Improvements in Electricity Meters.
Year: 1888

page_text: Jate of Application, 15th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 16th Sept., 1889-Accepted, 15th Nov., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION..
Improvements in Electricity Meters.
We LAURENCE, PARIS and SooTT Limited of Gothic Works, Norwich in the County
of Norfolk Electrical Engineers and WILLIAM HARDING SCOTT of Gothic Works
aforesaid Electrical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention to be
as follows:
The object of this Invention is to provide an electricity meter of simple construction
and efficient action by which the consumption of electricity at any particular place
during any particular period is readily ascertained.
According to our Invention we provide a time keeper which at stated intervals
completes an electric circuit which causes the operation of a recorder to an extent in
accordance with the quantity of current being used at that particular time. The
current which passes through the circuit thus completed also causes the circuit
completing device to break the circuit to again complete it at the end of the next
succeeding interval of time and so on.
The time keeping portion of the meter may be analogous to an ordinary clock but
we prefer to employ a device in which tilting or backward and forward movements
are obtained in one direction to complete the circuit and in the other direction to
break the circuit by the movement of a liquid or other weight or moving part
enclosed in a chamber or container which may take the form of two bulbs one at
each end of an oscillating tube or otherwise so arranged that normally the liquid
weight or moving part causes the circuit to be completed through a circuit or shunt
which passes around or in such proximity to the container that the air therein by
expanding forces the liquid weight or moving part into a position which causes the
circuit to be broken and then when the air returns to its normal volume the liquid
weight or moving part returns to its position to again complete the circuit. The said
circuit also energises a magnet or creates a magnetic field for an armature or coil the
movement displacement or torsion of which is to a degree in accordance with the
quantity of current passing in the circuit and consequently in the supply main in
connection with which it is and the movement thus obtained is caused to operate to a
corresponding extent upon a counter or recording train of wheels or like indicator a
pawl attached to the arinature or magnet and operating upon a ratchet wheel will be
a convenient arrangement for operating the recording wheels and in order to keep
this ratchet wheel from being moved forward by the vibration of the armature or
magnet before it comes to rest a brake acts on the said ratchet wheel when the afore-
said circuit is broken and is moved off when the circuit is completed.
Dated this 15th day of November 1888.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electricity Meters.
We, LAURENCE PARIS and SCOTT Limited of Gothic Works, Norwich in the County
of Norfolk, Electrical Engineers and WILLIAM HARDING SCOTT of Gothic Works
aforesaid, Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:—
The object of this Invention is to provide an electricity meter of simple construction
and efficient action by which the consumption of electricity at any particular place
during any particular period is readily ascertained.

page_text: According to our invention we provide a time keeper which at stated intervals
completes an electric circuit which causes the operation of a recorder to an extent in
accordance with the quantity of current being used at that particular time. The
current which passes through the circuit thus completed also causes the circuit
completing device to break the circuit to again complete it at the end of the next
succeeding interval of time and so on.
The time keeping portion of the meter may be analogous to an ordinary clock but
we prefer to employ a device in which tilting or backward and forward movements
are obtained in one direction to complete the circuit and in the other direction to
break the circuit by the movement of a liquid or other weight or moving part euclosed
in a chamber or container which may take the form of two bulbs one at each end of
an oscillating tube or otherwise so arranged that normally the liquid weight or moving
part causes the circuit to bo completed through a circuit or shunt which passes around
or in such proximity to the container that the air therein by expanding forces the
liquid weight or moving part into a position which causes the circuit to be broken
and then when the air returns to its normal volume the liquid weight or moving part
returns to its position to again complete the circuit. The said circuit also energises a
magnet or creates a magnetic field for an armature or coil the movement displacement
or torsion of which is to a degree in accordance with the quantity of current passing
in the circuit and consequently in the supply main in connection with which it is and
the movement thus obtained is caused to operate to a corresponding extent upon a
counter or recording train of wheels or like indicator a pawl attached to the armature
or magnet and operating upon a ratchet wheel will be a convenient arrangement for
operating the recording wheels and in order to keep this ratchet wheel from being
moved forward by the vibration of the armature or magnet before it comes to rest a
brake acts on the said ratchet wheel when the aforesaid circuit is broken and is moved
off when the circuit is completed.
We will now describe means whereby our invention may be practically carried into
effect but we do not limit ourselves to the precise details shown.
Time keeping apparatus suitable for this invention is illustrated in Figures 1, 2,
and 2ª the object of which apparatus being to make and break at certain fixed periods
a high resistance shunt circuit the wire of which is wound on the magnet coils shewn
in Figure 3. This time keeping apparatus is worked by the same current as that
which flows in the magnet coils which current is small and constant with constant
electro motive force and therefore its heating effect is constant with constant electro
motive force. This heating effect is used to cause expansion in certain bodies and
this expansion is caused when it reaches a certain point to break the circuit and the
subsequent contraction when it reaches a certain definite point is caused to complete
the circuit and as the heat produced will be constant providing there is constant
electro motive force the time of heating and cooling to a certain definite number of
degrees will in the subsequent arrangements be constant.
In Figure 1 is shown an arrangement consisting of two bulbs a¹ and a² on a
stem ce which is pivotted at b, these bulbs and the stem may be of glass. The two
bulbs and the stem contain some liquid such for instance as mercury or spirit. The
stem ee is a tube which forms a communication between the two bulbs and we prefer
that the passage through this tube should be small. The bulb a' is wound with fine
wire of high resistance one end of which wire is connected to the platinum wire d
which dips into the mercury cup e into which also permanently dips the wire c²
leading to the binding screw e the other end of the fine wire winding goes by a
flexible connection d to the binding screw f. When a current flows through the fine
wire on the bulb a' the air in the upper part of the said bulb is expanded and this
causes the liquid to be driven into the other bulb a' thus upsetting the balance by
making the bulb a heavier than the bulb a' and as the arrangement is suspended on
the pivot b above its centre of gravity as soon as the end on which is the bulb a
..becomes a certain amount heavier than the other end the said bulb a drops and the
bulb arises and the circuit is broken by the wire d leaving the mercury cup e. The
bulb a' now begins to cool and the air therein to contract and the liquid returns into

