IMPROVE- MENTS IN MEASURING AND REGISTERING THE FLOW OR DISCHARGE OF LIQUIDS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Sim, of the City and County of Aberdeen,
North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MEASURING AND REGISTERING THE FLOW OR DISCHARGE OF
LIQUIDS."
Sealed the 28th August 1860, and dated the 14th March 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Sim at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th March
1860.
I, JAMES SIM, of the City and County of Aberdeen, North Britain, Manu-
facturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEASURING AND REGISTERING THE FLOW OR DISCHARGE OF
LIQUIDS," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the adaptation and use of ordinary gas meters or
other fluid or liquid measuring and registering apparatus in the measuring
and registering the flow or discharge of liquids under various circumstances
and in various conditions, and it bears importantly upon an Invention of " Im-
provements in Measuring and Registering the Flow or Discharge of Liquids,"
for which I made application for British Letters Patent on or about the 25th
of November last past, No. 2669/59. The Provisional Specification of that

page_text: Invention describes the improvements as consisting in the adaptation of a wet
gas meter or other fluid meter to the measurement and registration of the flow
or discharge of liquids, by causing the atmospheric air necessary for supplying
the vacuum created by the withdrawal of any liquid from a cask or reservoir
to pass through the said meter, and thus negatively measure and register the
quantity of liquid drawn off. Now, according to the present Invention,, the
neter still measures and registers the quantity of liquid drawn from any recep-
tacle, but it is through the medium of the air dislodged from another cask or
receptacle by the admission of the negatively measured liquid thereto.
Supposing a liquid is to be drawn from a stock cask or reservoir into another
cask, the measurement of the quantity so drawn off and supplied to the
receiving cask is effected in this way:-The stock cask has a pipe to conduct
the liquid into the cask to be filled, and a second and independent pipe passes
off from the bung or top of the receiving cask to the inlet pipe of a meter, the
outlet pipe of which meter is open to the atmosphere. Thus the quantity of
air passed through the meter from the receiving cask necessarily indicates
exactly the quantity of liquid supplied to it. The arrangement may be carried
out in practice in various ways, the essence of the Invention being the mea-
surement and registration of the flow or discharge of liquids through the
medium of the air discharged from any air-tight receptacle into which such
liquids are made to flow.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Sim in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th
September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SIM, of the City and County of Aberdeen, North Britain, Manufacturing
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Sim, Her special license that I, the said James Sim,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Sim, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agreè
with, and no others, from time to time and all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,

page_text: and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEASURING AND REGISTERING THE FLOW OR DISCHARGE OF LIQUIDS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Sim, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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 James Sim, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to the adaptation and use of ordinary gas meters
or other fluid or liquid measuring and registering apparatus in the measuring
and registering the flow or discharge of liquids, under various circumstances
and in various conditions, and it bears importantly upon an Invention of
Improvements in Measuring and Registering the Flow or Discharge of Liquids,"
for which I made application for British Letters Patent on or about tho
Twenty-fifth of November last past, No. 2669/59. The Provisional Speci-
fication of that Invention describes the improvements as consisting in tho
adaptation of a wet gas meter or other fluid meter to the measurement and
registration of the flow or discharge of liquids by causing the atmospheric air
necessary for supplying the vacuum created by the withdrawal of any liquid
from a cask or reservoir to pass through the said meter, and thus negatively
measure and register the quantity of liquid drawn off. Now, according to the
present Invention, the meter still measures and registers the quantity of liquid
drawn from any receptacle, but it is through the medium of the air dislodged
from another cask or receptacle by the admission of the negatively measured
liquid thereto. Supposing a liquid is to be drawn from a stock cask or
reservoir into another cask, the measurement of the quantity so drawn off and
supplied to the receiving cask is effected in this way:-The stock cask has a
pipe to conduct the liquid into the cask to be filled, and a second and inde-
pendent pipe passes off from the bung or top of the receiving cask to the
inlet pipe of a meter, the outlet pipe of which meter is open to the atmosphere.
Thus the quantity of air passed through the meter from the receiving cask
necessarily indicates exactly the quantity of liquid supplied to it. The arrange-
ment may be carried out in practice in various ways, the essence of the
Invention being the measurement and registration of the flow or discharge of

