An Improved Water Gauge for Steam Boilers.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Water Gauge for Steam Boilers.
We CLEMENS WEAVER and WILLIAM CLEMENS WEAVER both of Euston
Pennsylvania in the United States of America at present residing at 42 Booth
Street East, Oxford Road Manchester in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of this invention is to construct a water gauge for steam boilers which
shall be less liable to become accidentally broken than the water gauges constructed
with a glass tube supported only at each end, as usually made, and consequently to
lessen the danger of scalding by steam or hot water to which the engineers are
exposed.
The nature of our said invention and the manner in which the same is to be
performed or carried into practical effect will be readily understood on reference to
the sheet of drawings hereunto annexed and the following explanation thereof.
Fig. 1 on the drawing is a face view of our improved water gauge with the front
cover and glass removed; Fig. 2 is a vertical section and Fig. 3 a horizontal section
of the same, and Fig. 4 is a front elevation showing the gauge complete.
For the purposes of our invention we construct the gauge as follows: The body a
of the gauge is constructed of cast metal with a cavity therein which is in communi-
cation by means of pipes and taps at the top and bottom with the steam and water
spaces in the boiler in the usual manner so that the level of the water in this cavity
is the same as that in the boiler. The increased size of this cavity also as compared
with the interior of an ordinary glass tube gives a much more reliable indication of
the actual level of the water in the boiler.
Round the front of the cavity a ledge c is formed to receive a packing d of india
rubber or other suitable compressible substance or composition to form a water and
steam tight joint and over this we place a flat piece of thick glass e which we secure
in its place by means of the open front plate or frame f which is screwed or bolted on.
The glass is thus protected from all injury and is much less liable to breakage than
the ordinary glass tube which projects in front of the metal index plate, and even if it
should by any means become broken the steam and water will escape in a forward
direction, and not upwards and downwards as usual, and hence the engineer can easily
turn off the taps without fear of becoming scalded.
The normal water level can be marked with paint or otherwise either at the back
of the cavity b or on the back of the glass.
In cases where it is preferred to have a transparent gauge we fit a flat glass in a
similar manner at the back as well as at the front, as indicated by the dotted lines
at Fig. 2.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is :-
The construction of a water gauge for steam boilers with a hollow body of cast
metal in the front of which (or in both back and front) a piece of flat glass is fitted,
the joint being made tight by an india rubber nacking placed between the glass and

page_text: a projecting ledge and the glass held in its place by means of an open front plate or
frame secured to the body by screws or bolts, substantially as hereinbefore described
and illustrated by the drawings annexed.
Dated this 18th day of July 1890.
GEO. DAVIES & SON,
4, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, Agents for the Applicants.