AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METER FOR WATER AND OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lorentz Albert Groth, Civil Engineer, and Proprietor of
the Scandinavian Patent Office, under the Firm of L. A. Groth & Co., 97,
Finsbury Pavement, London, E.C., for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED
CONSTRUCTION OF METER FOR WATER AND OTHER FLUIDS." A com-
munication by Charles Berhaut and Hubert Ducenne, both of Liège, in the
Kingdom of Belgium.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lorentz Albert Groth at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th August 1880.
LORENTZ ALBERT GROTH, Civil Engineer, and Proprietor of the Scandinavian
Patent Office, under the Firm of L. A. Groth & Co., 97, Finsbury Paveinent,
London, E.C. "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METER FOR WATER AND OTHER
FLUIDS." A communication by Charles Berhaut and Hubert Ducenne, both of
Liège, in the Kingdom of Belgium.
This Invention relates to new or improved water or other fluid meter apparatus,
and it differs essentially from other apparatus of this class by the employment of a
semi-circular horizontal injector of special construction, receiving the water on one
side and discharging it from the other upon the blades or arms of a horizontal
turbine.
The apparatus consists of three essential parts, the first being a cover provided
with a dialplate of glass, the second a box or body enveloping the meter, and the
third forming a foundation. The whole apparatus rests upon three legs. The box
or body is divided in two different compartments placed over each other, the under
one of which contains the meter and the turbine, while the upper one contains the
counting mecanism, consisting of two toothed wheel, one being vertical and the
other horizontal; cach wheel is provided with thirty teeth, and they are put in
revolution by means of an archimedian screw, which rests upon the upper extremity
of the turbine shaft, extending within the upper chamber. The water enters the
inlet and passes through wire gauze into the injector, being therein divided into
two parts or streams and is so discharged upon the blades of the turbine, whereby
the same is set in revolution after which the water passes to the outlet. The

page_text: mecanism, before indicating the quantity of water passed through the meter, is set
in motion by an archimedian screw, which receives its motion from, or is carried
upon, the turbine shaft. This archimedian screw acts upon and brings a vertical
worm wheel in motion. On the face of this vertical wheel and near its center is
fixed a small pin or stud, which is arranged to come in contact with the horizontal
wheel at successive revolution. The axle of the horizontal wheel is passed through the
top plate of the chamber and likewise through a stuffing box, and brings by means
of three small ellipses two wheels into motion, one of which is provided with
100 teeth and the other one with 101 teeth.
The dialplate is divided in one hundred parts, showing the quantity of water
that passes through the meter, expressed in "decalitre," "hectolitre," "cubicmetre,"
and for meters of large capacity, the "hectolitre," "cubicmetre," ten cubicmetres
and hundred cubicmetres; this of course is for the decimal system, and if thedial
is otherwise marked the wheels are to be toothed to correspond. The small hand
is fixed to the wheel which is provided with one hundred teeth, and indicates on
the dialplate the "decalitre," or more, according to the capacity of the meter.
The large hand is fitted to the wheel, which is provided with one hundred and
one teeth, and indicates the "cubicmetres." On meters of large capacity is fixed a
registering wheel of substantially Maltese crossform, which is placed on the small
hand of the dialplate, and which registers the hundred, the thousand, and hundred
thousand cubicmetres.
When both hands are placed on cipher, the larger is then over the small one.
In this position the large hand will pass over the dialplate or ten "hectolitres."
But for each turn around the circumference, the large hand fixed on the wheel with
one hundred and one teeth, removes the small hand one line on the dialplate; this
digression will thus indicate respectively the cubicmetre and also the hundred
and thousand cubicmetres in meters of large capacity. At the one hundredth turn,
the large hand comes once more in its former position of being over the small one,
and turns the registering wheel of Maltese crossform, fixed on the small hand,
which then shows the hundred, thousand, and the hundred thousand in thelargest
meters.
