other
end attached to the index cylinder, so that the latter is carried round by
the wheel, but may also be forced round independently of the wheel; or
the serrated teeth may be on the bottom edge of the periphery of index
cylinder and the catch attached to the upper surface of the wheel.
Parallel to the index cylinder is also a shaft working in a swivel bearing,
and having a toothed pinion on the top, which can be forced into gcar
with a pinion on the top of the index cylinder when required, but which
is kept out of gear by a spring when not required.
When say a quarter of a year's consumption of gas has been recorded,
and it is necessary to bring the index cylinder back to the starting point,

page_text: the official who takes note of the gas consumed inserts a key in a slot in
the covering, which slot is parallel with the screwed shaft carrying the
marker, until the end of it presses against the index cylinder at the
termination of the registration line, and the end of the key may be made
to mark the initials of a company, &c., on the face of the index
cylinder.
In withdrawing the key it acts by friction or other means against the
shaft working in the swivelled bearing, and forces the pinion at end of
it into gear with the pinion on top of the index cylinder, and at the same
time moves the latter back to the starting point, the marker travelling
over the same line that it has already made.
Upon the key leaving this shaft it gives motion to the screwed shaft
carrying the marker and depresses the latter a little, so that it will make
another line a little lower down on the surface of the index cylinder.
Thus the previous quarter's consumption of gas remains recorded, and
the apparatus is ready for another period of use.
The mechanism may be covered with glass, which may again be pro-
tected by a covering of metal.
This Invention may be used either in conjunction with the ordinary
dials and pointers now in use or may be used separately, as desired, or
the index cylinder may have a scale of measurement marked on it
instead of or in addition to the scale or scales of prices.