IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS REGULATORS, ALSO IN GAUGES AND CLOCKS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS
REGULATORS, ALSO IN GAUGES AND CLOCKS."-A communication from abroad
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Michael Henry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
June 1864.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN GAS REGULATORS, ALSO IN GAUGES AND CLOCKS," communicated to me from
abroad by Henry Giroud, of 33, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to
be as follows:
The first object of this Invention is a gás regulator in which the gas
supplied. to the burner in excess of combustion is the agent of its own.
regulation, the regulator is thus acted on by the gas of consumption, instead
of by that flowing to the burner; the regulating gas is préferably taken at the
part of its passage at which it flows faster than it is consumed, and it is
returned to the holder by a return pipe having no outlet save at the ends, so
that this return gas signalizes the state of pressure.

page_text: In one arrangement the gas pipe, which leads into a chamber containing
water, is opened and closed by a conical plug suspended from a bell-crank
weight or lever worked by the gas as it flows into the chamber through the
return pipe, and stopped when the pressure is in equilibrio; the pipe of the
pulley corrects variation of weight due to different degrees of immersion. The
float may be of truncated cone form. The apparatus will indicate leakage.
Immersed floats or plungers may be used. Also, instead of such floats or
plungers, a counterbalance weight may be used, the effect of the truncated
cone being replaced by a compensation pipe, or by suspended metal plates
following the motion of the float, and counterbalancing it. The vessel in
which the float plunges may extend to the upper transverse side pipe, water
being admitted through a hole closed by a nut or ornament.
In another arrangement the gas flows to the service pipe through a
chamber, and rises in an equilibrium pipe, whereby the counterpressure is
balanced. To regulate the pressure of gas in the service pipe it expands in
a chamber.
In an arrangement in which electricity is used the return pipe leads
under a float held in a cylinder, and suspended from a wheel carrying two
needles moved at the ends of a horizontal diameter by the float; as the
pressure varies they communicate with an electric wire, and as the wheel
turns exert friction against a dial formed of two semicircles at each side of
the diameter. When the pressure is in equilibrio the needles are brought
against contact breakers, but when the pressure varies they send a current
to the semicircles, which are in electric communication, by line wire and
earth wire, with clockwork moved by a weight, and raising and depressing
the spindle of a supply valve. When contact is broken the wheelwork is
held by a stop, which when the pressure alters is removed by electro-magnets,
the valve spindle is put into gear, and the valve opens till equalization of
pressure again breaks contact. The needles may transmit the current to bells
or alarms.
A gauge may be constructed by placing on the axis of a dial a beam,
on which is a thread stretched by a weight and carrying a bell or plunger,
at the centre of which a disc is supported by a rod passing through a pipe,
through which the fluid to be measured flows from a chamber. A pipe wider
than the fluid pipe is used to compensate for alteration of level; it communi-
cates with the chamber, so that the same pressure is produced as in the bell.
The compensation pipe is filled with wire or pieces of metal to make up the
difference of the pipes' diameters, whereby the position of the pointer on the
dial will be regulated.

page_text: For measuring time, the gas regulated as described is conveyed through a
meter communicating by its wheel with the minute hand of a clock, and
resting on a float on a vessel of water, whereby regular movement will be.
transmitted to the hands. Instead of gas, air may be used under pressure, or
air and gas alternately by a two-way cock.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, mea
by the said Michael Henry in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th
December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Michael Henry, Her special licence that I, the said Michael
Henry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I.
the said Michael Henry, 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 "Iк-
PROVEMENTS IN GAS REGULATORS, ALSO IN GAUGES AND CLOCKS," communicated to
me from abroad by Henry Giroud, of 33, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris,
France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Michael
Henry, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing 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 Michael Henry, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, as communicated to me, reference being had to the accom-

