IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF GAS METERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHEET METAL SUITABLE FOR GAS METERS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Herman Kromschroeder and John Frederick
Gustav Kromschroeder, both of Princess Terrace, Regent's Park, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF GAS METERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHEET METAL
SUITABLE FOR GAS METERS."
Sealed the 13th April 1868, and dated the 22nd October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Herman Krom-
schroeder and John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd October
1862.
We, HENRY HERMAN KROMSCHROEDER and JOHN FREDERICK GUSTAV
KROMSCHROEDER, both of Princess Terrace, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS METERS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHEET METAL
SUITABLE FOR GAS METERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of gas
meters, and in the manufacture of sheet metal suitable for gas meters. In
constructing the measuring drum for a gas meter, it is formed of two con*
centric cylinders, and the annular space between them is divided into a
series of similar measuring compartments by partitions formed as hereafter
explained. It is preferred that the annular space should be divided into four
measuring compartments, but this is not essential. Each partition from the

page_text: point where it is connected with the inner cylinder proceeds outwards from it
in a straight line, and in such a direction that if prolonged it would pass
through a small portion of the inner cylinder. After proceeding in this
direction for about two-thirds of the distance between the point where it
starts from and the point in the outer cylinder which the line, if continued,
would intersect, the partition descends in a straight line until it joins the outer
cylinder; this it does at a point near to where a line drawn from the point
where the partition is connected to the inner cylinder, and at a tangent to it,
would cut the outer cylinder.
The water line in the meter is somewhat below the upper part of the inner
cylinder, and gas is admitted above the water line into the interior of the
inner cylinder. There is a passage formed through the inner cylinder into
each measuring compartment, and such openings are immediately below the
points where the partitions join the inner cylinder; in the outer cylinder there
is an outlet passage formed above each partition for the passage of the gas
out of the compartments, when the lowest end of the compartment comes
above the water line in the meter. Interior of the central cylinder there is
applied or formed a float to support or buoy up the measuring drum, but to
which separately no claim is made.
In the construction of gas meters, tin-plate is now used for the outer cases
and for the measuring drum, and the iron in such tin-plate is very liable to
be prejudicially acted on by the gas and moisture; in some cases it has also
been attempted to use copper, but it has been found that the action of the gas
and atmospheric air, together with the moisture to which the interior of the
case and the measuring drum of a gas meter are subjected, is still more
injurious to that metal than to the iron in the tin-plate.
Another part of this Invention consists in manufacturing sheet metal
peculiarly suitable for gas meters, and in constructing the cases and the
measuring drums of gas meters of such sheet metal. By a course of experi-
ments, we have found that rolled tinned sheet metal composed of the alloy of
copper and tin hereafter described, is not so prejudicially acted on by gas and
moisture as the metals heretofore used. The alloy consists as near as may
be of about sixteen parts by weight of copper. and, one and three-quarter
parts of tin. The melted alloy is poured into moulds to form ingots, which
are rolled into sheets, and in doing so it is found desirable continuously to
roll in the same direction. The metal is also to be annealed from time to
time during the rolling process. The sheets are then to be coated with tin,
or a suitable alloy of tin in like manner to that in which sheet iron is
coated.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Herman Kromschroeder and John Frederick Gustav
Kromschroeder in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd April 1863,
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
HERMAN KROMSCHROEDER and JOHN FREDERICK GUSTAV KROMSCHROEDER,
both of Princess Terrace, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
I
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Henry Herman Kromschroeder and John Frederick. Gustav
Kromschroeder, Her special licence that we, the said Henry Herman Krom-
schroeder and John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Herman
Kromschroeder and John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN, THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS METERS,
AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHEET METAL SUITABLE FOR GAS METERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Herman Kromschroeder
and John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or. under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Henry Herman Kromschroeder and
John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:-
In
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of gas
meters, and in the, manufacture of sheet metal suitable for gas meters.
constructing the measuring drum for a gas meter it is formed of two con-

