IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS."-A communication from
abroad by Nathaniel Tufts,junior, of Boston, Augustus Tufts, of Malden,
Middlesex County, and Simon G. Cheever, of Boston, all in the State of
Massachusetts, and United States of America.
Sealed the 20th November 1860, and dated the 18th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th September 1860.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS," to be as follows:-
These improvements in gas meters relate to that class of apparatus for
measuring gas, called dry gas meters, in which the gas passing through
the same is caused to be registered by the operation of two diaphragms
forming chambers having rigid heads and flexible sides like a bellows, the
movements of which diaphragms by their alternate inflation and collapsion
impart by means of suitable gearing a continuous motion to the indicating
apparatus or counter.
Previous to this Invention the moveable diaphragms or bellows have been

page_text: attached to a central partition which divided them in the apparatus, or they
were otherwise permanently fixed to some part of the meter. This mode of
arranging and attaching the diaphragms is open to serious objections, and the
object of the present Invention is to overcome these objections.
The Invention consists in forming the flexible chambers in such a manner
that they can be readily removed from or inserted in the meter at pleasure
without soldering or unsoldering. This result is effected by formingthe bellows
with two heads or annular plates, to which the leather or other flexible material
is secured in any proper manner previous to being inserted in the meter, the rear
plate or head having a female screw formed in it which fits over a corresponding
male screw attached to the pipe or connection through which the gas is
admitted to the bellows, or it may be secured to the said pipe or connection by
any other means that will permit of it, being quickly and readily connected
with or disconnected from the pipe or connection without the necessity of
soldering or unsoldering. By this means it will be seen that by thus forming
the bellows with two full annular plates, each of which is entirely independent
of the meter itself, that the bellows can be entirely finished before being
inserted in the apparatus, and therefore can be fully tested before it is put
into use, and also that this mode of construction allows of the bellows being
secured to the meter or removed therefrom almost instantaneously and without
the necessity of soldering or unsoldering, the distinctive feature between the
improvements and the old method being that in the former case the bellows is
entirely independent of the meter, and in the latter it forms a part thereof
and does not become a bellows until permanently attached thereto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Herreign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others

page_text: as I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 GAS METERS," being a communication from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say): -
These improvements in gas meters relate to that class of apparatus for
measuring gas, called dry gas meters, in which the gas passing through
the same is caused to be registered by the operation of two diaphragms forming
chambers, having rigid heads and flexible sides like a bellows, the movements
of which diaphragms, by their alternate inflation and collapsion, impart by
means of suitable gearing a continuous motion to the indicating apparatusor
counter.
Heretofore, moveable diaphragms or bellows have been attached to a central
partition which divided them in the apparatus, or they were otherwise perma-
nently fixed to some part of the meter. The mode of attaching them was
usually as follows:-The leather or other material of which the flexible sides
were formed was first fastened to two sides of metal, one of which was then
firmly soldered to the central partition before spoken of. The other ring or the
front onewas thenfastened by soldering to ananuularplate which constitutedthe
head of the bellows, which was thus, it will be seen, made to form a part of the
apparatus itself,and could not be removed without unsoldering the rings. This
mode has been found in practice liable to serious objections. In this first place
leaks very commonly occur either in the bellows or in some portion of the
machinery of the apparatus, but in which of these it has occurred it is impos-
sible to ascertain to a certainty without first unsoldering and taking out the
bellows to test it, the inconvenience and expense of which will be apparent;
secondly, the leather of the bellows often contains such small apertures and

