IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GAUGING AND FOR INDICATING THE SPECIFIC GRAVITIES OF THE CONTENTS OF CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Cambell Stevenson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th November 1883.
JAMES CAMBELL STEVENSON of 11 Alice Street in the City of Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GAUGING
AND FOR INDICATING THE SPECIFIC GRAVITIES OF THE CONTENTS OF CASKS AND
OTHER VESSELS
"
This invention relates to an apparatus for gauging and for indicating the specific
gravities of the contents of casks or other vessels by the use of floats acting in
combination with hands or pointers moving over a dial or scale.
According to one arrangement for gauging and for indicating the specific gravity
of spirits (such as brandy) contained in a cask standing vertical on one end, a dial
plate is fixed near to the upper end of the cask; the centre of the said dial is
provided with a hollow spindle, of sufficient length to pass through one of the
staves and protrude sufficiently into the cask to allow the floats to work therein.
Through this centre tube a hollow spindle is placed; at one end of said spindle
a suitably formed hand or pointer is provided, (similar to the hour hand of a clock)
at or near the other end of said hollow spindle a pulley is provided round which a
flexible cord of suitable material is passed and secured. At the other extremity
of the cord a float is attached which I call a quantity float; this float rests on the
surface of the spirit and has a cylindrical hole formed in the centre for the gravity
float to work through. Through the above named, or, as I have called it, the hour
hand spindle another smaller spindle works, at one end of which a hand or pointer
is fixed, which might be called the minute hand or gravity hand; at or near the
other extremity of said spindle another and similar pulley is fixed, round which
another flexible cord is wound. The other end of the said cord carries a smaller
float but of greater length; this I call a gravity float, it is constructed and
arranged to work through the before-mentioned float or quantity float.
The shape of the two pulleys on the hand spindles is regulated by the shape of
the cask or barrel, and is such that, in a bulged barrel or cask, the hands will
indicate correctly whether the surface of the liquid be near the centre or the end
of the cask. When the sides of a cask are parallel with each other the pulleys
will be cylindrical. Or the dial plate may be so divided that the said pulleys may
be cylindrical whatever bulge the cask may have.

page_text: Thus it will be seen that when a cask is charged, say with, proof spirit, or spirit
of any determined strength for which the apparatus is adjusted and allowed to
remain at that specific gravity the two hands or pointers will travel together, and
move simultaneously around the dial plate as the liquid is drawn off. Should the
spirit be adulterated with water or any heavier liquid than the spirit, the gravity
float will slightly rise, thereby causing the minute hand to move with relation to
the other thus shewing the spirit has been reduced in strength.
which
The dial plate and hands or pointers may be enclosed in a case
may be
under lock and key,
Suitable means are provided for keeping the flexible cords tight or in tension,
and to prevent the hands from slipping; these latter may be also balanced.
The hour or quantity hand may be formed with an extended arm in the same
plane as the dial plate. This arm may be divided so as to form a moving dial for
the gravity band to show the number of degrees over or under proof strength.
It is obvious that apparatus of the kind above referred to may be constructed
in modified forms adapted for use with different fluids and under various conditions
without departing from the essential features of my invention.