page_text: centric cylinders, and the annular space between them is divided into a series
of similar measuring compartments by partitions formed as hereafter explained.
It is preferred that the annular space should be divided into four measuring
compartments, but this is not essential. Each partition from the point where
it is connected with the inner cylinder proceeds outwards from it in a straight
line, and in such a direction that if prolonged it would pass through a small
portion of the inner cylinder. After proceeding in this direction for about
two-thirds of the distance between the point where it starts from and the
point in. the outer cylinder which the line if continued would intersect, the
partition descends in a straight line until it joins the outer cylinder; this it
does at a point near to where a line drawn from the point where the partition
is connected to the inner cylinder, and at a tangent to it, would cut the outer
cylinder. The water line in the meter is somewhat below the upper part of the
inner cylinder, and gas is admitted above the water line into the interior of the
inner cylinder. There is a passage formed through the inner cylinder into
each measuring compartment, and such openings are immediately below the
points where the partitions join the inner cylinder. In the outer cylinder
there is an outlet passage formed above each partition for the passage of the
gas out of the compartments, when the lowest end of the compartment comes
above the water line in the meter. Interior of the central cylinder there is
applied or formed a float to support or buoy up the measuring drum, but to
which separately no claim is made.
In the construction of gas meters, tin-plate is now used for the outer cases
and for the measuring drum, and the iron in such tin-plate is very liable to be
prejudicially acted on by the gas and moisture; in some cases it has also been
attempted to use copper, but it has been found that the action of the gas and
atmospheric air, together with the moisture to which the interior of the case
and the measuring drum of a gas meter are subjected, is still more injurious
to that metal than to the iron in the tin-plate.
Another part of this Invention consists in manufacturing sheet metal
peculiarly suitable for gas meters, and in constructing the cases and the
measuring drums of gas meters of such sheet metal.
By a course of experiments we have found that rolled tinned, sheet metal
composed of the alloy of copper and tin hereafter described, is not so pre-
judicially acted on by gas and moisture as the metals heretofore used. The
alloy consists as near as may be of about sixteen parts by weight of copper
and one and three-quarter parts of tin. The melted alloy is poured into
moulds to form ingots, which are rolled into sheets, and in doing so it is found
desirable continuously to roll in the same direction. The metal is also to be

page_text: parts of a meter according to our Invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews an elevation of a gas meter partly in section; Figure 2, a
transverse section; and Figure 3, a section through the measuring drum. In
each of these Figures the same letters of reference are used to indicate the
same parts.
a, a, is the measuring drum, which is constructed of two cylinders, the outer
one a, a, and the inner one a¹, a¹. The annular space between these two
cylinders is divided into four similar measuring chambers by angular partitions
a², a²; the inner ends of the partitions a², a³, are connected to the inner
cylinder a¹. The partitions a³, a³, from the point where they are connected to
the inner cylinder, proceed in a tangential or nearly tangential direction
towards the outer cylinder, and then such partitions are bent to an angle, and
then their outer edges or ends are connected with the outer cylinder a, a, thus
producing peculiarly formed angular measuring chambers around the inner
cylinder a, a, as will readily be understood on examining Figure 3 of the
Drawings. Interior of the cylinder a¹, a¹, is a hollow float b, b, which is
mounted on the same axis as the measuring drum, and the measuring drum is
attached to such axis c by arms or spokes. The axis c of the measuring drum
is carried by a lever frame d, d, which is supported by fixed necks or axes e, e ;
on the axis c of the measuring drums is a cog wheel which takes into and
drives the cog wheelf, which revolves on one of the fixed necks or axes e, e,
of the lever frame d, d. To the cog wheelf is fixed a bevil toothed wheel g,
which takes into and drives a bevil toothed wheel h fixed on the axis i of the
counting apparatus, by which, notwithstanding the measuring drum moving,
the constant driving of the axis i of the counting apparatus is insured; ; is
the inlet or supply to the meter, through which the gas passes into the
chamber k, k, when the valve l is open, which it will be so long as the float m
is supported by water in the chamber k. The gas passes from the chamber k
through the pipe n into the chamber o, and also from the pipe n by a bent
branch pipe n' into the interior of the inner cylinder above the level of the
water therein, and thence through the openings a³ into the measuring chambers,
from which the gas flows out at the openings a' as they come above the water

page_text: in the compartment of the meter in which the measuring drum works, and
thence by the outlet pipe p. The action of the meter is regulated by means of
an inverted vessel q, which is at one end of the lever frame d, d, and into
which gas is conducted by the piper from the lower chamber o, so that the
gas in the inverted vessel 9 is at the same pressure as it is in the supply chamber.
The other end of the lever frame is weighted and regulated or adjusted as
heretofore when a similar frame and inverted vessel have been used. The
peculiarity of this part of the Invention consists in the arrangement of the
measuring chambers of the drum in combination with the mode of mounting
and floating such drum.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Herman Kromschroeder and
John Frederick Gustav Kromschroeder, have hereunto set our hands
and seals, this Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.