A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRIC INDICATOR APPLICABLE TO GAS COCKS
Year: 1885

page_text: Gas CooKB.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON Fel. Inst. P.A. of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County of Lancaster and
323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer do hereby declare
the nature of the said invention for A NEW OR IMPROVED ELECTRIC INDICATOR
APPLICABLE TO GAS COCKS (a communication from abroad by Léon Lenaerts and
Henri L'Ollivier both of Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium, Inventors) to be as
follows
The principal objection to turning off the gas at the meter when not in use, is
that if at the moment of turning it off one or more of the gas burners, are left
open on turning on the gas again there are several escapes of gas which may prove
dangerous. This inconvenience exists whether the meter be regulated directly by
the hand, or from a distance.
The present invention is designed to obviate these evils. It consists of a double
electrical contact actuating a bell if at the moment of turning off the meter, a gas
burner has been left open, the omission is consequently immediately noticed and
the particular burner easily discovered.
The key of the gas cock is furnished with a contact spring, which when the cock
is open, abuts against a binding screw on the gas pipe. The negative pole of the
bell is connected by the pipe with the cock and spring. The positive pole is
connected with the binding screw by an insulated wire. The binding screw is of
course insulated from the gas pipe by a piece of ebonite or the like. Nevertheless
the circuit is not closed by this arrangement alone establishing contact between the
spring and binding screw; a second interruption existing also in the meter itself,
and the bell is silent as long as the meter is open. If, on the contrary, the meter
be turned off, the closing of the circuit is effected at the same time by another
DO71

page_text: contact analogous to that above described, or by any other equivalent arrangement,
and the bell acts till the circuit is broken by closing the gas cock which was
left open,
For a chandelier, a branched candelabra or any other apparatus with several gas
cocks, the principal cock controlling the others, only need be connected with the
signal An indicator table might be attached if desired, so as to show exactly which
cock was at fault. In buildings fitted with electric bells, the system could be
combined with the existing arrangements.
When the meter tap is regulated from a distance the arrangement is essentially
the same.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The described arrangement which works when the meter is turned off if one
or more gas taps remain open; and which consists in establishing an electric
circuit, which on the one part traverses the cock of each burner as long as this
cock is not completely closed, and which on the other part can only be closed from
the meter when this is totally turned off.
2. The combination of a gas burner whose tap forms part of an electric circuit,
which, closed as long as the burner is open, is interrupted as soon as the burner is
closed; with a meter whose tap forms part of the same circuit, but which is so
arranged that this circuit, open when the meter is open, is closed on turning off the
meter.
3. In combination with a gas burner and a meter intercalated in the same electric
circuit, which is only completely closed when on the one part the gas cock is open
and on the other part when the meter is turned off - A bell which acts when the
circuit is closed.