IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF GAS AND OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Emil Biedermann at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th July
1860.
I, EMIL BIEDERMANN, of 14, Rockingham Row, New. Kent Road, in the.
County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF GAS AND
OTHER FLUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to several contrivances and appliances in the con-
struction of gas and other meters by which such meters are rendered more
accurate than those hitherto in use, and simplifying the construction and
repairing of such meters, which improvements consist in using two or more
cups, vessels, or bells, of metal or other material, inverted over, and working
in water, oil, mercury, or other fluid that may be found desirable; these bells
or vessels are connected together by side levers, arms, or other mechanical
attachment, causing them to rise and fall in the water, as the gas or other
fluid to be measured is alternately admitted to the one or the other. Attached
to the pivot or centre of motion on which the vessels or cups oscillate, is
attached a lever or arm, acting on a kind of escapement, and giving motion
to another lever connected to a tube filled with mercury or other pon-
derous fluid, which tube on being tilted causes the mercury to descend to
the lower end of the said tube, and through the lever give motion to a slido
valve or other suitable apparatus, through which the gas or other fluid to be

page_text: measured has to pass on its way to the cups or measuring bells. As the
mercury gives motion to the tube, and through it to the slide valve, the gas
contained in one bell is discharged or liberated, and a fresh supply admitted to
the other, and so on alternately, the quantity or measure of such gas or
other fluid being equal to the area of the bells multiplied by the stroke.
The bells being enclosed in an air-tight case partly filled with water, and
separated from each other by a diaphragm open at the bottom, so as to
allow a free communication of the water, the bells or cups are by such means
each enclosed in a separate air-tight vessel, and the gas being admitted into
the space surrounding the outside of one bell, and at the same time under the
other, while it is discharged from the opposite sides, render the bells double
acting.
The tilting of the tube containing the mercury by means of the lever before
mentioned passing through an open partition, and communicating at the
bottom with the water in the above mentioned case, and therefore also
partly filled with water obviates all air or water-tight joints.
The levers in connection with the mercury tube are so arranged as to
cause the said tube to tilt always at the same point, thereby ensuring an exact
measure of the contained fluid in the bells or cups. The valve is so ar-
ranged that the pressure of the passing fluid acts on its outer side, and
ensures a correct fit. The advantages claimed for this Invention are a
more correct, and absolute measure of the quantity of fluid passing through
this meter than in those hitherto constructed, facility and simplicity of
construction and repair, and the fact that the alteration of level of water in
the meter, from evaporation or other cause, does not interfere with the
correct measuring capabilities of the meter so long as the mouths of the bells,
cups, or other vessels employed shall be at all immersed when at the top of.
their respective strokes.