IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st May 1876. A communication from
abroad, by Job Goulson, of Leicestershire, England, now residing at Berlin,
in the Empire of Germany.
JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middle-
sex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS METERS." A communication from
abroad by Job Goulson, of Leicestershire, England, now residing at Berlin, in the
Empire of Germany.
This
It is well known that wet meters as they are customarily constructed are subject
to variation in measurement in consequence of the loss of water by evaporation
and other causes by which means the water line in the meter is lowered.
lowering of the water line or decrease of water in the meter causes the annulus
and outlets of the measuring drum or wheel to become enlarged, and consequently
to pass or measure more than the proper quantity of gas in proportion as the
water line falls below the proper water level.
The object of this Invention is to remedy this defect by constructing the measur-
ing drums or wheels of wet gas meters so as to render the same sufficiently self-ad-
justing or self-regulating for all practical purposes, at the same time enabling them
to work as easily or nearly as easily as when constructed in the ordinary manner.
For this purpose it is proposed to construct the measuring drums or wheels of
wet gas meters with any suitable number of returning or compensating chambers,
and in order to impede the action of the measuring drum as little as possible the
said returning chambers are so constructed as to work and act with and in the
same direction as the measuring drums themselves, the aforesaid returning or com-
pensating chambers being for the purpose of returning to the measuring drum any
surplus quantity of gas passed or measured in consequence of the lowering of the
water line.
The inlets to the returning chambers are constructed at about the same distance
from the axis of the measuring drum as the highest water line or water circle.
The bodies of the returning or compensating chambers extend from the inlets to
or nearly to the outer circumference of the measuring drum. The inlets to the
returning chambers open in succession to the measured gas and their outlets to the
unmeasured gas.
Each returning or compensating chamber is constructed with a small water
seal or valve, which may be made in various forms, and acts in the following
manner: -When the returning chambers rise above the water the water scal or

page_text: valve is closed or sealed, and remains so by the pressure of the measured gas until
the inlet of the acting chamber becomes sealed by dipping into the water; the
onward motion of the drum then causes the gas in the chamber to become
expanded or rarified, and the greater pressure of the unmeasured gas on the other
side of the seal opens the saine and the remaining portion of the chamber is
filled with unmeasured gas.
The returning or compensating chambers are constructed in a curved form, and
when in action returning surplus measured gas to the measuring drums, their
inlets are situated for the most part on one side, and their bodies and outlets on the
other side, of a vertical line drawn through the axis of the measuring drum, con-
sequently their inlets are descending towards the lowered water line at the same
time that their bodies are ascending above the water line and are filling with
surplus measured gas to be returned to the measuring drum; but the bodies of the
returning chambers being situate at a greater distance than the inlets from the axis
of the measuring drum ascend through a proportionally greater space than the
inlets descend through in the same time, by which arrangement sufficient space is
obtained in the chambers to contain the surplus measured gas to be returned.
According to one modification the measuring portion of the drums of wet gas
meters is made in the usual manner, only leaving the body or outer rim something
deeper or broader to give space for the syphon, but in lieu of using the ordinary
hollow cover a flat or partially flat one or one stamped up in suitable curves is
employed, which said cover also serves for the exterior of the curved returning or
compensating chambers.
According to another modification the returning chambers are constructed on
the body or outer rim of the drum, and are connected by curved tubes, the said
tubes having their inlets about the same distance from the axis of the measuring
druins as the highest water line or water circle.
The returning or compensating chambers can also be easily applic. to the
ordinary drums now in use.