page_text: liquids through the medium of the air discharged from any air-tight receptacle
into which such liquids are made to flow.
And in order that my said Invention of improvements in measuring and
registering the flow or discharge of liqaids may be properly understood, I shall
now proceed to describe certain modifications under which my said improve-
ments may be judiciously carried out in practice, that is to say, my present
Invention refers more particularly to a system or mode of measuring and
registering the quantity of liquid withdrawn from the stock cask, vat, or
reservoir. Under one arrangement for effecting this object, to the tap or
valvular apparatus fixed in the lower part of the vessel is attached-a-pipe
or flexible tube, which communicates with a tubular plug or spigot made to
fit air-tight to the faucet or bunghole of the cask or vessel to be filled. The
plug or spigot is made with duplex tubular passages through it, both of which
are in communication with pipes or flexible tubes. One of these tubes serves
to carry the liquor from the stock cask into the vessel to be filled, and hence
its free extremity is attached to the nose of the tap in the stock cask. The
free end of the other tube is connected to the inlet pipe of the meter, by
means of which the quantity of liquid passed or allowed to run into the cask
or receiving vessel is accurately measured and registered.
I prefer to use for this purpose is a modification of the ordinary gas or air
meter, and is so arranged as to measure the quantity of air passed through it,
and register the same in liquid measure, or gallons and aliquot parts thereof.
A meter specially designed for this particular purpose is fully described in the
Specification of British Letters Patent granted to me, and bearing date on or
about the Twenty-fifth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-nine, and numbered 2669, and is delineated in the Drawings thereunto
annexed.
The meter which
With the stock cask arranged as herein before described, and communicating
by means of the pipe or flexible tube with the cask or air-tight receiving
vessel, it follows that upon any liquid being allowed to flow into the receiving
vessel, a corresponding quantity of air contained in the vessel will be displaced.
The air so displaced by the admission of the liquid to the receiving vessel
flows away by the secondary or air tube to the meter, its admission to which
causes the measuring drum to be put in motion, which registers the quantity of
air in gallons or parts of the same. There is in the meter I have herein-before
referred to a rim wheel on which is engraved the aliquot parts of a gallon, and
there are three index plates with indexes or pointers similar to those of an ordinary
gas meter, but arranged for indicating gallons, tens of gallons, and hundreds of
gallons. Thus one revolution of the rim wheel causes the first-wheel of the

page_text: train to move its pointer and indicate one on the corresponding dial. In this
way as the liquid flows into the vessel, the air displaced from it causes tho
measuring drum to keep up its rotatory motion and duly register on the index
plate the quantity withdrawn from the stock cast, vat, or reservoir. With
this arrangement the owner of the stock liquid has at all times the means of
checking the quantity of liquid withdrawn from time to time from the stock
vessel, and of knowing the quantity contained therein.
The meter and its connecting tubes may also be arranged in permanent
connection with the stock vessel, the tubular plug or spigot only being left
free to be inserted in the vessel to be filled, and in this way a constant and
accurate account of the quantities of liquid abstracted from the stock vessel
may be kept.
The méter may also be made available for registering the quantity of
liquid added to the contents of the stock cask, provided it is a closed vessel.
To register in this way a note is taken of the contents of the stock vessel as
indicated by the meter prior to making the addition. The tube attached to
the inlet pipe of the meter is disconnected from the tubular plug or spigot,
and connected with the upper part of the stock cask by means of a union
joint so as to put the space above the liquid in communication with the meter.
The liquid to be added to the stock is, by preference, passed into the cask by
means of a tube made air-tight with the top of the cask, and dipping into the
liquid to prevent the escape of the air contained within the vessel, except
through the tube leading to the registering apparatus. The liquid may be
run into the stock vessel in any convenient manner and without requiring
attention, for as it flows into the vessel the quantity is duly registered on the
index plate of the meter, and it is only necessary to turn off the supply when
the required quantity has been run in. A note is then taken of the contents
of the stock vessel to serve as a check upon the quantities subsequently run
off from the same. In this way the meter may be arranged in a locked case,
and serve to register the additions to the stock, as well as the quantities taken
therefrom.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the system or mode of measuring and registering the quantity of
liquid conveyed into a cask or other closed vessel by means of the volume of
air which is expelled from the cask or closed vessel, and is caused to actuate

page_text: the mechanism of a meter and so register the quantity of liquid conveyed into
the receiving vessel, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of measuring and registering the quantity of
liquid added to a stock cask or vessel by means of the displaced air, the
quantity of which passing through the meter indicates the number of gallons
or other quantities added to that contained in the stock vessel, as herein-before
contained.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Sim, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of September, One thousand eight
JAS. SIM. (L.S.)