Improvements in Wet Gas Meters.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Mar., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 13th Dec., 1892-Accepted, 28th Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Wet Gas Meters.
A communication from GEORGE WILLIAM GAY, Engineer, of Rosario, de
Santa Fé, Argentine Republic, South America.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object the prevention of extracting of the water or
other liquid from wet gas meters, a practice resorted to by tilting them or by
blowing down the water supply pipe or the connections to the gas outlet of
meter and thereby extracting the liquid through the waste water chamber in order
to lower the water level and thereby admit of the passage through the meter of a
greater quantity of gas than will be registered. Also further when the meter is so
tilted to cut off all further supply of gas.
In this meter I reverse the action of the drum (on the principle adopted by
Mr. CHunt in his compensating meter and by Mr. Urquhart in his reliance
meter the gas entering the body of the meter through passages in the valve
chamber and making its exit through the tube and box to the general outlet;
the usual partition forming the two compartments is removed and replaced by a
bracket to support the bearings of drum. The ordinary water overflow pipe is
prolonged through the waste water chamber to and along the bottom of the meter
and the same continued up the back to a level just below the proper water level
forming a second overflow for the surplus liquid and down a continuation of the
tube and returning along the bottom of meter and discharging into the waste
water chamber. A ventilation pipe is provided to prevent syphoning. Thus
when the meter is tilted the liquid contained in the meter cannot be made to
discharge through the overflow pipe as the second overflow point will be above
the level of water in the body of the meter. On the gas outlet is formed a
bottomless box or casing into which is connected the gas pipe and in it is placed
the liquid supply pipe so that should a person blow down the gas outlet or water
supply pipe it will have no effect on the water in the body of the meter as they
are connected direct to the waste water chamber by the gas pipe.
Should the meter be tilted sufficiently to uncover the partitions of the drum, to
cut off the passage of gas through the meter a liquid seal is provided by so
arranging a float box and float with an outlet sufficiently large to admit of the free
passage of gas, placed just above the water level that when tilted the water will
rise above the passage and seal the gas supply.
In a modified arrangement a Y-shaped pipe is provided which may be placed on
either the gas inlet or outlet and should the meter be tilted the water rising will
seal the passage of gas at the fork. By these appliances the limit to which a meter
may be tilted can be regulated to any desired point.
Dated this 16th day of March 1892.
ALFRED J. BOULT,
Chartered Patent Agent.

page_text: Improvements in Wet Gas Meters.
A communication from GEORGE WILLIAM GAY, Engineer, of Rosario, de
Santa Fé, Argentine Republic, South America.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M. I. Mech. E., do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its object the prevention of extracting of the water or
other liquid from wet gas meters, a practice resorted to by tilting them or by
blowing down the water supply pipe or the connections to the gas outlet of meter
and thereby extracting the liquid through the waste water chamber in order to
lower the water level and thereby admit of the passage through the meter of
a greater quantity of gas than will be registered. Also further when the meter
is so tilted to cut off all further supply of gas.
In this meter I reverse the action of the drum (on the principle adopted by
Mr. C. Hunt in his compensating meter and by Mr. Urquhart in his reliance
meter) the gas entering the body of the meter through passages in the valve
chamber and making its exit through the tube and box to the general outlet ; the
usual partition forming the two compartments is removed and replaced by a
bracket to support the bearings of drum. The ordinary water overflow pipe or
passage is prolonged through the waste water chamber to and along the bottom of
the meter and the same continued up the back to a level just below the proper
water level forming a second overflow for the surplus liquid and down a continuation
of the tube or passage and returning along the bottom of meter and discharging
into the waste water chamber. A ventilation pipe is provided to prevent syphoning.
Thus when the meter is tilted the liquid contained in the meter cannot be made to
discharge through the overflow pipe or passage as the second overflow point will be
above the level of water in the body of the meter. On the gas outlet is formed a
bottomless box or casing into which is connected the gas pipe and in it is placed
the liquid supply pipe so that should a person blow down the gas outlet or water
supply pipe it will have no effect on the water in the body of the meter as they are
connected direct to the waste water chamber by the gas pipe.
