AN IMPROVED REGISTERING WATER METER
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alphonse Vital Donnet, of Lyons, in the Empire
of France, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED REGISTERING
WATER METER."
Sealed the 25th.January 1861, and dated the 31st July 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alphonse Vital Donnet
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
31st July 1860.
on the
I, ALPHONSE VITAL DONNET, of Lyons, in the Empire of France, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for." AN IMPROVED
REGISTERING WATER METER;"
This apparatus.is.composed of a cylinder a accurately bored, shewn on the
annexed 'Drawing, with inlet and outlet apertures e,,e', and a suitably tight
piston playing within. The cylinder is closed by a cover d provided with a
stuffing box for the passage of the piston rod. Another rod i bent upwards is
attached to the top of the first one; it moves with it outside of the cylinder.
sliding in the socket,k, and is provided with two adjustable.hitting pieces n, n¹.
The water to be measured should exert some pressure;; it enters freely into
a circular distributing box t, whence an appropriate slide valve fitted on a
central shaft causes it to flow into the cylinder a, by turn through the
apertures e, e. The shaft carries three arms o, o¹, l, not in the same plan ;
the two first ones are struck in turn by the pieces-n, n', as they-move up or

page_text: down with the rod i driven by the piston rod, which causes the shaft a to
vibrate and the circular slide valve to act, opening by turn the communication
with the cylinder, which is filled with water first through the inlet e, and then
through the inlet e', so that when the water is flowing in on one side of the
piston it is flowing out from the opposite side through the discharge tubo g.
When the piston is quite up or down the hitting pieces n or n¹ escaping the
pieces o or o³, the helical spring m¹ lodged in a small cylinder m hinging at r,
pulls the arm l, causing the slide valve to move to the right or left, uncovering
the outlet quickly, and giving passage to the water from one side of the piston,
whilst fresh water from the reservoir enters the cylinder on the other side of
the piston. A registering clockwork z on the top of the cylinder is actuated
by each up or down motion of the piston rod.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alphonse Vital Donnet in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th January 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALPHONSE
VITAL DONNET, of Lyons, in the Empire of France, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alphonse Vital Donnet, Her special licence that I, the said Alphonse Vital
Donnet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Alphonse Vital Donnet, 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 "AN IMPROVED
REGISTERING WATER METER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Alphonse Vital Donnet, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alphonse Vital Donnet, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
My improved registering water meter is represented on the annexed
Drawing, and is composed of a hollow cylinder accurately bored, within which
a piston plays up and down; the water entering in this cylinder is measured
as it flows out through special apertures communicating with the upper and
lower part of the cylinder, which apertures or water ports are shut and opened
by a circular sliding valve or common lifting valves.
Fig. 1 is a front view of an apparatus constructed with a circular sliding
valve; Fig. 2 is a corresponding cross section; and Fig. 3, a vertical section.
of the same reverted apparatus, shewing the exit apertures and circular sliding
valve.
In these three Figures the same Figures refer to the same organs.
a, cylinder, in which plays up and down the piston b, composed of metallic
plates and stamped leather buckets. The cylinder is closed by a cover d
provided with a stuffing box for the passage of a rod c screwed to the piston;
another rod i bent at its top part is fastened to the first one, it plays up and
down with it; it runs through and is guided by the ring k. Two studs or
hitting pieces n, n', are fixed on the rod by setting screws; their position
may be altered, if necessary, to regulate the work of the apparatus. A move-
able ring or socket o° provided with three arms o, o¹, can move on another
ring p fixed on the bottom piece t; the arms o, o¹, u, are not in the same
plane; the bottom piece of the cylindrical box q is cast together with the
cylinder a; it is the distributing table of the circular slide valve v which plays
around the axis x; conveying pipes e, e¹, and g are in communication with the
water box 9; the pipes e, e¹, convey the water to be distributed to the cylinder
a, whilst the pipe 9 conveys out the liquid when it has been measured in the
cylinder.
The circular sliding valve v fulfils the same duty as the slide valves of
common steam engines, and the water ports r, r', establish the alternate
communication of the water box q with the upper or lower part of the cylinder;
whilst the aperture 9 causes the same box to communicate with the eduction
pipe g¹. The water box q has an induction aperture h. The small piston t
relieves the sliding valve from the pressure of the water; its section is pro-.
portionate to that of the slide valve; the spring F forces the slide valve to rub.
against the table. Another helical spring is enclosed in the hollow cylinder m²
inserted itself in another one m; this latter cylinder hinges on a steady

