IMPROVEMENTS IN MEASURING LIQUIDS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Young, of the City of Glasgow, Manufacturing
Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEASURING LIQUIDS."
Sealed the 21st May 1858, and dated the 1st December 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Young at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
December 1857.
I, JAMES YOUNG, of the City of Glasgow, Manufacturing Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEASURING LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a liquid measure attached to the vessel containing
the liquid to be measured. The forms may be various, but the form I prefer
for the measure is an egg shape, with an opening at the top into which is
inserted a glass tube graduated into inch divisions. The liquid to be measured
is admitted and runs of at the bottom by means of a three-way cock.
The accompanying Figure shews the measure d connected to a barrel a by
the pipe d. The measure, which may be of any capacity required, must be so
placed that the bottom of the cistern will be above the body of the measure;
h, the glass tube, which must rise as high as the surface of the liquid in the
barrel or cistern; by turning the cock f, so that the way is open from the
barrel to the measure, the liquid will fill the measure and the tube to the
height of the liquid in the barrel, and by turning the cock so that the way is
open from the measure to the outlet pipe 9, the measure will be emptied. It

page_text: is evident that this measure will measure the same quantity when the liquid is
at the same height in the barrel, but the greater or lesser height of the liquid
in the barrel will cause an error in the measure, according to the capacity in
the tube. When the tube is narrow this error in a large measure is small,
and may be corrected by a plug fitting through a stuffing box, and moved
by n screw. Suppose the measure holds a gallon when filled to the mark o in
the tube; when the liquor falls in the barrel ono inch, the quantity measured
will be too small by the quantity of one inch of the capacity of the tube; to
correct this the plug and screw are so arranged that one turn of the screw
taking the plug outwards increases the capacity of the measure by a quantity
equal to an inch of the tube. When the liquid rises one inch above the
mark o, the plug is screwed one turn in and so on, a turn out or in for each
inch above or below the mark o. Another plug of the same sort may be
introduced to correct variations of temperature. The stop-cock can be con-
nected with an index to register the number of times it has been turned.
In the above description 1 have given a convenient form for shewing and
applying the nature of my Invention, but I declare that 1 do not confino
myself to any particular form or method of fitting up or applying the
apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuanco of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filod
by the said James Young in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
26th May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
YOUNG, of the City of Glasgow, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Ier reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Young, Her special licence that I, the said James
Young, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said James Young, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS FOR
MEASURING LIQUIDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the

page_text: said James Young, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Young, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
My Invention consists of a liquid measure attached to the vessel containing
the liquid to be measured. The forms may be various, but the form I prefer
for this measure is an egg shape, with an opening at the top into which is
inserted a glass tube graduated into inch divisions. The liquid to be measured
is admitted and runs off at the bottom by means of a three-way cock.
The accompanying Figure shews the measure d connected to a barrel a by
the pipe b. The measure, which may be of any capacity required, must be so
placed that the bottom of the cistern will be above the body of the measure;
h, the glass tube, which must rise as high as the surface of the liquid in the
barrel or cistern; by turning the cock f, so that the way is open from the
barrel to the measure, the liquid will fill the measure and the tube to the
height of the liquid in the barrel, and by turning the cock so that the way is
open from the measure to the outlet pipe 9, the measure will be emptied. It
is evident that this measure will measure the same quantity when the liquid
is at the same height in the barrel, but the greater or lesser height of the
liquid in the barrel will cause an error in the measure according to the
capacity of the tube. When the tube is narrow this error on a large measure
corrected by a plug e fitting through a stuffing box, and
moved by a screw. Suppose the measure holds a gallon when filled to the
mark o in the tube; when the liquor falls in the barrel one inch, the quantity
measured will be too small by the quantity of one inch of the capacity of the
tube; to correct this the plug and screw are so arranged that one turn of the
screw taking the plug outwards increases the capacity of the measure by a
quantity equal to an inch of the tube. When the liquid rises one inch above
the mark o, the plug is screwed one turn in and so on, a turn out or in for
each inch above or below the mark o. Another plug of the same sort may bo
introduced to correct variations of temperature. The stop-cock can be con-
nected with an index to register the number of times it has been turned.
is small, and may be
In the above description I have given a convenient form for shewing and

page_text: applying the nature of my Invention, but I declare that I do not confine
myself to any particular form or method of fitting up or applying the
apparatus.
Having now described my Invention of improvements in measuring liquids,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be distinctly
understood in conclusion that I am aware that it has been proposed in the
measuring of fluids to use a hollow cylindrical plug of rather a large diameter
and a measuring chamber having a valve placed for the inlet and egress of air,
closed by a float when the vessel is full of liquor. I do not claim as of my
Invention the use of a three-way cock, or the exclusive use of any of the
parts of which such apparatus may be composed when taken separately;
neither do I intend to confine myself to any of the dimensions or peculiar
forms of such apparatus as are shown in the Drawing annexed, as I havo
therein represented such views of an apparatus constructed in the manner
above proposed as aro best calculated to carry my Invention into effect; but
I claim the adaptation of the measuring chamber having air and compensation
adjustments to the three-way cock for measuring liquids for the purposes and
in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Young, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our
Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
JAMES YOUNG. (L.8.)