AN INVENTION FOR MEASURING WATER OR ANY OTHER FLUID
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HAIGU, of Wakefield, in the County of York, Plumber, and Manager of the
Wakefield Waterworks Company, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of May, in the eleventh year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Haigh, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Edward Haigh, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Edward Haigh, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN INVENTION FOR MEASURING
WATER OR ANY OTHER FLUID;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Edward Haigh, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Haigh, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and

page_text: ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):
==
The Invention for which I have obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent, as
aforesaid, consists of a machine or apparatus for measuring water or any other
fluid, of the description known as a liquid, and which machine is composed of
a wheel or revolving cylinder or drum, furnished with measuring chambers,
which are successively brought under apertures from which the liquid to be
measured flows from a chamber above.
In my machine or water meter I divide the measuring drum or cylinder
into two parts, by means of a central disc or partition, each half of the drum
having a separate feeding pipe to supply the liquid to the measuring chambers
of that side of the drum. The machine shewn in the accompanying Drawings
contains three for each half of the drum, so as to constitute two series of three
chambers each, that is, six in all; and they are so arranged that when one of
the chambers on, say the left-hand side, of the drum is receiving the liquid
that runs from its feed pipe, the liquid from the feed pipe of the right-hand
side is running through the machine without entering any of the chambers;
and when one of the chambers on the right-hand side of the drum is receiving
the liquid from its feed pipe, the liquid is passing from the left-hand feed pipe
through the machine without entering any of the chambers of the drum. It
will therefore be seen that the liquid from one or other of the feed pipes is
always being received in one of the chambers on one or other side of the drum,
while at the same time the liquid from the other feed pipe is passing through tho
machine without entering any chamber on either side of the drum; but as the
chambers on each side of the drum act alternately, and the feed pipes and
chambers are of the same dimensions, and the guage cocks supplying the
chambers are set so as to discharge the same quantities in the same time, no
error is occasioned by this arrangement, as the quantity of liquid that passes
through the machine is double that which enters the chambers, and the
machine registers double the quantity received into and discharged from the
chamber of the drum.
Figure 1, in the accompanying Drawings, represents a longitudinal vertical
section of my improved machine for measuring water or other liquids; and
Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section of the same. a, a, a, a, represents the
outer casing which encloses the whole of the working parts. b, b, is the
cylinder drum or measuring wheel, which is divided into two halves by the
central vertical partition c, c; and each half of the wheel or drum b, b, is sub-
divided into three measuring chambers 1, 2, 3, as seen best in Figure 1. The
measuring wheel, drum, or cylinder b, b, is mounted on a horizontal shaft or

page_text: spindle d, which turns in bearings made in or attached to the casing, and at
onc end carries a pinion, that gears into a toothed wheel or second pinion,
which communicates with the gearing of the registering or indicating appa-
ratus. This apparatus, and the mode of transferring the motion of the
measuring wheel thereto, is not shewn in the Drawing, but differs in no essential
degree from the ordinary modes of registering quantities, as applied to gas and
water meters; and as these are well known, and form no part of my Invention,
I have not thought it necessary to give any detailed explanation thereof.
The water or liquid to be measured is conducted to the machine by the pipe c,
which is forked or divided before it enters the machine, and is furnished with
two guage cocks f and f*, through which the liquid passes to the part of the
machine or apparatus called the preparatory cistern. These branches are
shewn one above the other, but it is obvious they may be laid horizontally or
on a level. The liquid enters two separate chambers g and g*, as seen best in
the detached view, Figure 3, which represents a plan view of this part of
the apparatus. By inspecting this Figure and Figure 1 it will be seen
that the small preparatory cistern at the top of the machine is divided
by a partition j, j, into two parts, which are again subdivided by a cross
partition i, i, so as to, form four chambers g and g, and h and h
The water or other liquid from the forked supply pipe is allowed to
run freely into chambers 7 and 9, from whence it passes over the par-
tition j, j, (a portion of the top part of which is cut away for that purpose,)
into the other chambers h and h, and from thence through the holes k, k, in
the bottom of the chambers into the interior of the machine. As the rush of
water over-the partition i, j, might possibly interfere with a correct measure-
ment of the water, if the necessary precautions were not taken, I have placed
two vertical semicircular shields 1, 1, in the chambers h and h", which will have
the effect of preventing the even and regular flow of water down the pipes k, k,
being interfered with by the rush of liquid over the partition j, j. The peri-
phery of the vertical partition c of the measuring wheel or drum b, b, is
furnished with six projecting pins or teeth m, m, (as seen best in Figure 1),
the number of pins m, m, being equal to that of the measuring chambers,
opposite to the entrance of each of which one of the pins or teeth is
placed, as is clearly shewn in the Figure. The object of these pins or
5 teeth is to support or steady the revolving wheel or drum b, b, while the
liquid is running into one of the measuring chambers from one of the
pipes k, k, by causing the pin m of the chamber that is being filled to rest
upon a roller at the end of a tumbling lever n, which is mounted in bearings
attached to the inside of the casing, and is furnished at its opposite end with a
counterbalance weight o, that is made adjustable thereon by this end of the

page_text: lever being screwed, so that by merely screwing the ball or weight o bigher up
or lower down, as may be required, the counterbalance may be regulated with,
the greatest nicety, in order that it may be sufficient to support the measuring
chamber until it is filled with liquid, when it will yield, as shown by dots in
the Figure, and allow the full chamber to descend and empty itself. This
little apparatus I denominate a "regulator" or governor," as it is upon the
accuracy and precision of its movements that the correctness of the machine in
a great measure depends. In order that the revolving wheel or drum b, b,
may be prevented from turning in the wrong direction, ratchet teeth c, c, may
be placed at the periphery of the central partition, or at either end of the
drum, and a pall or click p, attached to any convenient part of the casing, takes
into these teeth as shewn. But such an arrangement is only necessary in
large meters. The water or liquid, when delivered to the bottom of the meter,
is allowed to run out through the pipe q, but if, by accident or design, the
pipe q should become stopped up, it will flow out of the opening r, and will
give notice that something is wrong and requires attention.
:
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I am aware that it has been
heretofore proposed to measure water and other liquids by means of a
revolving wheel or cylinder, furnished with buckets or chambers; I do not
therefore wish to claim the use of chambers in a drum for measuring liquids,
except when employed in a similar manner to that herein-before shewn and
described. But what I claim as the Invention intended to be secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, a machine or apparatus
for measuring liquids, consisting of a preparatory cistern. in connexion with a
drum or wheel, having two series of measuring chambers into which the liquid
enters alternately and in succession from the preparatory cistern, such drum or
wheel being supported by a tumbling lever or regulator while the chambers
are being filled, and made to revolve by the liquid, as above described..
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Haigh, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this * day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
EDWD (L.S.) HAIGH.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Edward Haigh, in the
presence of
HEN. LIMB,
ROB JOHN LUMB,
Sols Wakefield

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of October,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Edward Haigh came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.