The turbine, which is of corresponding diameter to the interior of the box or
_body, consists of a bed plate or disc, its periphery provided with notches or cuts,
forming blades, which are inclined so that the water escaping the outlet of the
injector gives by its pressure a general impulsion. This rotation is increased by
the jets or streams of the injector, by means of which the water is thrown between
the wings of the turbine.
The number of the wings or blades may be made according to the capacity of
the meter.
The injector is semi circular and horizontal, and made of metal, or india rubber,
or other suitable material, and provided with two bended or arched openings
placed at a distance and according to the jets, and arranged in relation to the
blades of the turbine in order to increase the rotation.
i
On the two openings a bed plate, forming a spring, can be fixed in order to stop
the water in case of the pressure becoming weak.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Lorentz Albert Groth in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th February 1881.
LORENTZ ALBERT GROTH, Civil Engineer, and Proprietor of the Scandinavian
Patent Office, under the Firm of L. A. Groth & Co, 97, Finsbury Pavement,
London, E.C. "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METER FOR WATER AND OTHER
FLUIDS." A communication from abroad by Charles Berhaut and Hubert Ducenne,
both of Liège, in the Kingdom of Belgium.
This Invention relates to new or improved water or other fluid measuring
apparatus, and is distinguished from other apparatus of this class, -
Firstly, by the employment of a semicircular horizontal injector of special
construction, receiving the water from the inlet and discharging it upon the blades
of a horizontal turbine; and, secondly, by a special arrangement of toothed wheels
worked by a worm set in motion by the turbine, and moving index hands or dials
in relation to the number of the indicating apparatus.
In the Drawings Fig. 1 represents partly in section a complete meter constructed
according to one arrangement of the Invention; Fig. 2, the number dial, with two
index hands for same; Figures 3 and 4, respectively separate views of the turbine
and injector for the same; Figure 5 represents a partial section of a meter con-
structed according to a modification of the Invention; Figure 6, the number dial
and index hand and dial, and Fig. 7 a horizontal section of same taken on line x, x,
of Fig. 5.
The meter, which may be constructed of metal in the usual way, consists of
three principal parts, first, of a cover 1 provided with a glass closed apperture ;
secondly, of a box or body 2; and, thirdly, of a bottom 3 serving as an outlet,
the whole being firmly connected together by 3 bolts 4.
The box or body 2 is divided into two compartments placed one over the other;
The upper one contains
the lower one contains the injector 5 and the turbine G.
counting mechanism consisting of two toothed wheels 7 and 8, of thirty teeth each;
they are caused to revolve by means of a worm 9 formed on or screwed to the upper
end of the turbine spindle, which extends into the upper compartment. The water
enters the apparatus by the inlet pipe 10, passes through the wire gauze strainer 11
into the injector 5, from which it issues in two jets, projected against the blades or
pallets 13 of the turbine 6, which the cause to turn. The water passes through
between the pallets and flows away by the outlet 14.
The
The mechanism for indicating the quantity of water passed through the meter is
set in motion by the worm 9 on the spindle of the turbine. This worm turns the
vertical wheel 7 of 30 teeth, on which is fixed near the centre a small pin 15, which
moves one tooth of the horizontal wheel 8 of 30 tecth at each revolution.
axis of this horizontal wheel 8 passes through a stuffing box 17 in the cover 16,
and moves by means of 3 small leaves or teeth 18, two wheels 19, and 20, the
former of which has one hundred teeth, and the latter one hundred and one teeth.
The dial plate is divided into one hundred parts, showing the quantity of water
passed through the meter, expressed in decalitres, hectolitres, and cubic metres, and
for large meters, hectolitres, cubic metres, and tens and hundreds of cubic metres.
This arrangement is adapted for the decimal system, but if the dial plate is other-
wise marked the numbers of teeth in the wheels will require to be arranged
accordingly. The small hand 21 is connected to the upper wheel 19 of one hundred
teeth, and indicates on the dial plate by decalitres, or more, according to the capacity
of the meter. The large hand 22 is connected to the wheel 20 of one hundred and
one teeth, and indicates in cubic meters.