page_text: weak places that its imperfections cannot be found out until it has been
secured as aforesaid and commenced to operate in the meter, as it cannot be
tested beforehand and does not constitute a bellows until it has become a part
of the meter itself; thirdly, as the soldering by means of the hot soldering irons
or tools used by the workman both in securing and removing the bellows is
necessarily applied after the leather is secured to the rings and therefore comes
in close proximity thereto, its heat often seriously damages the leather by
scorching and burning the same, forming weak spots which often are not
detected until subjected to the pressure of the gas in the meter.
This mode of arranging and attaching the diaphragms being open to serious
objections, the object of the present Invention is to overcome these objections,
and this is effected by forming the flexible chambers in such a manner that
they can be readily removed from or inserted in the meter at pleasure without
soldering or unsoldering. This result is obtained by forming the bellows with
two heads or annular plates to which the leather or other flexible material is
secured in any proper manner previous to being inserted in the meter, the rear
plate or head having a female screw formed in it which fits over a corresponding
male screw attached to the pipe or connection through which the gas is
admitted to the bellows, or it may be secured to this pipe or connection by any
other means that will permit of it being quickly and readily connected with or
disconnected from the pipe or connection without the necessity of soldering or
unsoldering. By this means it will be understood that by thus forming the
bellows with two full annular plates, each of which is entirely independent of
the meter itself, the bellows can be entirely finished before being adapted to
the apparatus, and therefore it can be fully tested before it is put into use.
This mode of construction also allows of the bellows being secured to the
meter or removed therefrom almost instantaneously, and without the necessity
of soldering or unsoldering. It will therefore be understood that the dis-
tinctive feature between the present improvements and the old method is,that
in the former case the bellows is entirely independent of the meter, and in the
latter it forms a part thereof, and does not become a bellows until permanently
attached thereto.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a plan or top view of a meter con-
structed according to the present Invention; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the
same; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal transverse section.
a, a, a, a, represent the the casing or box of an ordinary dry gas meter; b, b,
is the inlet pipe for the gas; and c, c, the outlet pipe through which the gas
passes as fast as it has been measured. The gas that enters the pipe b, b
passes into a chamber d, d, (represented in Fig. 1 as uncovered). This

page_text: therein
chambercontains two sliding valves e, f,eachtravelling backwards and forwards
over three ports g, h, i, one set of ports communicating with one of the two
compartments into which the meter is divided by a central partition/,,(Fig. 3)
and the other set of ports communicates with the remaining compartment.
Each of the valves e, f, are made to operate in such a manner that the gas
first passes down one of the three ports into the interior of the bellows, and then
this port being closed the gas passes down another port into one of the com-
partments in which the bellows are placed and around the outside of the same,
the object being first to inflate the bellows and then to displace the gas
by applying outside pressure thereto. This is the ordinary well-known method
practised in dry gas meters, and in this apparatus the action and arrangement
of the valves is similar to those in other gas meters, and therefore need not
be particularly described. The bellows is represented in the Drawings at
Fig. 3, and consists of two annular plates or heads m, n, m, n, connected
together by flexible leather o, fastened in any suitable manner to the rims
thereof. In the centre of the rear plate or head is formed a female screw or
bushing that is screwed over a hollow male screw projecting from and com-
municating with a pipe or tube p, p, leading to and communicating with two
of the ports of both of the valves e, f. Thus, for instance, when the port g of
the valve e is open, gas will pass down that port through the tube p, p, and
the central aperture in the back plate n of the bellows, thereby inflating
the same. The port i then opens and allows gas to pass down the same and
around the outside of the bellows, thereby displacing thegas within the bellows
by outside pressure, and permitting the internal gas to pass upwards through
the valve gand thence through the central port h (the valve e being of the
usual hollow box form), and from thence into the outlet pipe. The gas
around the exterior of the bellows, on the latter being inflated again in the
same manner passes upwards through the port i into the central port h, and out
of the outlet pipe c, c, and so for both bellows and valves, the two bellows alter-
nating in their movements so as to keep up a continuous supply of gas. The
movements of the bellows are transmitted to the valves e, f, and to the index
hands in the usual manner by means of two rocker shafts r, r, that actuate
rectangular arms s, s, t, t, in such a manner as to give a rotary motion to a
shaft u, that moves the valves e, f, by means of a crank on the lower end of
the shaft r,, and the arms v, v. On the shaft u is a worm w, engaging with
a pinion on the same shaft with another pinion y, that turns a wheel z,
through which motion is communicated to the train of wheels that actuate the
indicating hands. The above described arrangement of the bellows, and its
connection with the pipe p, p, through which it receives the gas, permits of it

page_text: being readily inserted in or removed from the meter simply by screwing it on
to the male screw of the pipe p, p, or by unscrewing it therefrom, thereby
avoiding the necessity of soldering or unsoldering, and constituting a com-
plete bellows before its adaptation to the meter. By this means the bellows
can be fully tested before being put in operation, and can be easily removed
and replaced in case it needs examination or repair. It will be evident that
the back plate of the bellows can be secured to the pipe p, p, by other means
than those described. For instance, gas pipe couplings may be employed, it
being only necessary for the purposes of the Invention that the connection of
the bellows with its supplying pipe should be of such a nature as to admit of its
easy connection with or disconnection therefrom.
Having thus described this Invention of "Improvements in Gas Meters,'
and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, as com-
municated to me by my foreign correspondent, I claim as the Invention
secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid the mode herein set forth of
constructing and applying the flexible chambers of dry gas meters.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (..s.)