IMPROVEMENTS IT' GAS METERS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joshua Kidd, of Cannon Row, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IT'
GAS METERS."
Sealed the 4th November 1862, and dated the 7th July 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joshua Kidd at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th July 1862.
I, JOSHUA KIDD, of Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GAS METERS," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist of the construction of gas meters for street
and other lamps and burners with one measuring chamber instead of three
or more as meters are made at present, and also of combining with the meter
a governor or regulator by means of which a regular supply of gas is given
to the burner at an unvarying pressure. The measuring chamber is placed
in the interior of a drum or outer case and may be worked as an ordinary
bellows, or by mercury as in a mercurial regulator, and is so arranged that
as it takes in and discharges the gas, it gives motion by means of levers to
a mercurial level which it causes to turn upon a centre. This motion of
the mercurial level opens and shuts the outlet and inlet valves for the entry*
and exit of the gas, and also turns the index or registering wheels of

page_text: the meter. To the top of the inside of the case I attach a loose flexible
diaphragm fastened in the centre to the top of the measuring chamber, so
that when the measuring chamber falls and discharges the gas, contained
in its interior, into the case or drum it draws down the flexible diaphragm,
thus keeping up a regular supply of gas to the burner, and by this arrangement
at the moment that the outlet and inlet valves are turning on their centres
the gas for a moment is shut off, and the flexible diaphragm before-mentioned
pressing upon the gas contained in the drum or case keeps up an unvarying
or equal supply of gas to the burner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joshua Kidd in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th
January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
KIDD, of Cannon Row, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joshua Kidd, Her special licence, that I, the said Joshua Kidd, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joshua
Kidd, 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 GAS
METERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joshua Kidd,
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 Joshua Kidd, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be s
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereto annexed and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention of "Improvements in Gas Meters" consists in the con-
struction of gas meters for street and other lamps and burners, with one or
two measuring chambers instead of three or more as meters are made at
present, and also in combining with the meter a regulator, by means of which
a regular supply of gas is given to the burner at an unvarying pressure. The
measuring chamber is placed in the interior of a drum or outer case and
may be worked as an ordinary bellows or by mercury as in a mercurial
regulator, and is so arranged that as it takes in and discharges the gas it
gives motion by means of levers to a mercurial level which it causes to turn
upon a centre. This motion of the mercurial level opens and shuts the
outlet and inlet valves for the entry and exit of the gas, and also turns the
index or registering wheels of the meter.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 is an outside view of the meter;
Fig. 2 is part section and part elevation shewing the valves at C, the
regulator and the measuring chamber g, which may be made like a leather
bellows, as shewn, or similar to a mercurial regulator.
Fig. 3 is a section of the meter, showing the arrangement of levers for
communicating the reciprocating motion of the disc h by means of the rod
O to the valve' and to the index dials a, a, by means of the clockwork k, k.
The guide through which the rod O passes may be made with friction
rollers or a metal tube, but I prefer a glass tube for reducing the friction.
Fig. 4 shews the under side of the meter. a, a, are the indes dials and
e, d, f, are the ports and passages for the gas leading from the valve box C to
the measuring chamber and to the regulator i.
Fig. 5 is a plan of the valve j, shewing the arrangement of the ports and
passages for the gas. Fig. 6 is a plan shewing the levers and adjustment
shewn in elevation in Fig. 8. U is a weight to balance the disc h and other
reciprocating parts. Similar letters denote similar parts in all the diagrams.
The gas enters the meter by the inlet pipe 6 to the-valve box C, and thence
by the passaged to the upper side of the disc h, which by the pressure of the
gas descends, and by means of the rod O, levers m and n actuate the ratchet-
wheel by the paul q. The tumbling weight p may be a tube partially filled
with mercury or a loose leaden ball, which, when brought a little past a
horizontal position by the lever n, instantly falls over and changes the position
of the valve; so as to admit the gas by the passage e below the disco h, which
is then moved upwards by the pressure of the gas, and the gas previously
admitted forced from the upper side of the disc h through the pipe d, through

page_text: the valve j, and up the pipe f to the regulator i, and out of the meter by
the passager; s is a screw by means of which the pint can be moved in
slot shewn in the lever n, so as accurately adjust the capacity of the
measuring chamber by altering' the distance the disc h can move before
its motion is reversed by the action of the valve j.
I therefore claim as new and of my Invention,→
Firstly, the combination of a regulator with a meter having one or two
measuring chambers.
Secondly, the mechanical arrangement of levers and parts described for
working the valve and index.
Thirdly, the means of adjusting the capacity of the measuring chamber as
already described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Kidd, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
JOSHUA KIDD. (L.B.)