IMPROVEMENTS IN SPEED INDICATORS FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE, AND OTHER PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Stroudley, of Brighton, in the County of
.
Sussex, Locomotive and Carriage Superintendent to the London, Brighton,
and South Coast Railway Company, London Bridge, for an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SPEED INDICATORS FOR LOCOMOTIVE, MARINE, AND OTHER
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Stroudley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th April 1881.
WILLIAM STROUDLEY, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex, Locomotive and
Carriage Superintendent to the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
Company, London Bridge. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPEED INDICATORS FOR LOCOMOTIVE,
MARINE, AND OTHER ENGINES AND ROTATING MACHINES."
This Invention relates to improvements on and additions to the speed indicator
for which I obtained Letters Patent bearing date the 27th of March 1879,
No. 1211, and consists in combining with the said indicator, in addition to the
glass guage tube and graduated scale for denoting the speed, a pair of vertically
disposed cylinders of metal or other suitable material of any convenient size and
of equal diameters, their length being equal to that of the said glass tube in the
scale. Both these cylinders are to be about half filled with water or other suitable
liquid, and the connection from the one cylinder to the other is established by
means of the two pipes referred to in the Specification to my said former Patent,
the one pipe leading from one cylinder to the centre of the fan or centrifugal
pump, and the other pipe leading from the periphery of the said pump to the
second cylinder. In each of these cylinders there is provided a suitable float,
properly guided so as to rise and fall with the water in the corresponding cylinder.
These floats serve to actuate by the aid of levers, pulleys, or wheels, a pencil or
marker which records upon a suitably ruled or divided traversing sheet of paper
moved by clockwork or other convenient means, a line showing the speed of the
engine in miles per hour or the number of revolutions per minute, as may be
required in a stationary, marine, or locomotive engine or other rotating machine.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Stroudley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th October 1881.
1.
WILLIAM STROUDLEY, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex, Locomotive and
Carriage Superintendent to the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
Company, London Bridge. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPEED INDICATORS FOR LOCOMOTIVE,
MARINE, AND OTHER ENGINES AND ROTATING MACHINES."
My said Invention relates to improvements on and additions to the speed
indicator for which I obtained Letters Patent bearing date the 27th of March
1879, No. 1211, aud consists in combining with the said indicator, either in
addition to or in substitution for the glass guage tube and adjustable graduated
scale for denoting the speed, a pair of vertically disposed cylindrical or other
conveniently shaped vessels of metal or other suitable material of any convenient
size and of equal diameters, their length being, by preference, equal to that of the
said glass tube in the scale. Both these vessels or cylinders are to be about half
filled with water or other suitable liquid, and the connection between the one
vessel and the other, as also between both vessels and the pump (which is by
preference of rotary or centrifugal action), is established by means of two pipes or
passages described in the Specification to my said former Patent, the one pipe
leading from the bottom of one vessel to the centre of the fan or centrifugal pump,
and the other pipe leading from the bottom of the second vessel or cylinder to the
periphery of the said pump. In cach of these vessels or cylinders there is provided
a suitable float, properly guided, if required, so as to rise and fall with the water
in the corresponding vessel or cylinder. These floats by their rising and falling
movement serve to actuate, by the aid of any suitable or well known mechanical
arrangement, a pencil or marker, which records upon a suitably ruled or divided
traversing sheet of paper moved by clockwork or other convenient means, as is
well understood, a line showing the speed of the engine in miles per hour or the
number of revolutions per minute, as may be required in a stationary, marine, or.
locomotive engine or other rotating machine; or the same may be indicated to the
eye without being necessarily recorded by the employment of a rotary disc or dial
actuated by the floats, and suitably divided or graduated, in conjunction with a
stationary indicator, or a rotary indicator may be used in conjunction with a
stationary graduated disc or dial.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to
the several Figures on the explanatory Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a sectional elevation of my improved speed
indicator herein before referred to drawn to a scale of about one quarter the full
size, Figure 2 is a corresponding edge view or vertical elevation, and Figure 3 is a
plan of the apparatus corresponding to Figure 1.
a, a¹, are two cylindrical or other shaped vessels secured in a vertical position to
the casting b, which constitutes the circular casing of a simple form of centrifugal
pump or fan c driven by the pulley d from any convenient rotary part of the
engine or machine, the speed of working of which is required to be indicated. In
general construction this pump or fan may be similar to that described in the
Specification to my said Patent, No. 1211, A.D. 1879, but by preference somewhat
wider. The bottom of one of the cylinders or vessels a communicates direct by. a
passage e with the circumference of the pump casing, and the bottom of the other
cylinder or vessel a' communicates by the passage e with the centre of the said

page_text: casing at a point, by preference, opposite the end of the spindle. f, f', are two
floats, by preference made hollow, of thin copper or other metal, and working
freely up and down each within its own cylinder; g, g', are cords which connect
the respective floats with the opposite sides of a double grooved pulley h turning
on the upper end of the forked upright support or frame i situate between the
cylinders a, a, to which it is attached. This pulley should be placed a little off
the square to permit each groove therein to coincide with the axial centre line of
its own particular cylinder (see Figure 3). The axle of the pulley carries a pinion k
in gear with a vertically sliding rack mounted in suitable guides in the frame i,
and to this rack there is connected an ordinary slide and pencil or marker m,
which is guided vertically along the small slotted guide n fixed to the top of the
frame i, and is arranged to have about the same amount of travel as the pencil of
an ordinary steam engine indicator. Water or other suitable liquid having been
introduced in the cylinders and pump casing to such a level as will buoy the floats
when in their normal position, as shown in the Drawings, it will be seen that the
revolution of the fan or pump will tend to force such liquid from the periphery of
the pump case up the passage e into the cylinder a, thereby raising the float f
therein, whilst at the same time the liquid in the cylinder a¹ is drawn through the
passage el into the centre of the pump casing, producing a corresponding descent
of the float f, both floats following the level of the liquid in each cylinder. This
rising and falling of the floats turns more or less the pulley 7, and raises or lowers
the pencil accordingly. I prefer that the floats shall travel up and down through
the same distance as the liquid level in the glass tube of the indicator described in
my said former Specification, so that the same scale will apply to the movement
of the floats as to the said tube. By suitably graduating or marking an index
(not shown in the Drawing) on the pulley h and using a stationary indicator o, the
speed in miles per hour if applied to a locomotive engine, or the number of
revolutions per minute of any engine or machine may be rendered visible, as well
as being indicated and recorded by the pencil on a moving piece of paper P
actuated by clockwork or otherwise, as is well understood. q is a waste pipe and
blank nut for allowing the liquid to be run out should it be found. necessary for
cleaning the apparatus.
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 to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
The combination in a speed indicator of a pump or fan with upright vessels or
cylinders containing a liquid and floats, said floats being caused to actuate by their
rising and falling movement a recording pencil, or a rotary divided dial, or rotary
indicator or pointer, in conjunction or not with the said recording pencil, 'sub-
stantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stroudley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
WILLIAM STROUDLEY. (L.S.)