IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER GUAGES OF STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Taylorson Jopling, of Dunning Street
Foundry, Sunderland, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER
GUAGES OF STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 17th November 1857, and dated the 27th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
27th May 1857.
I, THOMAS TAYLORSON JOPLING, of Dunning Street Foundry, Sunderland,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER
GUAGES OF STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improved method of ascertaining and
indicating the height of the water in steam boilers. For this purpose a float is
used, which rests on the surface of the water in the boiler, and rises and falls
between guides, as the level of the water in the boiler varies. Attached to
the float is a stem, which enters a glass tube mounted on the top or other
part of the boiler, and forming part thereof; that is to say, the pressure in
the glass tube is the same as that in the boiler, there being no stuffing box
between the two. As the float rises and falls in the boiler, its stem rises and
falls with it within the glass tube, and so indicates the level of the water in
the boiler.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TAYLORSON JOPLING, of Dunning Street Foundry, Sunderland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling, Her special licence that I, the said
Thomas Taylorson Jopling, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling, 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 WATER GUAGES OF STEAM BOILERS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling,
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 Thomas Taylorson Jopling, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object an improved method of ascertaining and
indicating the height of the water in steam boilers. For this purpose a float
is used, which rests on the surface of the water in the boiler, and rises and
falls between guides as the level of the water in the boiler varies. Attached
to the float is a stem, which enters a glass tube mounted on the top or other
part of the boiler, and forming part thereof; that is to say, the pressure in
the glass tube is the same as that in the boiler, there being no stuffing box
between the two. As the float rises and falls in the boiler, its stem rises and
falls with it within the glass tube, and so indicates the level of the water in
the boiler.

page_text: annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
a is a metal cylinder, connected at the top and bottom with the boiler, so
that the water from the boiler shall stand about half way up the cylinder
when the water in the boiler is at its proper level; b is a hollow ball of metal,
which floats on the surface of the water in the cylinder, and has the stem c
attached to it; this stem projects up through a hole in the cover of the
cylinder a, and carries at its upper end a head of white earthenware d, round
which a black line is drawn, so that the position of the stem c may be readily
observed from a distance. e is a glass tube, in which the upper end of the
stem c works; this tube rests at its lower end on an elastic washer, placed in
an annular groove formed in the base of the standard f, which is bolted to the
cover of the cylinder a. The upper end of the tube c is cemented into the
metal cap g, on the top of which the screw h presses, so as to keep the lower
end of the tube tightly in contact with the elastic washer.
There is a valve fixed on the stem c at c¹, which, if the glass e breaks, is
brought up, so as to close the opening in the cylinder cover and prevent the
escape of steam.
Figure 2 is a horizontal section, taken through the standard f, the interior
of which is blackened to render the indications more visible.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Taylorson Jopling, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
THOMAS TAYLORSON JOPLING. (L.S.)
GEORGE WILLIAM HESLOP,
of Sunderland.