Improvements in and connected with Electrolytic Meters.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION!
Improvements in and connected with Electrolytic Meters.
We, ARTHUR WRIGHT, of 26 Park Crescent, Brighton, in the County of Sussex,
Electrical Engineer, and THE MUTUAL ELECTRIC TRUST LIMITED, of 111 Gloucester
Road, Brighton, in the County of Sussex, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion to be as follows:---
Our invention relates to electrolytic meters by means of which the drawbacks
arising from polarization or back electro-motive force are obviated and the construc-
tion of accurate and reliable meters, through which only a fraction of the total current
need be passed, attained.
In an application filed contemporaneously with our present application, we specify
the nature of an invention for attaining the ends above mentioned which is based upon
the employment of a battery or other extraneous source of electro-motive force to
make up for the back electro-motive force of the electrolytic cell. Our present
invention differs therefrom in that instead of employing an extraneous source of electro-
motive force we obtain the electro-motive force necessary to make up for the back
electro-motive force of the electrolytic cell from the supply current to be measured,
that is to say from the current traversing the circuit of the house or other mains.
In one way of carrying our invention into effect we connect up one electrode of
the electrolytic cell with one of the main conductors and the other electrode to a
bridging lead or resistance between the said main conductors at such a point that an
electro-motive force is added in the electrolytic cell circuit which shall counterbalance
or compensate for the back electro-motive force of the said electrolytic cell. And
we may place a resistance in one of the main conductors say between the point at
which the bridging lead and the lead from one electrode join the said main
conductor.
Our invention is applicable not only to electrolytic meters of the ordinary types
but also for example to electrolytic meters of the osmotic type.

page_text: 33444
We, ARTHUR WRIGHT, of 26 Park Crescent, Brighton, in the County of Sussex,
Electrical Engineer, and THE MUTUAL ELECTRIC TRUST LIMITED, of 11! Gloucester
Road, Brighton, in the County of Sussex, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Our invention relates to electrolytic meters by means of which the drawbacks
arising from polarization or back electro-motive force are obviated and the construc-
tion of accurate and reliable meters, through which only a fraction of the total current
need be passed, attained.
St
In the Complete Specification lodged in pursuance of an application filed con-
temporaneously with our present application and numbered 23,315 of the year 1899,
we specify an invention (hereinafter termed our contemporaneous invention) for
attaining the ends above mentioned which is based upon the employment of a battery
or other extraneous source of electro-motive force to make up for the back electro-
motive force of the electrolytic cell. Our present invention differs therefrom in that
instead of employing an extraneous source of electro-motive force we obtain the
electro-motive force necessary to make up for the back electro-motive force of the
electrolytic cell from the supply current to be measured, that is to say from the current
traversing the circuit of the house or other mains.
In order that our invention may be more clearly understood we have appended
hereto a drawing which illustrates how our invention is to be, or may be, carried
into effect. In the said drawing, 1 and 2 are the supply conductors, 3 lamps or other
translators, 4 the shunting resistance and the electrolytic meter cell. In this case
we connect one electrode with one of the main conductors (say 2) by means of the
lead 6 and the other electrode we connect to a bridging lead or resistance 7 extending
between the main conductors 1 and 2 at such a point 8 that an electro-motive force
is added in the electrolytic meter circuit which opposes and counterbalances or com-
pensates for the back electro-motive force of the electrolytic meter cell. By this
ineans, as well as by our said contemporaneous invention, we are enabled to use an
electrolytic meter in a bye-pass or shunt circuit. Prior to our present and our con-
temporaneous invention, this was impossible, as on account of the polarization in the
electrolytic cell of the meter a definite proportion of the current could not always
be shunted, and consequently the whole of the current to be measured had to be
passed through the said electrolytic cell, with a consequent loss of energy.
It is obvious that the shunting resistance 4 might be placed in the lead 1 instead
of the lead 2 as shown in the diagram.
Our invention is obviously applicable not only to electrolytic meters of the more
ordinary types but also, for example, to electrolytic meters of the osmotic type.
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. The improvement connected with electrolytic meters which consists in the
method of overcoming the effects of back electro-motive force substantially as set
forth.
2. The means for overcoming the effects of back electro-motive force in electrolytic
meters substantially as set forth.
3. The combination of a bridging resistance between two conductors, an ohmic

page_text: resistance interposed in one of said conductors and an electrolytic meter, one of whose
electrodes is connected to a point in the bridging resistance between the two con-
ductors and the other electrode to that conductor in which the ohmic resistance is
interposed.
August 1900.
For the Applicants
J. G. LORRAIN, M.I.E.E., M.I. Mech. E.
Norfolk House, Victoria Embankınent, London, W.C.
Chartered Patent Agent.