Improved Liquid Meter.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Mar., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 19th Apr., 1890-Accepted, 26th Apr., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Liquid Meter.
I, JOSEPH LACOSTE of 23 Boulevard de Strasbourg Paris, France, Engineer do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to that class of liquid meters in which a piston is moved to
and fro in a cylinder by the pressure of the liquid passing through, such motion
being imparted to registering mechanisın.
My present improvements have for their object to simplify the construction of
such meters, and to afford an exact measurement of the liquid passing through,
however small the discharge may be from the discharge pipe connected to the
meter. The meter is constructed with a single cylinder, the liquid being made to
pass in alternately at opposite ends, and the flow being controlled by a combined
arrangement of valves actuated by the piston at the end of each stroke.
For this purpose the cylinder contains at a certain distance from each end cover
an open diaphragm on which are pivotted levers having eyes through which pass
freely the ends of the piston rod; the ends of the latter have beads which at the end
of each stroke alternately act upon the end of the respective lever, pressing it
inwards against the action of a spring which tends to move it outward again when
relieved of such pressure.
The covers of the cylinder have central hollow extensions for the ends of the piston
rods to work to and fro in.
In the wall of the cylinder at one side thereof are formed two opposite longitudinal
passages, the one communicating at its middlo with the branch supply pipe, and the
other with the branch discharge pipe. These passages opon at each end into the
cylinder at points flush with the outer faces of the open diaphragms, and they are
closed by ball valves, seating on tubular seats of caoutchouc fitted in the ends of the
said passages. The two ball valves at each end of the cylinder are connected to the
ends of a sway bean pivottod at its centre on the diaphragm, so that when the one
valve closes upon its seat, the other one is moved away from its seat by the sway
beam.
The two valves at the opposite ends of one and the same passage are also connected
together by a rod passing through the passage, so that when the valve at the one
end closes on its seat it at the same time pushes the opposite one open and thus all
four valves always move together.
On the perforated diaphragms are mounted sliding locking bolts which aro urged
by springs to project between the one end of the sway beam and the diaphragm, when
the valve at that end of the beam is open, and which thus locks the beam and its two
valves in that position, until the end of the stroke of the piston in the direction
towards that end, at which time the piston is made to press on the one end of a
pivotted arm,
the other end of which takes into a slot in the sliding bolt, and is thus
made to force the bolt back so as to free the sway beam. The action of the apparatus
is as follows: assuming the piston to be commencing its stroko to the right, the
hoad of its piston rod at that end frees the first mentioned lever so that it can be
acted on by its spring so as to press with its other end upon the sway beam and
reverse the position thereof and of all the four valves when otherwise permitted to do
When the piston commences the said stroke the discharge valve at the right
band end is open and the supply valve is closed while at the left hand end the
supply valve is open and the discharge valve closed. At the same time the sliding
bolt at the left hand end which was held in the withdrawn position by the pressure
of the piston, is now relieved of such pressure and consequently will spring forward
underneath the sway beam at the supply valve end, thereby locking the valves in
60.
1

page_text: the position into which they have been moved. As the piston approaches the right
hand end of its stroke, it acts upon the pivotted arm so as to withdraw the locking
bolt and the left hand end of the piston rod also presses upon the left hand levor,
causing this to release the loft hand sway beam.
The right hand lever is now free to act on its sway beam so as to reverse
the position of the four valves, and the piston commences its stroke to the left.
The motion of the piston may be imparted to the counter mechanism in any
suitable manner, such as by causing it at the end of each double stroke to press upon
a spring rod connected by an arm to a spindle passing through a stuffing box of the
counter casing, so that the spindle is slightly turned at each double stroke and
thereby imparts motion within the casing to a pawl and ratchet gear that works the
counter.
Dated this 90th dox of Man 1800
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Liquid Meter.
I, JOSEPH LACOSTE of 23 Boulevard de Strasbourg, Paris, France, Engineer, 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:
My Invention relates to that class of liquid meters in which a piston is moved to
and fro in a cylinder by the pressure of the liquid passing through, such motion being
imparted to registering mechanism.
My present improvements have for their object to simplify the construction of such
meters, and to afford an exact measurement of the liquid passing through, however
small the discharge may be from the discharge pipe connected to the meter. The
meter is constructed with a single cylinder, the liquid being made to pass in alternately
at opposite ends, and the flow being controlled by a combined arrangement of valves
actuated by the piston at the end of each stroke.
I will proceed to describe the construction of the improved meter with
reference to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 shews a longitudinal
section, Figure 2 a sectional plan on line 1-2 Figure 1, and Figure 3 an end view
with the cover removed. The piston A, which travels to and fro in the cylinder B,
has a double ended rod C, the ends of which have heads D D' which at the end of
each stroke are alternately made to bear against the heads of levers E E', which are
pressed outwards by springs Z Z, carried in recesses formed in diaphragms F F',
which have openings in them through which the liquid can flow. Figure 4 is a
detached sectional view of these parts showing the arrangement of the lever E more
clearly. On each diaphragm F F is a sliding bolt G G acted upon by a spring,
which has for its object to hold the system of valves in position during the whole of
the stroke of the piston in either direction.
The inlet H and the outlet S communicate respectively with the middles of two
passages Hand S¹, the ends of which open into the cylinder between the
diaphragms F F¹ and the covers I I¹.
The valves consist of spheres ¹c c¹, those situated at one and the same end,
being connected together by a rocking beam K K'; their seat is formed by a piece of
caoutchouc tubing fitted into the channels H' S¹, on which the valves close in a
liquid-tight manner, as shewn at Figure 2. The two valves b and c situated at
opposite ends of the supply passage H are in addition connected by a rod d which
passes through the passage.
The valves and care in like manner connected by a rod d¹. From this
arrangement it follows that if the one inlet, valve is open the other must be closed,
while the discharge valve at the opposite end is open and the other closed.