page_text: panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say-
The first object of this Invention is a gas regulator in which the gas supplied
to the burner in excess of the quantity required for combustion is the agent of
its own regulation, the regulating apparatus being thus acted on by what I
call the gas of consumption. This regulating gas, that is to say, the gas which
acts on the regulating valve, is in a proper condition for so acting if taken at a
part of its passage at which its rate of flow is faster than the rate at which it
is consumed, and it returns to the holder in a return pipe, having no outlet
save at the ends, from which pipe the gas does not escape but remains and acts
therein on the regulating valve according to the variation of pressure, so that
this return gas regulates and signalizes the state of pressure.
The gas may act on the regulating outlet valve either directly or indirectly,
that is, either with or without electric action, that is to say, the gas may act
directly upon the valve, or it may work it by electric action directly or by
electric action indirectly; in the latter case an electric current or wire may
work electric apparatus, in which last case the return pipe may be dispensed
with. When the regulating gas is in what I above describe as the proper
condition for acting at some hundred yards from the gas holder, say after the
first few branches, the gas in the return pipe may move the valve by apparatus
herein-after described. Three cases might present themselves. First, if the
gas were in the above condition at a few hundred yards from the gas holder or
beyond the first few branches, the gas would act through the return pipe on
the valve directly or indirectly; secondly, if such conditions only occurred at
such distance that the pressure would not act in the return pipe sufficiently
quickly, then electricity acting on wheelwork would be employed; and,
thirdly, if, as is generally the case with private consumers, the gas in passing
from the holder to the regulating apparatus is at the same pressure as in its
passage from such apparatus to the burners, such gas would act directly as a
regulating agent, the apparatuses herein-after described being employed, such
apparatuses differing from those hitherto used in not being acted on by the gas
as it flows to them through the meter, but by the gas of consumption or that
which passes from them in order to be consumed.
The accompanying Drawings exemplify in what manner the Invention may
be carried into effect.
In the arrangements shewn in Figures 1 and 2, the gas pipe A leads to
the burners through an annular chamber G containing water, and opened
and closed by a suspended conical plug C. The gas flows in the direction
indicated by the arrows under the false bottom D, and thence to the burner

page_text: through a pipe B. The gas which flows from A to B does not work the
plungers or plunging bells suspended from the pulley, but these are worked by
the gas of consumption, that is, the gas flowing from the regulating apparatus
to the burners, and which flows through the return pipe E into the chamber G,
and as soon as the gas attains the pressure necessary for balancing the weight,
bells, or plungers from which the plug C is suspended, the plug remains
stationary. The pipe H of the pulley corrects variations of weight arising
In Figures 1 and 2 (as also in
spaces occupied by the gas are
The level
the burner
from the difference of depths of immersion.
Figures 3 and 4, afterwards described) the
colored yellow, and those occupied by the water are colored blue.
of water shewn in the Drawing indicates that the gas flowing to
has a less pressure than after its passage round the plug C. When the
pressures are equal the pipe E may be dispensed with, and the gas which works
the apparatus may flow through the pipe J, shewn in dotted lines, or through
an orifice L.
(Figure 2 is a section on the line C, D, of Figure 1.)
Figures 3 and 4 shew an arrangement of valve intended for cases in which
the pipes are so arranged that the pressure shall not be greater after the gas
passes the plug than at the end of the service or distributing pipe, as is usual
among private consumers. The valve here works like the one above described.
The gas enters at C and flows through the pipe E to beneath the plug, raises
the float Has it passes, and travels into the double bottom D, and thence to
the burners through a pipe F. The under part of the float on which the gas
acts is of truncated cone shape, so as to correct variations of weight arising
from different depths of immersion. The generatrix of this conical figure
should be determined by the thickness of material, the height of the
apparatus, the pressure of gas in the pipes, and the absolute weight of the float
when fitted in place, together with that of the water contained in the upper
basin, which forms part of the weight of the float itself. When these valves are
used the pressure will be the same at all the burners of any particular set of
lights, and they will shew that there is an escape of gas if when the gas is
turned off at the meter the regulators still work. The faster they work the
greater such escape. The sectional area of the exit pipe of these regulators
may be nearly double that of the inlet pipe.
(Figure 4 is a section on the line A, B, of Figure 3.) A counterbalance
weight may be used instead of a float H in the last-described valve, the effect
there produced by the cone being here produced by a compensating pipe, or by
metal plates suspended in such manner as to follow and counterbalance and
thereby correct the motions of the float. The vessel in which the plunger