page_text: axlej and the other one hinges on a moveable axle f. A clockwork on the top of
the cylinder a registers as usual on special dials the quantity of water measured';
this movement is actuated by a catching piece fixed on the piston rod..
!
För measuring the water distributed by a circular slide valve the pressure
of the water must be greater than the atmospheric pressure; the liquid enters
the box 7 through the aperture h, and according to the actual position of the
valve v it runs under 'the' piston in the lower part of the cylinder a, and by its
pressure causes this piston to move upwards, then the water contained in the
ujiper part of the cylinder flows out through the eduction pipe g². When the
piston reaches the end of its stroke it must without sensibly stopping. move
downwards; this is performed by causing the valve v to vibrate on its axle x,
then the water port 2 being opened the liquid runs through this aperture into
the upper part of the cylinder. The wholo mode of distribution of the liquid
consists in a vibrating motion given to the circular slide valve, so that the
water ports ŕ and are by turn opened for the admission of the water. I
will now describe how the partial rotative motion of the valve v is produced; if
we look-at-the-actual-position of the working pieces, the rod i being attached to
the piston rod c moves' up' and' down to the same extent as the latter, when
moving up, the piston-b drives along with it the rod i, the upper stud n runs
by the side of the arm'o', but the lower'stud n', which is in the same plane as
this arm catches it and causes the whole piece o° to move round on the socket f,
where it is loose; at this moment the arm u carried by the same piece in its
down motion bears on the helical spring inclosed in the cylindrical boxes -
m, m³, and brings it at the same time in a vertical position, but as soon as it
is on the other side of the vertical line, the arm u being past the dead point;
the spring by unbending suddenly impels the piece of which drives the sliding
valve v through the axle x, and brings the said valve in a reversed position.
This motion of the sliding valve is produced by two teeth projecting on the
piece oº, which catch by turn a small stud fixed on the axle & of the slide
valve. When moving down the upper stud n catches the arm ó, which it
drives in a reverse direction just as the stud »' had done the arm o³.
"It' will be easily understood by the foregoing description that the-length of
the piston stroke is limited by the position of the knockers n, n'; now as they'
are moveable on the rod i, where they can be fixed at any convenient place,
it follows that the length of the stroke can be varied as required; therefore
since the diameter of the cylinder a is a constant quantity the length of the
stroke being settled, each stroke will produce a cylinder full of liquid, the
volume of which is constant whatever may be the pressure of the water. Now
the number of pistons' strokes is ascertained during a certain lapse of time

page_text: the total of the volumes of liquid furnished by each stroke of the piston will
also be known in gallons and multiple of gallons corresponding to the strokes
shown on special dials, as in almost all gas or water meters, the motion of the
hands of the dials being produced by a special catching piece. tied to the piston.
rod. The distribution of the liquid can be operated by four lift valves a, a¹,,
b, b¹, as shown, Fig. 4, instead of a circular slide valve, as just described; two:
of the said lift-valves being fixed on each rod s and s¹; the ends of said rods,
slide freely in the sockets d, d, d, d, they receive a two-and-fro motion from the
swing lever k carried by a shaft o, which shaft being alternately actuated.in the
right and left directions, like the shaft in Figs. 1 and 3; causes the liquid to
be distributed by turn in the upper and lower parts of the cylinder., If, for
instance, we consider the actual position of the valves in Fig. 4, the liquid
entering from h in the water box p enters the opened inlet of the valve b¹,
and runs through the pipe e' in the lower part of the cylinder a; it cannot run
in the upper part of the cylinder because the valve a shuts its port, whilst the
liquid driven by the piston in the upper part of the cylinder finding an opened
aperture, the port of the valve b, it flows out through the pipe g¹; which is
shown by arrows; the liquid flowing out cannot mix with that entering,
because the valves a and a' are shut. When the piston of the cylinder a is at
the end of its up stroke the distribution of the liquid must be altered, to this
effect the valves a, a², must open their water ports, and the valves 6, 6¹¹, must
close at the same time on their seats, this effect is produced by the reversed
slide motion of the rods s, s', which are actuated by the swing lever k binging
on the shaft o, this lever being itself driven; as before described, by the rod i,
shown in Figs. 1 and 3.
My Invention being now described, I would observe in conclusion, that the
mode of measuring liquids by means of a cylinder- and piston has long .been
known; therefore I do not claim the use of that organ as my Invention, the
novelty of which consists in the particular combination and arrangement of all
the pieces producing the distribution of the liquid in either parts of a cylinder,
and the way of reversing the direction of this distribution, either by means of
a circular sliding valve or the combination of double-lift valves, the first one
being actuated by a swing motion catching a small stud projecting on its
shaft, which is driven by turn in the right and left directions causing the valve
to open the water ports to communicate now with the lower then with the
upper part of the cylinder, the double lift valves being also actuated by a
swing lever, which when moving drives in opposite directions two 'sliding rods
carrying the lift valves; in order to open at once the inlet of the upper part of
the cylinder and the outlet of the lower part, and vice versa, the, swing or

page_text: vibrating motion in both cases being driven by adjustable studs fixed on a rod
tied to the piston rod, as it has been described and shown in the annexed
Drawing Now if all the pieces composing my apparatus, have been described,'
instead of describing only those constituting my Invention, it is for the purpose
of shewing better the simple and regular work of the latter, in order to allow
the comparison of their forms, combination, and way of working to similar
pieces applied to water meters constructed for measuring liquids by means of
a cylinder and piston.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alphonse Vital Donnet, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eight day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Signed and sealed in the presence of
L. D'AUBREVILLE, C.E.
A. V. DONNET. (L.S.)