IM- PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF WATER IN PIPES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Frederick Deacon, of Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF WATER IN PIPES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Frederick
Deacon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th March 1873.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK DEACON, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF
WATER IN PIPES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to provide a simple means of measuring
the flow of water in mains or branch mains used for the supply of water,
more particularly for the purpose of ascertaining when the consumption
owing to waste or otherwise increases unduly. To effect this object, the
varying velocity of the water within the main is caused to act upon a
disc, ball, or other object, partly filling such main, and supported in the

page_text: waterway thereof by a lever, arm, or other instrument, which by being
connected with a weight or spring has a tendency to maintain a certain
position for every particular velocity of flow. By this means the
velocity of the water and indirectly the quantity of water passing
through the main at any given time, will, if the apparatus has been
previously adjusted be indicated by the inclination of the arm, and this
may be made visible in any desired manner on a suitable scale.
In order also to be enabled to ascertain the velocity at all times and
without constant inspection the arm or moving part in question or some
other part connected therewith may be caused to draw a diagram on a
cylinder, disc, plane, or other surface moved by clockwork, in any of the
various and well-known means in use for obtaining diagrams of the
motion of a point.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Frederick Deacon in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th September 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GEORGE
FREDERICK DEACON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said George Frederick Deacon, Her special license
that I, the said George Frederick Deacon, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Frederick Deacon, 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,
excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MEASURING THE FLOW OF WATER IN PIPES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Frederick
Deacon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing

page_text: under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Georgo Frederick Deacon, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is to provide a simple means of measuring
the flow of water in mains, branch mains, or pipes used for the supply
of water, more particularly for the purpose of ascertaining when the
consumption owing to waste or otherwise increases unduly. To effect
this object the varying velocity of the water within the main is caused
to act upon a disc, ball, or other object, partly filling such main, and
supported in the waterway thereof by a lover arm or other instrument,
which by being connected with a weight or spring has a tendency to
maintain a certain position for every particular velocity of flow. By
this means the velocity of the water, and indirectly the quantity of
water passing through the main at any given time, will, if the apparatus
has been previously adjusted be indicated by the inclination of the arm
(or position of other moving parts), and this may be made visible in any
desired manner on a suitable scale.
In order also to be enabled to ascertain the velocity at all times and
without constant inspection, the arm or moving part in question or some
other part connected therewith may be caused to draw a diagram on a
cylinder, disc, plane, or other surface moved by clockwork in any of the
various and well-known means in use for obtaining diagrams of the
motion of a point.
One of the arrangements by which I have carried out the Invention is
shown on Sheet 1, in sectional side elevation at A, in sectional end
elevation at B, in sectional plan at C, and in elevation on a smaller
scale at D. The apparatus may be placed either in the direct line of
water main or rather to one side thereof, in order to avoid the heavy
traffic. The same letters distinguish the same parts in each plan.
(a) is the inlet from the main; (6) is a perforated diaphragm through
which the water flows uniformly to the ball (c), which is rather smaller

page_text: than the internal diameter of the pipe. This ball is suspended by a
wire (d) passing through a stuffing box (e), and connected by means of
the chain (f) with the segmental head of the lever g working on
knife edges at (h). The weight (j) exactly balances the lever, chain,
wire, and ball when the latter is immersed in still water, so that unless
another weight were added equilibrium would be lost immediately the
water began to flow against the ball. When the ball is in the position (C¹)
at the top of its stroke, the weight (k) hangs vertically by a rigid arm
from the lever, but immediately the water begins to flow the ball being
thereby pressed down causes that weight to be thrown out of the
perpendicular, and it comes to rest only when the moment of the
downward pressure on the ball is equal to that of the weight (k) with
respect to a vertical line drawn through the knife edges; it follows
therefore that for every particular velocity of the water there is a
particular position of the lever (g) and of the pencil (7), which position
is at every instant of time registered by that pencil on the disc (m),
caused to revolve by the clockwork (n). In order on the one hand to
increase the sensitiveness of the instrument at low velocities, and on the
other to avoid any check to the flow of water at high velocities, the
pipe (o) in which the ball works is tapered, the waterway at the bottom
of the stroke being as large or larger than that of the pipe supplying the
meter. (p) is the discharge pipe reduced at the outer end to the size of the
inlet pipe; (u) is a level for adjusting the position of the lever when the
ball is at the top of its stroke by means of the screws (v,) (v,); (t) is a pipe
to drain the water from a small chamber below the stuffing box.
Through a very small hole in the bottom of this chamber the wire
passes to the ball, the effect of the arrangement being that the pressure
of water on the stuffing box (e) can never greatly exceed that due to the
head of water in the pipe (t). (r) is the casing over the lever and
clockwork with its cover (a); (s) is a second and stronger cover let into
the footway beneath which I prefer to place the apparatus.
According to another arrangement by which my Invention may be
carried out the weight which balances the pressure of the water is a
liquid such as mercury, and the amount of that weight acting on the
ball or disc is caused to increase as the velocity of flow increases by a
float attached to the ball, the immersion of which in the mercury is
increased by the descent of the ball. This arrangement may be carried
out as shewn at Figure (A), Sheet 2. The ball is hung in the pipe as in

