IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO WEIGHING MACHINES, PARTS OF WHICH MAY BE USED TO MEASURE LIQUIDS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Hugh Morgan and John Parkinson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
14th November 1862.
I, HUGH MORGAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Turner,
and JOHN PARKINSON, of the same Place, Machine Fitter, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO WEIGHING
MACHINES, PARTS OF WHICH MAY BE USED TO MEASURE LIQUIDS," to be as follows,
(that is to say):-
This Invention is applicable to all descriptions of beam weighing machines
and parts of which may be also used to guage or measure liquids, and consists
when applied to weighing machines in placing the counterpoise in a suitable
vessel containing spirit, water, oil, mercury, or any other suitable fluid, and to
which is attached a peculiar description of self-acting fluid indicator herein-
after described.
To apply these improvements to (say) an ordinary platform machine the
counterpoise weight on the reverse end of the beam from that carrying the
platform or scale it is preferred to form with a cylindrical or other suitably
shaped vertical parallel side or sides, and suspending it in a parallel sided tank
or chamber of larger capacity than the weight, and filling the tank with spirit,
water, oil, mercury, or any other suitable fluid so as to surround or partially
surround the weight so that the beam may be in equilibrium; and connected to
the tank surrounding the weight are a number of tubes placed parallel one
above another and at an angle to the horizon. The inner ends of these pipes
or tubes are carried downwards and have a junction at or near the bottom of

page_text: the tank into which they open, and the outer ends of the pipes or tubes are
turned up so as to extend to or above the liquid line of the tank. The oblique
parallel portions of these tubes are formed of glass and placed so far apart and
at such an angle that the inner end of the upper tube is in a true horizontal
line with the outer end of the one immediately below it, and so on throughout
the whole series, so that when the level of the liquid in the tank falls by the
elevation of the weight the glass portion of the upper pipe is discharged first,
and immediately upon the further elevation of the weight, and consequent
further falling of the level of the liquid in the tank, the second tube commences
to discharge, and so on through the whole series as the weight in the tank is
elevated.
The glass pipes are marked with or have fitted to them a graduated index
scale. In some cases the oblique parallel glass tubes may be dispensed with
by the use of a thin flat chamber having a glass side marked with oblique lines
and graduated scale, and which may also be fitted internally with a number of
parallel inclined planes placed one above another. This chamber being
connected at the lower part with the bottom of the tank and made to extend
sufficiently upwards to reach to or above the highest point of the liquid line
within the tank. The ordinary beam of the weighing machine may be
dispensed with by using a floating body in place of the counterpoise weight
described and reversing the graduated scale. It will be readily seen that if
the system of parallel glass tubes or the glass fronted thin chamber..herein-
before described be attached to a vat or other vessel of capacity they may be
marked with graduated indices to denote with accuracy the amount of liquid
put into or withdrawn from the vessel to which it is connected.