IMPROVE-. MENTS IN GAS METER INDEXES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Thomas at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th February
- 1866.
I, JAMES THOMAS, of No. 33, Everett Street, Battersea, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-.
MENTS IN GAS METER INDEXES," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to make an index that can be read off with
facility, and so constructed that it will work with but little friction, and will
be prevented from being turned back or reversed either by accident or
design..
The nature and description of my Invention consists in making an index
for a gas meter with a plate perforated with holes and fixed in front of the
frame that contains the machinery or clockwork of the index; these holes are
made in a row, and 'so arranged that the number of feet consumed can be seen
through them and read off in one line, all the other. figures being out of sight
but two cyphers which are marked or placed at the extreme right to make
up the complement, without fractions, of the number of feet consumed. Tho
index is worked by means of three dials, around each of which are enamelled:
or marked ten figures, namely, from 1 to 10 consecutively. The first dial.on.
the right indicates hundreds, the centre dial thousands, and the dial on the
left tens of thousands. Each of these dials shows one figure only through the
hole in the plate fixed over it, and the two cyphers, before named, at the end

page_text: of the line make up the amount of tens and units, without fractions, of the
number of cubic feet consumed.
The machinery or clockwork for working the dials is fitted in a frame, and
consists of a series of wheels fixed on the axles of the dials, and an extra axle
is placed at the extreme right of the frame; these wheels are notched or
cogged, and made to work into each other. One set of wheels having one
notch or cog, and the other set having ten notches or cogs on their several
peripheries. The notches or cogs on the said wheels are made to correspond
and gear into each other respectively, the one notched wheel playing into the
ten-notched wheel of the adjoining dial, so that at every revolution the one-
notched wheel would revolve ten times, while the ten-notched wheel would
revolve only once, making the three several dials to revolve with each other in
the same ratio in the ordinary manner.
In order to prevent the dials from being reversed or turned back, a lever
worked on a spindle, and fitted on the upper part of the frame at the back,
and with a roller attached to one end, is fitted and made to ride over an
eccentric or snail cam fixed on the end of the right handle spindle, and which
the lever stops against on an attempt being made to reverse the action of the
dials, the lever being firmly kept down by a spring fixed at the other end. A
cog wheel is fitted horizontally under the frame and works the machinery or
.clockwork, having a hinged lever fitted over the top, and made to drop
between and stop against the spokes of the horizontal wheel so as to prevent
its being turned back. The cog wheel is worked by an endless screw fitted
on the axle of the drum of the meter, and a vertical shaft acted upon by the
cog wheel works by an endless screw a pinion wheel fixed on the spindle at
the right end of the frame, and sets the machinery in motion, and upon the
top of the said vertical shaft a metal drum divided into parts on its outer
edge revolves with the shaft, and shows by an indicator the number of feet
that passes through the meter in a given time. The whole is enclosed in a
glazed japanned case, and fixed in front of the gas meter.