IMPROVEMENTS IN FLUID METERS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Howe Gould at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th January 1879.
ROBERT HOWE GOULD, of Battersea Park Road, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FLUID METERS."
My Invention relates to meters or apparatus for measuring or ascertaining the
quantity of water or other fluid passing through a conduit, and it has reference to
that portion of such apparatus by means of which the quantity of fluid so passing
is indicated or recorded.
My Invention consists in the utilization of the shock produced in the cylinder of
any piston, diaphragm, or other meter having a reciprocating action to operate upon
the counting mechanism through the intervention of a diverging tube, constructed
so as to partake of the nature of a spring. By this arrangement, I dispense with
stuffing boxes or water tight packing, and also with the immersion of the working
parts, and at the same time provide an efficient and reliable medium for the
communication to the counter of the reciprocations of the meter.
The Invention may be carried out in various ways, but I will describe as an
example a method that will be practically successful.
At either one or both ends of the cylinder of a meter (say for example a water
meter) there is attached a pipe of any desired length, so as to be in direct com-
munication with the water contained, and moving in the meter this pipe terminates
in a flange on which is screwed a tube of steel or other suitable material of a
flattened or elliptic section, which tube is bent round or curved and is closed at
the end, thus leaving no outlet for the water. At the said closed end of the
flattened tube is fixed a jointed link which is in moveable connection with the
short arm of a lever, the long arm of which terminates in a flat spring, by
preference, of a somewhat rigid nature, the spring end of this lever being confined
in its movements by two pins or stops between which it vibrates.
The long arm of the lever is in jointed connection with the usual thrust bar or
pawl of any existing or other suitable counting mechanism, so that when the lever
vibrates between the said stops motion will be imparted to the said mechanism.
The apparatus operates in the following manner :-
When the piston arrives at the end of its cylinder it produces a shock in the
water which is passing through the meter. This shock acts upon the water
contained in the spring tube, whereby the closed end of the latter is caused to
spring or diverge, and thus act through the medium of the link and lever upon the
counting mechanism. Each time therefore the above described shock is produced

page_text: in the cylinder, motion is imparted to the spring tube, and as the shock is produced
at each reciprocation of the apparatus it, follows that the counter will record the
number of such reciprocations, and as the cylinder is of a determined capacity the
quantity of water passing through the meter will consequently be ascertained.
If-desired-a-sliding-or-other valve may be interposed between the cylinder and
_the-spring-tube,-such-valve-being_normally_closed_so_as_to_cut_off_the_communi-
_cation between the cylinder and the tube, but opened periodically at the termination
-of-the-stroke-of-the-piston, diaphragm-or-other-reciprocating-part.-It-is-preferred.
to make the opening uncovered by the valve in the form of a narrow slit, or to
-employ a tumbler valve which will be opened and then closed-instantaneously, or
to use both in combination if required.