IMPROVE- MENTS IN LIQUID METERS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kinsey, of Leith, in the County of Mid
Lothian, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LIQUID METERS."
Sealed the 10th June 1873, and dated the 17th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kinsey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th December 1872.
I, JOHN KINSEY, of Leith, in the County of Mid Lothian, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LIQUID METERS," to be as follows, that is to say:
-
This Invention has for its object to obtain a simple and inexpensive,
but at the same time accurate and reliable meter for liquids.
The apparatus as made with the improvements is designed for
attachment outside of or beyond any supply tap or cock, that is, so that
the water or other liquid passes through it after passing the tap or cock,
by which means the difficulties caused by pressure are avoided.
The apparatus comprises a discharge passage in continuation of that of
the tap or cock, and a chainber containing measuring apparatus. There is

page_text: a small inlet through which a certain small proportion of the water
discharged enters the top of the chamber, dropping thence into a dish or
pan which is set on a horizontal axis, and is divided by a middle
partition into two compartments. When the water fills either of the
compartments up to a certain level, it causes the dish to overbalance
and empty that compartment, and this action turns up the other
compartment into the position for being filled. The movement of the
overbalancing or tilting dish is communicated by a small lever and pawl
to as large a ratchet wheel as can be conveniently got into a casing formed
in front of the chamber, and a pinion fast to this ratchet wheel acts on
a toothed wheel carrying an index pointer or having figures marked on
it to indicate gallons or other measures. The water falling from the
overbalancing dish passes out through a small aperture in the bottom of
the chamber into the lower part of the discharge passage or into a
cistern. To insure that a certain proportion of the water discharged:
shall under all circumstances find its way into the chamber, two
arrangements are proposed; in one a nozzle from the supply tap or cock
dips down into a cylindrical cavity, and a series of outlet holes are made in
the sides of this cavity above the end of the nozzle, so that the water has
to rise up to them to pass out. One of these outlet holes is made to
communicate with the chamber, and the others with the discharge
passage.
In another arrangement a disc is fixed across the discharge passage
from the tap or cock, and a series of, by preference, equal holes are
made in it, one of them being made to communicate with the chamber
by a small tube, whilst the others lead into the main discharge passage.
In all cases the discharge passage is made so much larger than the
bore of the supply pipe that it never becomes filled with water.
In applying the improved apparatus to the supply cock of a cistern,
such cock being closed by a lever and float, a weight is arranged in a
connection with the lever in a position nearly over its fulcrum, so that
on the float reaching nearly to its highest position, the weight acts in
such a way as to assist its closing and thereby make the closing take
place. quickly instead of in the ordinary gradual manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Kinsey in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KINSEY, of Leith, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Kinsey, Her
special licence, that I, the said John Kinsey, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Kinsey, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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 IN LIQUID METERS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Kinsey, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly 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 John Kinsey, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to obtain a simple and inexpensive
but at the same time nocumoto and solishla

page_text: the water or other liquid passes through it after passing the tap or cock,
by which means the difficulties caused by pressure are avoided.
The apparatus comprises a discharge passage in continuation of that
of the tap or cock, and a chamber containing measuring apparatus; and
there is a small inlet through which a certain small proportion of the
water discharged enters the measuring chamber.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing a
liquid meter as made according to my Invention. In these Drawings -
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a plan of the meter as partly sectioned horizontally at two
different levels; Figure 2 is a front elevation (but with the counting and
indicating details incomplete); whilst Figures 3 and 4 are vertical
sections at right angles to each other. The inlet into the meter from
any tap, stop-cock, or supply pipe is by a vertical pipe 1 dipping down
inside of a larger pipe 2 having closed top and bottom, the liquid
entering the latter pipe from the bottom of the inlet pipe. The larger
pipe 2 communicates with an annular chamber 3 formed in the casting
constituting the casing of the meter, by a number of vertical slits 4
distributed equally round and formed at a higher part than the inlet into
the pipe 2, and the chamber 3 communicates with a nozzle 5 by which
the liquid is discharged from the meter. This discharge nozzle 5 is
made so much larger than the inlet pipe 1 that it never becomes filled
with the liquid. The liquid after entering by the inlet pipe 1 rises up
the larger pipe 2 and overflows through the slits 4, and as each slit is
very narrow being, for example, in the case of a meter of the size shown
in the Drawing, about 3 inch wide, every slit must pass the same
quantity, the liquid rising higher in the pipe 2 the greater the flow is by
the inlet 1. The liquid passing through one or more of the slits 4 does
not at once pass by the chamber 3 to the discharge nozzle 5, but is led
by a tube or passage 6 into a measuring chamber 7, in which chamber
there is arranged a tilting vessel or dish 8, formed with two compart-
ments 9, 10, and set on a horizontal spindle 11. With the vessel 8 in
the position in which it is delineated in full lines in Figure 3, the liquid
passing down the tube 6 drops into the compartment 9, and on this
compartment becoming filled up to a certain level the vessel overbalances

page_text: and empties the liquid in it, at the same time bringing up the other
compartment 10 into a position to receive the liquid from the tube 6.
When the compartment 10 is full enough the vessel 8 tilts back again
into the position in which it is delineated. The spindle 11 of the tilting
vessel 8 is continued into a chamber 12, containing counting and
indicating mechanism of any convenient kind, a small lever 13 on the
end of the spindle, actuating a ratchet wheel 14, by means of a pawl and
moving the counting train to a certain extent at every alternate tilting of
the vessel 8.
The indicating mechanism is arranged and marked as showing the
whole quantity of liquid entering by the inlet pipe 1, which quantity is
of course always a definite multiple of what is actually measured by the
tilting vessel 8. The liquid entering the measuring chamber 7 passes
off after being emptied from the tilting vessel 8 by an opening 15
leading into the discharge nozzle 5.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself
to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The arranging or combining together of the parts of liquid
meters, substantially in the improved manner herein described and
delineated.
2. The combination of the overflow slits (4) leading some to the
general discharge chamber (3) and one or more to the measuring
chamber (7), substantially as and for the purposes herein-before