page_text: works may extend to the upper transverse side pipe, and water is admitted
through a hole closed by a nut, gland, or ornament. A hole closed by a screw
cap is made in the side of the basin, through which the stud which regulates
the water level in the upper basin may be opened and closed...
Figure 5 is a section and Figure 6 plan of a modification in which the gas
flows from the holder through pipes A and B and acts on a pipe as it flows
into and expands in a chamber F, and it rises up a pipe p to a point P, whereby
the counterpressure is balanced or neutralized; the gas flowing through the
pipe B to the burners equalizes the pressure as it passes into the annular
chamber G through the pipe g. The pipe t seen in plan, Fig. 6, conveys gas
from the pipe B, to any desirable point, so that it thus acts as a return pipe,
and acts on the plunger D. The float S is balanced as shewn in the Drawing.
This valve may be used with or without a return pipe for private consumers,
and gas may be admitted through the pipe A and allowed to escape through
the pipe B, or vice versa.
In an arrangement in which electricity is used the return pipe leads under
a float held in a cylinder, and suspended by a silk cord from a wheel carry-
ing two needles worked at the ends of a horizontal diameter by the float;
as the pressure varies, the slightest alteration of equilibrium occasioning a
vertical motion of the float and a consequent change in the position of the
needles. The needles communicate with the wires of an electric battery, and
as the wheel turns the ends of the needles rub against a dial composed of two
metal semicircles which are at each side of the diameter, and are insulated by two
ivory contact breakers. When the pressure is in equilibrio the needles are
brought against the contact breakers, but when the pressure varies they send a
current to the semicircles which communicate electrically, by line wire and
earth wire, with a train of wheels which are moved by a weight, say about
20 lbs., and raise and depress a screw rod connected by an arm or cord with
the spindle of the inlet valve of the gas holder. When the gas is at the
desired pressure the needles rest, as before explained, on the contact breakers,
and while contact is thus broken the wheelwork is held stationary by a stop,
but when the pressure is reduced an electric circuit is formed, the stop is
raised by electro-magnets, and the valve spindle is put into gear with the
wheel by other electro-magnets, and the valve gradually opens so as to admit
additional gas till the pressure again rises to the required point, when the
needles again drop on the contact breakers and contact is broken. Also if the
pressure should rise above a required point a similar action ensues, except that
the electric current is reversed, the needle which was in contact with the lower
semicircle in the former instance is, in this instance, moved to the upper

page_text: semicircle, the other needle performing a reverse action, whereby the driving
wheel is geared with the valve spindle, and the valve gradually closed till the
pressure becomes reduced to a required point. If, by some accident, the
pressure should alter, the current will cease to flow to the wheelwork and will
be transmitted by the needles to bells or alarms placed at various parts of the
works which continue to sound till the accident is remedied. Thus the outlet
valve of the gas holder is worked by the variation of pressure of the consumer's
gas acting through a return pipe, the valve being delicately adjusted so as to
be controlled thereby.
Figure 7 is a Diagram of a modification in which the gas flows from the
regulator to beneath the plug and works it, the arrangement of the pipes being
such that the pressure of the gas coming from the holder to the regulator is
neutralized and does not act on it. The variations due to various degrees of
immersion of the plunger or plunging bell are corrected by compensation
pipes P.
A gauge may be constructed on the same principle as exemplified in Figure 8;
thus on the axis of a dial X is placed a beam or bar on which is a silk
thread extended by a weight and carrying a suspended plunger or plunging
bell C plunged in water in a basin E, and kept upright by a disc fixed at its
centre by a rod B passing through a pipe A, through which the fluid whose
pressure is to be measured flows from a chamber F. To maintain the fluid
at a required constant level, compensation must be provided for alterations of
level produced by variations in the rise and fall of the plunger; for this
purpose a pipe II, of larger diameter than the pipe A, is placed at the side, and
communicates through an orifice a with the chamber F, which also communi-
cates with the upper part of the pipe H by a pipe G, so that the same pressure
is produced at top as in the plunger C. This compensating pipe H is filled
with wire or long metal pins to make up the differences between the diameter
of the pipes to such extent that the external level shall remain the same at
any elevation, and when the apparatus is regulated as described, the pointer
on the dial will be regulated and will furnish an exact indication of pressure;
a graduated scale may be added.
For measuring time, illuminating gas regulated as described is conveyed
through an ordinary dry or wet gas meter, and caused to flow in such manner
that the wheel of the meter shall transmit motion to the minute wheel and
pointers or hands of a clock face. The meter rests on a float set in a vessel
filled with water, and if the wheel be sufficiently immersed, and the pressure
of the gas to the burners regulated according to the size of the jets or orifices,
a continuous flow will be obtained and a perfectly regular motion will be

page_text: transmitted to the hands. Thus, supposing the expenditure of gas and the
hour known, the quantity of gas expended may be calculated per minute or
other interval of time. These clocks may be attached to gas lamps or
chandeliers in churches or elsewhere, and may be illuminated by the gas which
acts as the motive or driving and maintaining power of the clock. Instead of
gas, which is sometimes not available to work the clock, as, for example, in
daylight when not turned on, air under pressure may be used instead, or air
and gas alternately, the same being turned on and off as required by using
a two-way cock.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim,―
First. The employment of a return pipe in which the pressure of the gas
supplied to the burners is caused to act, and which pipe is combined with
regulating appliances or valves, whereof the parts are arranged and combined
as described.
Second. The improved regulating or equilibrium valves or regulators herein
described, each in the general arrangement and combination of parts of which
the same consists.
Third. The arrangement and combination of parts constituting the
improved pressure gauge herein described, whereby a constant level is
obtained.
Fourth. The arrangement and combination of parts whereby the regulating
arrangements are adapted to or as clocks for measuring time in which the
meter is caused to work the hands as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
E. DE PASS.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)