A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS METERS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
BOTTEN, of Farringdon Street, in the City of London, Gas Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of December, in the fourth year of Her reign.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Botten, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles Botten, my exors,
admňors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles Botten, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN GAS
METERS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Charles Botten, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, under my hand

page_text: and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso contained
in the said herein-before recited Letters Patent, I, the said Charles Botten,
do hereby declare that the nature of my said invented improvement, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and set
forth in the following Specification thereof, that is to say:-
Whereas it is requisite, in order that gas meters should register correctly
the quantity of gas which passes through them, that the water in them should
be maintained at a certain fixed level; but that according to the mode in which
they are now ordinarily constructed, the height of the water line is constantly
liable to variation, sometimes from the removal or imperfect action of the
float, which should close upon the gas inlet valve when the water falls below
its proper level, in which case the quantity of gas registered is too little, and
sometimes from the introduction of an excess of water, in which case the
quantity of gas registered is greater than that which actually passes through,
in proportion to the excess of water introduced. Now, the nature of my said
Invention consists in constructing gas meters with such additions that the
water may always be kept with perfect certainty at its proper level (loss from
evaporation always excepted), and that, should any excess of water be intro-
duced, such excess will overflow into a waste or discharge pipe provided for
the purpose, without affecting in the least the said level. And I declare that
the manner of performing the said Invention is shown in the said Drawings
hereunto annexed, marked Figures 1 and 2, and in the following description.
thereof, that is to say :-
Figure 1 is a front view of a gas meter, with part of the front plate removed,
in order to show my said invented additions, and Figure 2 is a cross section of
the part so left exposed to view. A is the gas inlet pipe, and B the gas out-
let pipe, both situated as usual. C is a pipe for the introduction of the water.
D is a close chamber, soldered tight, and having no communication with the rest
of the meter, except through the small orifice g at the bottom thereof. The
water pipe C is passed a short way down this close chamber D, and being then
curved backwards, opens into a broad flat passage c, d, behind, which leads
into the interior of the meter outside of the close chamber D, and within the
square frame V, V, V, V, there is a vertical pipe e, which is open at top, and
terminates at bottom in the before-mentioned orifice g. The height of this
pipe e is exactly the height at which the water should stand in the meter, in

page_text: order that it may register correctly the quantity of gas which passes through
it. Now it will be at once perceived, that as water is supplied through the
pipe C, it will enter the body of the meter at d, whence it will pass through
an opening in the centre of the meter into the square frame, and will rise to
the top of the pipe e, down which it will flow and enter the close chamber D,
through the orifice g. As the water is added it will rise within D to the top
of what I call a waste pipe h, fixed in the chamber D, which is of the same
altitude as the pipe e, and also open at top, so that on the least excess of water
being introduced, it overflows and escapes down the pipe h. In the Drawings
hereunto annexed the pipe h is represented as being closed at bottom by a
screw plug, the head of which projects through the bottom of the close
chamber D, but the apparatus will work equally well if it is left open. From
this mode of construction, it follows that when the water level has been once
accurately adjusted, that is, so as to be in a line with the top of the pipes e
and h, it will always maintain that level (loss from evaporation excepted);
and that supposing the bottom of the waste pipe h to be closed by a screw
plug, as represented in the said Drawings, or that it should be otherwise
stopped up, and that a greater excess of water should be introduced than that
pipe will hold, by opening the screw plug at any time the addition of the
surplus water will be at once detected, and the water at the same instant
restored to the proper level throughout the meter. And I declare that what I
claim as new and of my Invention, is the improvement in gas meters, consisting
in the additions thereto, marked in the said Drawings hereunto annexed, by
the letters C, D, c, d, e, and g, therein-before particularly described, whereby
the water may always be kept with perfect certainty at its proper level (loss
by evaporation always excepted); and I claim a right to vary the relative
dimensions and positions of the said additions, and to modify or dispense with
some of the same, according to convenience, as long as the general system of
action by which the said beneficial effect is produced is not materially or essen-
tially departed from; and in particular I would observe that the pipe C may be
of any height not lower than the top of the square frame V, V, V, V, which may
be found convenient, and also that, instead of the water being introduced by
the passages C and c, d, it may be conveyed directly into the said square frame,
without the said general system of action being in either case injuriously affected.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, nor in any of Her said Majesty's Colonies and

page_text: Plantations abroad, I hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same;
and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all
respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Botten, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.