page_text: it from the bulb a' until the end on which is the bulb a' becomes a certain amount
heavier than the end on which is the bulb a when the bulb a' falls and the bulb a
rises and the circuit is made by the wire d entering the mercury cup e.
Outside temperature affects the two bulbs alike so that that does not alter the time
during which the circuit is broken and male.
In Figure 2 we have shewn another arrangement for effecting the same object.
The rod is made to expand by the heat produced by the current in the coil on it,
this is shewn diagramatically in the figure it is a fine wire coil of high resistance.
The expansion and contraction of this bar g is made to operate the levers l' and h²
Figures 2 and 2".
In order that outside temperature may not affect the apparatus the brass or other
end pieces and are held together by rods not shewn of exactly the same metal
asg that of which the rod g is made thoy preferably being cut off the same piece so
that any heating or cooling that can affect the whole apparatus does not move the
levers and 2 m is a flat spring for keeping the lovers up to their work.
The rod 9 we prefer to make of brass tubing.
In Figure 2 is shewn the rocking switch which is operated by the end 1 of the
lever the lever being shewn in dotted lines.
Near the end of the said lever is a fork (n) which operates the tumbling bar o,
on which is a fork p which as the bar o falls over (when its centre of gravity is
transferred to the other side of the centre where it is pivotted) carries with it the
rod on which is the bent wire which dips into the mercury cup s, the make and
break is thus effected very rapidly though the movement of the end of the lever h³ is
very slow.
•
Figure 3 is partly a section and partly an elevation of the measuring and recording
arrangement in which the current to be measured is periodically made potent by the
action of the high resistance shunt current which is that which also operates and is
made and broken by the timing arrangements herein before described.
this
TT are the cores of an electro magnet wound with the herein before named fine
shunt coils. The said cores have pole pieces tt which are extended as shown by the
henvy dotted lines in the plan Figure 4. W is the armature which is a thick disc
of iron kept off the pole pieces by pieces of brass or other non magnetic metal v vrv
at the corners of the pole pieces. These brass pieces maintain the space between
the armature and pole pieces in which the copper strip conductor w can move ;
conductor is pivotted (as shown) on the spindle w³ and its two ends are turned down
into the semicircular mercury troughs. These ends of the conductor where they
dip into the mercury may be shod with iron nickel or other metal which is not
dissolved by mercury. These mercury cups are fastened together but are insulated
at yy and form a band round the pole pieces being insulated from them by a band of
insulating material Z Figure 3. The terminals 1, 1 are cast on the mercury
troughs ¹³.
On the same spindle as the conductor w is a metal bridge piece or strip 2 it being
fastened to but insulated from the conducting strip w by the insulating pieces 3, 3.
On this metal strip are pivotted the vertically placed pawls or pallets 4,4 which
engage in the milled rim of the large light wheel 5 when the electro magnet is not
excited but when it is excited by the shunt current the lower ends of the pawls 4, 4
are attracted to the armature and the upper ends are consequently disengaged from
the wheel 5.
The current to be measured flows in the conductor wo, this it is evident may be
carried round the armature over the bridge piece 2 so as to increase the torque and
enable the apparatus to measure very small currents, though we find that for
moderately small currents the single strip gives sufficient torque.
The large light wheel 5 is geared on to the indicating train of wheels.
When the electro magnet TT is excited the conductor w and its attachments are
given a tendency to move round the pivot this tendency is resisted by the spring 6.
The torque given to the conductor is proportional to the current flowing and the
....

