IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR MEASURING WEIGHTS AND PRESSURES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Shanks, Engineer, of No. 6, Robert
Street, Adelphi, Westminster, Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR
MEASURING WEIGHTS AND PRESSURES."
Sealed the 2nd June 1854, and dated the 9th December 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Shanks at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th December 1858.
I, ANDREW SHANKS, Engineer, 6, Robert Street, Adelphi, West-
minster, Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR
MEASURING WEIGHTS AND PRESSURES" to be as follows:-
Fig. 1, 2, 3, & 4, represent what I propose for a steam pressure
guage. Fig. 1, is a glass tube a, a, with a bulb similar to an ordinary
thermometer, with this special difference, that the bulb containing
mercury or other fluid is flattened, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 2, is the instrument shewn in section, having the tube with
flattened bulb in its place. c, e, is the chamber in which the flattened
bulb is placed, having a packing or stuffing box g, so as to prevent the

page_text: escape of water or steam with which it is filled, the pressure acting on
the elastic sides of the bulb (a), so as to displace the mercury or other
fluid and force it up the tube (a.) I place a scale in the usual way to
indicate the amount of pressure exerted on the flattened bulb.
(f) is a female screw, to which the pipe of communication with the
boiler is attached to the instrument. On the lowering of the pressure
the elasticity of the glass causes the flattened bulb to resume its former
dimensions, so as to allow the .mercury.to retire into the bulb (a), as at
the first.
Fig. 8, is a plan, and Fig. 4, a side view of the instrument externally,
with the_glass_tube removed.
Fig. 5, shews one of my applications as an apparatus for weighing,
which being suspended by the ring at the top, and the object to be
weighed being suspended on the hook below, the two clastic discs n, n,
which are slightly hollowed out internally (as shown by the dotted lines),
so as to contain mercury or other fluid.
The construction of this apparatus is such that the weight of the
object weighed forces the elastic discs n, n, nearer together, so as to
displace the mercury or other fluid between, and to force it up the
glass tube o, acting in a similar manner as before described in the steam
pressure guage.
I do not confine myself to this particular form, but think this, as
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Andrew Shanks in the Great Seal Patent Office 25
on the 9th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,. I,
ANDREW SHANKS, Engineer, of No. 6, Robert Street, Adelphi, West-
minster, Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by 30
Her Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the.
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-

page_text: sors, give and grant unto me, the said Andrew Shanks, Her special
licence that I, the said Andrew Shanks,, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Andrew Shanks, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR INDICATING
OR MEASURING WEIGHTS AND PRESSURES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Andrew Shanks, 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 dato
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Shanks, do hereby declaro
the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say :-
.
My Invention consists of improvements in instruments and apparatus.
for indicating or measuring weights or pressures, which are fully shewn
in the following description and accompanying Drawings.
(Chap., 1.) Fig 1, 2, and 3, are representations of the pressure
guage or indicator (a, a, a), the glass tube having a flattened bulb or
reservoir a', a', at the bottom.
Fig. 2, shews the instrument in section, with the flattened bulb or
reservoir in its chamber or cavity formed by the surrounding brass
work b, b, and the upper casing or guard c, c, which has a gland or
packing e, intervening between, made of india-rubber or other suitable.
material, for the purpose of making it air, steam, or water tight..
At the back of the vertical column a, and inside the upper casing.or
guard c, cc, is the graduated scale d, as is fully shown in Figs. 2 and 3,.

page_text: but in order to render the adjustment easy, the vertical tube a passes
through a nut d, which works into the internal screwed top g, so that
by turning this around the adjustment is easily accomplished; k, k, is a
pipe, to which is attached a cock h and f, for the purpose of stopping
off or letting on the pressuro when required.
The bottom of this pipe being connected to a pipe attached to the
boiler, reservoir, stand pipe, or air vessel, or any other apparatus
subject to pressure, a communication therefrom to the flattened bulb is
led through the pipe k, k, so that in proportion to the amount of pressure
on the flattened sides of the bulb (a', a',) the mercury ascends the
vertical column and indicates the pressure.
(Chap 2.) Fig. 4, represents another form of instrument to be used
where very high pressures are required, the column a being helical
or spiral, for the purpose of getting a greater range of the scale, the
flexible discs b, b, in this case being made of steel duly tempered, with
the mercury intervening between.
(Chap. 3.) Fig. 5, is a sectional view of a platform weighing machine,
the gravity of the material to be weighed pressing on a similar pair of
discs, shown in Fig. 4 at 8, 8, which forces the mercury out into the
horizontal tube a, and indicates the weight of the article placed on the
platform d.
(Chap. 4.) Another application of this principle is shewn in Figs. 6
and 7, which is intended to indicate dynamometrical force, or may bo
used as a portable weighing machine. The body of this machino is
composed of four strong discs a', b', a, b, made of metal or any other
suitable material; a, a, are united by the bolts 1, 2, 3 (shewn in plan,
Fig. 6), and the discs b', &, are united by the bolts 4, 5, 6, respectively.
Intervening between the discs a' and 62, is placed two metallic discs c, c,
cnclosing mercury, as before described, connected to which is a spiral
glass tube d, d, d. Whenever dynomometrical force, or the force of
gravity, is applied to this instrument, the mercury is forced up the
spiral glass tube, to which a graduated scale is attached, and the pressure,
force, or weight is indicated.
Having thus described my several applications of the flattened bulb
or flexible discs, containing mercury, alcohol, or other fluid, having

page_text: attached thereto a column or tube to allow the fluid to ascend and
indicate the pressure, gravity, or dynamometric force applied.
CLAIM.
I make the following claims of Invention, that is to say, I claim
5 as my Invention, and as new, the application of flattened flexible bulbs
or discs, made of any suitable material, having mercury, alcohol, or
any other fluid intervening, which fluid is forced up a vertical or hori-
zontal or spiral glass column attached, so as to indicate the weight,
pressure, or dynamometric force, as fully set forth in Chapter 1, 2, 3,
and 4, and fully shewn in the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Shanks, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Ninth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
ANDREW SHANKS. (LS.)