IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING FLUIDS AND SUPPLYING OR FILLING BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS THEREWITH
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Connolly at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st April
1871.—A communication from abroad by Charles Alexander Gregory,
of Quebec, in the Province of Quebec, and Dominion of Canada,
Gentleman.
I, JAMES CONNOLLY, of Quebec, in the Province of Quebec, and
Dominion of Canada, but at present residing at the Tavistock Hotel,
Covent Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR MEASURING FLUIDS AND SUPPLYING OR FILLING BOTTLES AND OTHER VESSELS
THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the construction of apparatus for
measuring fluids and supplying or filling bottles and other vessels
therewith; such apparatus being designed to lessen the labor and
trouble of measuring and supplying fluids to bottles and other vessels
as heretofore usually done, and to avoid loss by spilling and overflowing.
One arrangement of the improved apparatus is constructed as follows:
---A tank or vessel for containing the fluid with which the bottles are
to be filled is placed upon a suitable framework, the said tank being

page_text: .
supplied with fluid either through an opening provided with a suitable
funnel, or by means of a continuous supply pipe leading from any barrel
or vessel and provided with a valve and float arrangement for regulating.
the supply of fluid to the said tank. The bottom of the tank is formed
with an opening, to which is attached a pipe provided with a valve, i
whose rod (herein-after called "the tank valve rod") passes up through
the top of the tank and is connected to a hand lever situated above the
top of the tank, as herein-after explained, and the seat of the valve is
connected to the pipe by means of a union joint, a communication being
established with a cylinder in whose lower end a valve (which for the 1
sake of clearness I will call "the cylinder valve") is placed, which is
attached to a rod (called "the cylinder valve rod") extending upward
through the cover of the cylinder and attached to the aforesaid hand
lever. The cylinder is provided with a piston having a hollow piston
rod, through which the cylinder valve rod is allowed to slide freely up 1
and down. The cylinder cover is provided with a neck extending
upwards and fitted with a set screw for securing the hollow piston
rod and piston in any desired. position, and to the top of the hollow
piston rod is screwed a cap provided with packing to form an air-tight
joint around the upper part of the cylinder valve rod. To the cap is 2
attached a pointer arranged to indicate on a suitably placed scale the
area for fluid below the piston, or the scale may be engraved on the
hollow piston rod. The cylinder valve rod consists in its lower part
of a solid round rod, and in its upper part of a tube. At the point of
junction the solid rod is made of any suitable configuration to allow 2
of the passage of air from the tubular upper part to the small space
existing between the lower or solid part and the hollow piston rod, so
that as the fluid contained in the cylinder flows out when the cylinder
valve is lifted for that purpose the air flows in through this opening.
On the top of the tank is placed a bracket having two arms which form 3
guides for the cylinder valve rod and the tank valve rod, which are
jointed to the hand lever just above these guides, suitable springs being
provided so that in the normal or usual position of the parts the
cylinder valve is closed and the tank valve is open. The bottom of
the cylinder extends downwards and is provided with a "yoke" having a
guide bars on which a funnel guide slides freely up and down, and
within the extension of the cylinder a pipe is attached for entering into
the bottles or other vessels to be filled, space being left for the escape of
air from the vessel to be filled.

page_text: filling bottles and other vessels with fluids inclined to froth or foam, tho
terminals of the lower ends of the cylinders are specially formed to
direct the fluid to the side of the vessel.
In describing the lower part of the framework of the apparatus
herein-before described I will explain the construction thereof as adapted 5
for filling six bottles or other vessels simultaneously. This framework
has two side pieces formed with suitable slots, in which work the ends of
an adjustable bar provided with set screws and nuts for securing it at
any required height. To this adjustable bar are attached two arms or
brackets, with the outer ends formed in the shape of eyes to receive a 1
shaft, which shaft is provided with (and rotated by) a handle at ono
end, and in suitable positions with arms acting on the bottom of a table
arranged to slide up and down between the side picces or uprights of the
framework by means of a groove and corresponding guides attached to
the table. Upon the upper side of this table are placed springs for the 1
purpose of holding the vessels to be filled in their proper positions
laterally, while to the side picces or uprights are attached two doublo
eyes, to which the ends of two rods are connected by pivots on which
said rods can freely rotate. On these rods sliding sockets are placed
arranged to receive the ends of a cross bar (herein-after called "the 2
pusher bar"), secured in any desired position by set screws, and attached
to or formed with this pusher bar are six plates; on the ends of the rods
upon which the sliding sockets work are placed spiral springs acting on
the sliding sockets at one end, while their other ends press against nuts
or collars screwed on the ends of the rods. The pusher bar with its 2
various parts is for the purpose of pushing the vessels to be filled (after
they have been placed in front of each of the plates) into their proper
positions under the terminals of the cylinders of the apparatus.
Another modification for placing the bottles consists of an ordinary
bottle rack made for any number of bottles, and divided by strips 3
extending the entiro depth of the box or rack, while those in the other
direction are only about half the depth, the bottom being formed in
separate parts placed between cach of the divisions. This box slides on
suitable rails attached to the frame. A somewhat similar arrangement
to that already described with reference to the preceding contrivance is 3
also provided, by means of which each bottom may be separately lifted
to the height of the bottom of the division, so that the necks of the
bottles placed in it receive the terminal pipes of the cylinders of the

page_text: apparatus, catches being provided so that the bottles are held in that
position while being filled. After the bottles have been filled and
lowered the next row of bottles is brought to the required position by
sliding the rack on its rails. When these are not used the apparatus is
provided with suitable trays on which the bottles filled are pushed by
those about to be filled by a pusher bar already described. This tray
rests on the back side of the adjustable bar, and is carried by a suitable
support towards its other extremity. The tray may also be provided
with a suitable sliding bar to prevent the bottles after being filled from
falling over.
In some cases instead of combining a cylinder with the tank, as
described in respect of previous arrangements, I employ in connection
with the tank a measuring dipper or dippers provided with a tube or
tubes for conveying its or their contents into the bottles or other vessels
to be filled.