page_text: tension of the spring 6 increases in proportion to the amount it is turned, conse-
quently the conductor w with the metal bridge piece 2 and the pawls 4, 4 are (when
the shunt current is completed) turned round an amount in proportion to the current
flowing in w. But when the inagnets T are excited the pawls or pallets on 4, 4 are
off the wheel 5 and consequently that is not then moved. It is moved however when
the shunt current is broken for then the pawls 4, 4 engage at once with the wheel 5
and it is moved round as the conductor and attachments are pulled back by the
spring 6 to the normal position.
The mercury in the troughs ¹² besides conducting the current acts as a dash pot
to stop the swinging of the moving parts. The mercury may be covered by any non-
evaporating liquid such as a hydrocarbon oil glycerine or the like to protect it and to
increase the dash pot effect.
The wheel 5 may be a ratchet wheel with fine teeth and instead of the vertically
placed pawls 4, 4 an upright pillar may spring from one or both ends of the bridge
piece 2 the said pillar or pillars having on its or their tops small pawls which will
gear into the ratchet teeth on the wheel 5. In order to prevent the wheel 5 from
being pulled backwards by the friction of the pawls it is locked by the brake
pieces 7, 7 which lift the wheel 5 very slightly and clutch it between themselves and
projections on the plate above. These brake pieces are on a fork which is pivotted at
8, 8 Figure 4 at the other side of which is an armature which when the high resistance
shunt circuit is completed is attracted by the small electro magnet 10 the coils of
this electro magnet being placed in the shunt circuit in series with the coils on
the electro magnet TT and the timing arrangement, so that when the circuit is
completed the brake pieces 7, 7 are lifted up and the ratchet wheel 5 is clutched.
The conductor then swings round according to the current flowing in it, on the
breaking of the shiunt cirenit the brake pieces 7, 7 fall out of gear at once and the
large wheel 5 is carried round by the pawl or pawls 4, 4 on the bridge piece 2
and conductor w until the bridge piece and conductor attain their normal position
which is the position of no tension in the spring 6.
Both with the ratchet wheel and pawls and the milled wheel and vertically placed
pawl and pallets 4, 4 the apparatus can be made to record its indication either when
the shunt current is made or when it is broken by altering the position of the pivots 8, 8
of the break arrangement and the set of the ratchet teeth and pawls on 5 in the ratchet,
wheel arrangement and by altering the position of the pivots of the pallets 4, 4 so
that the magnetism pulled the pallets on to the wheel 5 instead of off in the other
arrangement.
The brake arrangement may be used with advantage in the arrangement of vertical
pawls or pallets shown in Figure 3 io make the action of the apparatus more certain.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. In or for electricity meters a timing arrangement in which expansion and
contraction are made to periodically make and break contact in a high resistance
shunt circuit in which the current is small substantially as herein before described.
2. In or for electricity meters a timing arrangement constructed or arranged
substantially as herein before described and shewn in Figure 1 of the accompanying
drawings.
3. In or for electricity meters a timing arrangement constructed or arranged
substantially as herein before described and shown in Figures 2 and 2 of the
accompanying drawings.
4. An electricity meter in which the current to be measured is periodically made
potent to indicate itself and move a counter by the action and reaction of a
periodically made and broken shunt current flowing in a circuit of high resistance
substantially as hereinbefore described and either with or without the brake
arrangement.

page_text: 5. The combination of a timing arrangement actuated by contraction and expansion
due to the heating effect of the current with an electro magnetic indicating and
integrating arrangement substantially as herein before described.
6. An electricity meter consisting of the combination of the arrangement Figure 1
5 or of the arrangement Figures 2 and 2 with the arrangement Figures 3 and 4
substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 16th day of September 1889.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
Agents.