Should the meter be tilted sufficiently to uncover the partitions of the drum, to
cut off the passage of gas through the meter a liquid seal is provided by so
arranging a float box and float with an outlet sufficiently large to admit of the free
passage of gas, placed just above the water level that when tilted the water will
rise above the passage and seal the gas supply.
In a modified arrangement a Y-shaped pipe or passage is provided which may be
placed on either the gas inlet or outlet and should the meter be tilted the water
rising will seal the passage of gas at the fork. By these appliances the limit to
which a meter may be tilted can be regulated to any desired point.
In the accompanying drawings
Figure 1 is a vertical section of a gas meter constructed according to this
invention, taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, which latter is a transverse section
taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing the meter tilted forward,
in this figure only such parts are shown as are necessary to the understanding of
the operation of the invention when the meter is tilted forward.
Figure 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.
Figure 5 is a section taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 6, of a modified form of gas
meter constructed according to this invention, and
Figure 6 is a transverse section of the same taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.
Like letters indicate like parts throughout the drawings.

page_text: A is the body of the meter (hereinafter referred to as the drum chamber) in
which the drum B is supported so that it may freely rotate within it in any con-
venient manner. C is a partition which separates the waste water chamber D
from the drum chamber A and which partition may if desired, extend a short
distance above the plate E to serve for supporting the front end of the drum
spindle B¹ as shown or if provided with the necessary perforations to admit
of the water passing from the chamber F to the drum chamber A, may extend
up to the top of the meter. G is the water filling tube shown in Fig. 1 in
dotted lines and which extends down to near the bottom of the chamber F.
G' is a casing shown partly in dotted lines in Fig. 1 surrounding the lower part
of the tube G and having secured on its bottom plate a cone G³ the point
of which extends slightly into the lower end of the tube G. This water inlet
device G G¹ G³ may be arranged inside the casing H from the upper part of
which a bent pipe H₁ leads through the plate E to the chamber D. At the
back, the bent pipe H¹ has secured to it the upturned branch H³, Fig. 2,
which extends into the drum B and receives the gas from the compartments
of the drum B in the usual manner. The casing A is closed at its top except
at the part at which the gas outlet I is provided, and at its lower part it
is opened and dips down considerably beneath the surface of the water in
the compartment F, and extends to near the plate E. The gas inlet J is
mounted at say the left hand corner as shown in Figure 1, of the chamber F,
but is not in direct communication with the interior of said chamber, the gas
before reaching the interior of this chamber having first to pass in the directions
indicated by the arrows in Figs. 1 and 2 through the float valve apparatus K, and
beneath the lower edge of the plate L which forms, as it were, the front of a
chamber M wherein the valve K and baffle plates M³ are mounted. The function
of the float valve apparatus K is the same as that in other meters in which such
apparatus is employed but the plate L performs the special function of stopping
off the admission of gas to the meter when said meter is tilted forward sufficiently
to submerge the lower edge of the plate L as shown in Fig. 3. N is a pipe or
passage which has preferably a flared or funnel shaped mouth at its front end in
the chamber F and which passes down through the bottom E of said chamber and
through the chamber D bends backwards through the partition or plate C with
"which it makes a tight joint and extends right to the back of the drum chamber A,
between the back wall of which and the back of the drum B it extends upwards at
one side of the drum axle B' and passes down at the other side of the axle B¹ to
the bottom of the drum chamber A and forwards beneath the drum B and opens
into the chamber D. At the part of the pipe or passage N at which it is bent
over the axle B¹ a ventilating pipe N' is provided to prevent the syphoning of the
water, as will be well understood. In the chamber are provided plates D¹ D'
the former adjacent to the pipe or passage N and determining the level of the main
body of the water in the chamber D and the latter in front of the plate D' and
between it and the overflow outlet D³ which is normally closed by a screw plug D*.
When the before described meter is standing level and gas is admitted to it in
the ordinary way, the gas passes through the inlet J and in the direction of the
arrows shown in Figs. 1 and 2 beneath the lower edge of the plate L, and
between that edge and the surface of the water. The gas thus passing into the
chamber F then passes into drum chamber A through the drum B which it
actuates in the ordinary manner and thence by way of the branch H2 and
pipe H' to the upper part of chamber H from which it passes through the outlet I.
