IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING, INDICATING, AND. REGULATING THE FLOW OR PASSAGE OF LIQUIDS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry James Hogg King at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th August 1869.
I, HENRY JAMES HOGG KING, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING, INDICATING, AND.
REGULATING THE FLOW OR PASSAGE OF LIQUIDS," to be as follows, that is to
say:―
This Invention comprises various improvements in apparatus for
measuring, indicating, and regulating the flow or passage of liquids.
The first improvement is applicable in connection with any accurate
kind of liquid meter, and admits of a comparatively small meter being
used, as only a portion of the liquid to be recorded passes through the
meter. The supply pipe is fitted with a small branch, which leads a
portion of the liquid through the meter, whence it passes on by a small
pipe into a small cylinder provided with a piston and having an outlet
slit in its side. The piston moves a large valve through which the
main portion of the liquid passes. When the liquid is being withdrawn
the more rapidly it issues the less will be the pressure on the outside

page_text: of the valve piston and the further will it move outwards, in doing
which it will proportionately open the outlets from the meter and from
the supply pipe, so that the measurements of the meter will always be
proportional to the actual discharge, whilst the position of the valve
piston will afford an indication of the rate of discharge at any moment.
The second part of the Invention comprises the adaptation of the
valve piston for recording or indicating the passage of the liquid without
a separate meter, the arrangement constituting a meter in itself. The
liquid passes off through slots in the cylinder in which the piston works,
and the piston is moved along the cylinder against a weight or spring
in proportion to the rate of discharge. The piston is on a spindle
passing out through a stuffing box, and turns with the spindle from
the action of the liquid in passing through helical passages formed in
it for the purpose. The rotation of the spindle is communicated to a
clock train with escapement and pendulum or balance, and this train
gives motion to counting wheels by means of a disc acting upon a
friction wheel on a spindle which is in the line of the valve spindle.
As the piston moves so as to increase the discharge outlets the
friction wheel is shifted along the face of the disc and further from
the centre, so that it receives a proportionately increased motion from
the disc.
By the third part of the Invention the clock train actuated by means of
the rotating valve piston or otherwise turns a notched disc or cam, which
when the notch comes round allows a lever to be moved by a weight
or spring into contact with a disc on the piston spindle. The lever is
connected by a link to or carries a pencil or marker, which periodically
marks a disc, drum, or sheet of paper, and thus indicates thereon the
rate of discharge at the periods at which the lever is arranged to act.
These indications when taken for a sufficiently long time may be
assumed as showing the average rate of discharge, from which the total
discharge may be estimated.
By the fourth part of the Invention the clock train is arranged to
adjust its movements to the varying rates of discharge, by appliances
which correspondingly alter the effective length of the pendulum. For
this purpose the discharge is made to take place through two chambers
or spaces,
the communication between which is more contracted than
the outlet from the last one; there will in consequence be a difference
of pressure in the chambers, which difference will vary with the actual

page_text: rate of discharge. The pendulum is made tubular and in the form of
an inverted siphon, whilst a quantity of mercury is put in the lower
part of it. Flexible tubes are used to connect the two legs of the pen-
dulum with the chambers, and the difference of pressure in these causes
the mercury to rise more or less up one leg, thereby altering the
position of the centre of gravity, and in consequence the effective length
and rate of the pendulum. The same arrangement is obviously applicable
in a modified form to a balance instead of a pendulum.
In some of the modifications of apparatus comprised in the Invention
for regulating the flow or passage of water or other liquid, a valve
piston is arranged in a cylindrical passage so as to be acted upon by
the water entering or by that leaving the apparatus, and it is connected
to a regulating slide which closes more or less certain ports through
which the water has to pass. The piston is connected by a link and
lever or rack and pinion to a spindle passing out through a stuffing
box, and the spindle has a lever fixed on it externally to which a weight
or spring is applied. In other modifications the water passes through
ports in the sides of a cylinder, which are more or less closed by a cylin-
drical regulating slide. The regulating slide is acted upon by a piston
or diaphragm pressed in one direction by the liquid and in the other
by a weight or spring. In another modification the slide has fixed in
connection with it one or more helical vanes, and the water passing
through and acting on them tends to turn the slide so as to close the
ports whilst this action is resisted by a weight or spring. Or the slide
is connected to one end of a coiled Bourdon tube fixed in the casing
with its interior in communication with the atmosphere, and the
pressure of the liquid on the outside of the tube tends to make it coil
up, in doing which it closes the ports, which are consequently more or
less closed in proportion to the pressure.