page_text: A small number wheel 23 mounted on the small hand 21 indicates hundreds of
cubic meters, and in meters of large capacity thousands and hundreds of thousands of
cubic metres. When both hands are placed at zero the larger stands over the
smaller one.
In this position they travel round the dial, but at each revolution the
large band connected with the wheel of one hundred and one teeth will become
separated from the small hand by one line or division on the dial plate, and this
separation will indicate a cubic metre, or (for larger meters) a hundred or a thousand
cubic metres, as the case may be. At the hundredth revolution the large hand
returns to its position over the smaller one, and turns by one tooth the small number
wheel mounted on the small hand, which will then indicate the hundred cubic
metres, or in the case of large meters the thousands or tens of thousands of cubic
metres, as the case may be. Thus, for example, in Fig. 2 the hands indicate a
consumption of 165 metres and 2 hectolitres. The turbin 6, which corresponds
to the internal diameter of the box or body, consists of a plate or disc furnished at
its periphery with notches forming inclined blades or pallets, so that the water in
escaping to the outlet imparts by its pressure an impulse upon the turbine
producing rotation, which is increased by the jets from the injector which strike
the blades or pallets.
The number of the blades or pallets may be varied according to the capacity
of the meter, and the latter is regulated by the inclination of the blades or pallets.
The semicircular horizontal injector is made of metal, ebonite, or other suitable
material; it has two inclined openings placed diametrically opposite to each other
in such manner that the jets of water are discharged against the blades or pallets of
the turbine in order to accelerate its rotation.
Plates 12 acting as springs may be adapted over the two openings in order to
stop or retard the water in the case of small pressures.
The arrangement of the meter may be simplified, at the same time that an
extreme sensibility of action and great facility for taking to pieces is effected, by
means of the modifications shewn in Figures 5, 6, and 7, in which the connecting
bolts 4 of Fig. 1 are replaced by simply screwing the parts together as shewn in
Fig. 5. The injector shewn in Figure 4 is in this case replaced by a lateral
oblique passage A containing a regulating plate B, adjustable by a screw C. The
wheel work actuated by the worm, the pivots of which turn in bearings of hard
stone, is placed in an isolating metallic cup R. The water enters by the oblique
passage A, and acts directly upon the blades or pallets 13 of the turbine 6.
The counting apparatus consists of a central moveable dial D, see Figures 5 and 6,
concentric with a fixed dial E, and of a hand F, which indicates for example,
from 0.00202 to 0.00200m on the moveable dial, and 2 metres on the fixed dial.
This hand therefore makes one revolution round the fixed dial, in order that the
moveable dial with which it revolves may advance one linear division; one linear
division of the moveable dial round the centre consequently corresponds to
one hundred linear divisions of the large fixed dial. When each linear division is
intended to indicate a cubic meter instead of a hectolitre a third dial wheel is
added to the arrangement, so as to indicate to ten thousand cubic metres for
apparatus of large dimensions. It will be understood that the ratios of the wheels
and divisions of the dials may be varied to suit any required system of measure-
ment or indications.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to or may be carried into effect, I would have it understood that
what I claim is,―
First. A meter for water and other fluids, consisting of a box or body formed of
two horizontal compartments, the lower one containing the specially constructed
injector, with two openings for discharging the water or other fluid on to the
blades or pallets of a turbine mounted upon a spindle which passes through the
partition separating the two compartments, and terminated by a worm which
imparts rotary motion to the special arrangement of toothed wheels placed in the
upper compartment, and furnished with a divided dial plate and two index hands

page_text: covered by a glass face, the whole arranged, combined, and operating as hereinbefore
described and illustrated in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Drawings.
Second. A meter of the kind referred to in the first claim, but in which the
injector is replaced by a metallic cup containing the wheel work, and by an
oblique inlet passage for the water or other fluid, and in which the counting
apparatus consists of a single index hand and two dials, one moveable round a
centre, the other fixed, the whole arranged, combined, and operating as herein before
described and illustrated in Figures 5, 6, and 7 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lorentz Albert Groth, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord, One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
LORENTZ ALBERT GROTH. (L.S.)