Should the meter be tilted forward in the manner shown in Fig. 3 the lower
edge of the plate L becomes submerged in the water and thus the supply of
gas is cut off while at the same time no water can escape from the main body
of the meter because the only means of such escape would be by way of the
pipe or passage N and the level of the water in this pipe is lowered, consequently
it cannot pass over to the side connecting directly with the waste water chamber D.
Should the meter be tilted backwards the quantity of water in the main body of

page_text: the meter would not be appreciably affected because the level of the water would
be brought below the mouth at the front end of the pipe or passage N in the
chamber F so that if any water at all passed away from this main body it could
only be a very small quantity leaving one member of the pipe or passage N to pass
into the other member.
The construction of the water supply device G G¹ G2 is such as to preclude the
possibility of the insertion of any tube or instrument for reaching the main body of
water the plates D' D² also preventing the insertion of any tube or implement
through the outlet D' for withdrawing any appreciable quantity of water.
The registering mechanism of the meter may be of any ordinary construction and
constitutes no part of the present invention.
In the meter shown in Figs. 5 and 6 the pipe H₁ for conducting the gas to the
upper part of the chamber H is dispensed with, and instead there is provided a bent
pipe H³ one end of which is within the rotating drum B and the other end of which
opens into the chamber D. From the chamber D a pipe O extends up to near the
top of the chamber F and above this pipe O is provided the gas outlet I the lower
end of which is fitted with a grating or equivalent l' to prevent the insertion of
any implement into the pipe O for fraudulent purposes.
In this construction of meter also a pipe or passage N is provided which extends
from back to front, as in the other arrangement, but does not return from front to
back as in the example shown in Figs. 1 to 4. Instead of this the pipe or passage N
is enclosed in the chamber or passage N' which, as it were, constitutes the return
member of N the water overflowing from the back end of the pipe or passage N
into this passage N2 which is in connection with the chamber D but completely
isolated from the drum chamber A.
The result of tilting a meter of this last described construction will be sub-
stantially the same as that of the construction shown in Figs. 1 to 4 so that no
further description is considered necessary.
The before described apparatus may be modified without departing from the
spirit of this invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is,
1. In a wet gas meter connecting the main body of water in the meter with the
waste water chamber by means of a pipe or passage extending upwards at the back
and front of the meter and below the drum substantially as described.
2. As a means for preventing the fraudulent lowering of the level of the main
body of water in a gas meter the connection of the main body of water with the
waste water chamber by a pipe or passage extending downwards from the level of
the water at the front of the drum backwards below the drum and upwards to the
level of the water at the back of the drum substantially as described.
3. In a wet gas meter the employment of a pipe or passage such as N N' one
end at the front of the drum constituting the overflow pipe from the drum chamber
and the other end connecting with the waste water chamber substantially as
described and illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.
4. In a wet gas meter the combination with a bent pipe or passage such as N the
two ends of which at the front and back of the drum are level with the surface of
the water the front end being in direct communication with the main body of water
in the meter and the back end being located in or in free communication with a
casing or tube such as N' in direct connection with the waste water chamber but
isolated from the drum chamber or water contained in the drum chamber substan-
tially as described and illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying
drawings
5. In a wet gas meter the combination with the float valve device of a plate such
as L the lower edge of which occupies such position in relation to the level of the
main body of water that upon the meter being tilted the lower edge of said plate

page_text: becomes submerged and consequently prevents the further passage of gas substan-
tially as described.
6. In a wet gas meter the combination with the waste water chamber D and
chamber such as H of a pipe such as O one end opening into the waste water
chamber D and the other into the chamber H substantially as described and
illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.
7. In a wet gas meter the employment of a chamber or casing such as H
substantially as described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
8. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the complete wet gas
meter substantially as described and illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 of the accompany-
ing drawings.
9. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the complete wet gas
meter substantially as described and illustrated in Figures 5 and 6 of the accom-
panying drawings.
Deted this 13th dox of December 1902
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Of London, Liverpool, Nottingham, and Manchester,
Agents for the Applicant.