AN IMPROVED METER OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexis Bonnefond at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
January 1875.
I, ALEXIS BONNEFOND, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, No. 128, at Paris,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METER OR APPARATUS FOR MEASURING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS,”
to be as follows:-
.
In this improved meter or apparatus the following features or con-
ditions are combined,—
1st. As a moving power the employment of an archimedean sorew
with hollow body and several very inclined threads.
4
2nd. An air chamber disposed to preserve the registering or counting
mechanism from contact with the water or other liquid, and to suppress
all joints on the rod which transmits the motion from the screw to the
registering mechanism; this air chamber serves as a reservoir to regulate:
the pressure,

page_text: 3rd. A special arrangement of registering mechanism with discs, such
arrangement being based on the successive driving of wheels having
alternately one tooth and 10 teeth.
In this apparatus the water or liquid on entering meets the spiral
blades of a quick screw, and imparts to this screw a rotary motion which
its hollow shaft transmits to the registering mechanism.
The manner of carrying the Invention into effect will be understood
from the following description of a meter constructed according thereto :
-The casing consists of three parts, viz., the box in which the
registering mechanism is lodged, the air chamber which forms an air
reservoir regulating the pressure, and the channel through which tho
liquid to be measured flows. One portion of this channel is cylindrical
to receive the screw. The screw is formed of a hollow cylindrical body
around which are placed very inclined spiral blades or screws of several
threads. By this arrangement the leverage or action of the liquid on
the screw is greater, and the screw is rendered more sensitive. The
shaft for transmitting the motion from the screw is itself tubular for
the sake of lightness, and it turns at top and bottom in pivots or centres
of hard stone. It transmits the movements of the screw to the
registering apparatus by the following mechanism :-The upper end
of this shaft is screw-threaded, and gears with a screw wheel on the
end of a small transverse shaft supported by two brackets. This
transverse shaft carries a screw in gear with a screw wheel on the
lower end of a small vertical shaft which traverses the top and bottom
plates of the registering apparatus. This vertical shaft is held at its
lower end by a bracket, and at its upper part by the said plates; it
carries between the two plates a screw which gears with a small star
wheel of ten teeth mounted on one end of a transverse shaft, the other
end of which corresponds with the first multiplying numbered disc
of the register. The vertical shaft also carries below the upper plate
a large disc formed on its face with divisions numbered 0 to 9; this
disc represents, say quarts, and its indications are read off through an
opening in the upper plate. Each complete turn of the large disc
corresponds to the advance of one tooth of the star wheel of 10 teeth,
and consequently to 10th of the complete revolution of the first multi-
plying disc. When this multiplying disc having 10 divisions has made
a complete revolution a wheel of one tooth placed against it causes to
advance to the distance of one tooth a wheel of 10 teeth placed on onc

page_text: of the faces of the second multiplying diso. This disc also has 10
divisions, and when it has made one revolution a wheel of one tooth
placed against its opposite face causes to turn to the distance of one
tooth a wheel of ten teeth placed against one of the faces of the third
disc of the registering apparatus, and so on. I thus obtain by the
successive and alternate action of the wheels of one tooth, and of the
wheels of 10 teeth, the registering or counting of the quantity of fluid
which flows through the spiral meter. Catches or stops limit the advanco
of each wheel and of the registering discs. The registering apparatus is
covered with glass.