page_text: i
the first case, but the wire from which it is suspended having passed
through the stuffing box is carried up a vertical tube (a) fixed within the
vessel (6) containing mercury. (c) is a tubular float capable of sliding easily
upon the tube (a). The wire being attached to the top of this float at
(d) forms a direct connection between it and the ball. The pencil may
be fixed at (d). When the water is at rest the weight of the mercury
must be so adjusted as to hold the ball at the top of its stroke. When
a flow of water takes place the downward motion of the ball is accom-
panied by a downward motion of the float, which ceases when the
downward pressure on the ball is exactly equal to the weight of mercury
displaced by the float. It is obvious that if the figure of such a float
be so designed that the weight of mercury displaced is at every given
velocity of flow proportional to that velocity then will the spaces
described by the pencil be always equal for equal increments of
velocity.
1
A third arrangement by which my Invention may be carried out is
shewn at Figure (B), Sheet 2, where (a) is the pipe through which the
water flows, (b) is a disc hung within the pipe upon the end of a long
arm (c) passing through a longitudinal slot in the upper side of the
pipe (a). The arm (c) is free to oscillate within the water-tight chamber
(d) upon a centre at (e). (f) is a link connecting the arm (c) with the
lever (g), which turns on a spindle passing through a stuffing box at (h).
On the outer end of this spindle is fixed a lever (m) carrying a pencil
(n), which when the disc (6) moves draws a diagram of that motion on
the disc (), actuated by clockwork as in the former cases. On the
above mentioned spindle an arm (k) carrying a weight (7) is hung in a
nearly vertical position when the water is at rest. When the water
flows the disc (6) is moved from its normal position, and the leverage of
the weight (1) is increased until it balances the pressure of the water on
the disc so that as in the former cases there is for every particular
velocity of the water a particular position of the pencil. The object of
the link (f) and the lever (9) is to increase the motion of the pencil
relatively to that of the disc more than could be conveniently done by
fixing the pencil lever on the spindle at (e) upon which the arm (c)
oscillates.
Instead of the solid weight at the end of a rigid arm or the liquid
weight already described I may use a cam-like form from the periphery
of which a weight is hung by. a cord or chain, the cam being of such a

page_text: form and actuated by the ball in such a manner that the leverage of the
weight increases as the velocity of the water increases, and the same
object may obviously be attained by the use of a spring instead of a
weight.
In order to render the diagram drawn by the pencil indicative of the
real state of affairs, as to use or misuse of water passing through
the meter, it is desirable to test one of each size of meter, and by this
means to fix parallel lines on the disc, cylinder, or other surface used
for the diagram, one of the extreme lines being the zero or position of
rest and the other that of maximum flow, intermediate lines representing
different velocities of flow. If then the clockwork causes the disc,
cylinder, or surface on which the diagram is drawn to move with
uniform velocity the consumption at any instant or between any two
instants can be determined, and this fact is of great value for the mini-
mum indication during a few days and nights will nearly always be an
exact measure of the waste when it arises from leakage, and is therefore
or may be of a continuous kind. It is obvious also that the diagram
will often enable the observer to distinguish between the quantity taken
for domestic use from day to day and that due to any exceptional draw
upon the mains or even that taken in large quantities for manufacturing
purposes, while in an ordinary meter the total quantity only between
any two observations is measured.
In order to avoid the use of clockwork I may in some cases so arrango
the apparatus that it will register the maximum and minimum con-
sumption, or the minimum consumption only, which has taken place
between any two observations somewhat after the manner of a maximum
and minimum themometer. In this form it would be useful for
detecting waste of water, but the indications would not be so reliable as
the complete diagram.
Although I believe the apparatus to be chiefly useful for the purpose
of detecting waste of water supplied to the public I think its great
simplicity may render it available as a water meter for manufacturing
and other purposes, as the actual quantity of water passed can always
be calculated from the diagram.
What I claim as my improvements in apparatus for measuring the
flow of water in pipes is the combination substantially as described of a
disc, ball, or other object within the pipe, with a weight or spring and

page_text: an indicator in such manner that the said disc, ball, or other object, and
the indicator moved by it, will stand at different points corresponding
with the different velocities of the water as it flows through the pipe.
I also claim the combination of such an arrangement with a clock,
substantially as described in such manner as to render the apparatus
self-registering.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Frederick Deacon, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September,
in the year our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.