page_text: The locking bolts G G₁ are each actuated by a rocking arme el pivotted at f
to the diaphragms F F and which at the end of each stroke are acted upon by the
piston A, which presses against the tail piece h, the other end of the arm being
thereby made to press upon a roller i carried in a slot in the bolt, and thus to force.
the bolt backward against the action of the spring, as shewn in the section at
Figure 5.
The apparatus operates as follows
The piston A being at the end of its stroke to the right, as shewn, the valve 6 is
open, and admits the liquid to the right hand face of the piston, while the discharge
valve is closed; at the same time, the supply valve c is closed and the discharge valve cl
is open. The valves are kept in this position by the pressure of the beak m of the
lever E acted upon by its spring a, and also by the bolt G which is engaged between
the diaphragm F and the beam K' which connects the valves c and c at the left
hand side.
The piston now moves to the left hand, and on arriving at the end of its stroke, it
presses against the tail h of the arm el, causing this to force back the bolt G¹ so as to
free the beam K. At the same time the head D at the right hand end of the piston
rod presses against the head of the lever E, moving this in compressing the spring a,
and thereby removing the beak m from the valve beam K. The lever E having
previously been freed from the pressure of the head D', will now be moved by its
spring so as to press with its beak upon the beam K, thereby causing this to move so
as to reverse the position of all four of the valves, thus closing inlet valve band
discharge valve c¹ and opening the inlet valvo c at the left hand and the discharge
valve at the right hand.
The position of the beams H H¹, being thus in the reverse position to that
shewn on the drawing, the bolt G, having become relieved of the pressure of its
arm e, will be shot forward by its spring r so as to project between the diaphragm F
and the beam H, and will thus lock the system of valves in the said position during
the whole of the following stroke.
The registration of the quantity of liquid which has passed through the meter
during one stroke is effected by a counter T of any suitable known construction,
actuated by a pawl s pivotted to a levert fixed on an axis Z (as shewn more clearly in
the detached view Figure 6) which passes through the meter casing and is actuated
by a small crank u, pivotted to a rod v which at the end of each double stroke of the
piston, is moved by the latter against the action of a spring. The pawls acts on a
ratchet wheel x on the first-motion-shaft of the counter.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what 1
claim is
1. A liquid meter wherein a measuring cylinder containing a reciprocating
piston, has two longitudinal passages, the one serving for supply of the liquid and
the other for the discharge, which passages open into each end of the cylinder and are
provided with four valves so connected together, that at the end of each stroke of the
piston, the positions of all four valves are simultaneously reversed, substantially as
and for the purpose herein described.
2. In a liquid meter such as is referred to in the preceding claim, mounting the
supply and discharge valves at each end of the cylinder upon the opposite ends of a
rocking beam, and connecting the two supply valves respectively together by a rod,
whereby the simultaneous movement of all four valves is effected when one of the
rocking beams is actuated by one of two spring levers, the other spring lever being
depressed by a head on the piston rod at the end of a stroke, so as to relieve the other
beam of its action substantially as described.
3. In combination with the arrangement of valve gear referred to in the preceding
claim, the use for locking the valves in position of two spring locking bolts, the end
of one of which is made by its spring to project beneath the raised end of the one
rocking beam so as to keep it in that position, the bolt being withdrawn by an arm,

page_text: acted upon by the piston at the end of its stroke, when it. is required to reverse.the
position of the valves, substantially as described.
4. The construction of fluid meter combined and operating as herein described with
reference to the drawings.
ABEL & IMRAY.