AN IMPROVED WATER GAUGE FOR. STEAM BOILERS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Needham, of Dukinfield, in the County of
Chester, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED WATER GAUGE FOR.
STEAM BOILERS."
Sealed the 29th July 1859, and dated the 1st February 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Needham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
February 1859.
I, RICHARD NEEDHAM, of Dukinfield, in the County of Chester, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED WATER
GAUGE FOR STEAM BOILERS," to be as follows:-
Hitherto water gauges have been constructed with small or contracted
thoroughfares or water passages to the indicating tube, these passages have by
experience been found to fill or "choke up" with accumulating particles, and
thereby to render the gauge ineffectual. Now, my Invention is designed to
prevent such accumulation and choking up, and consists in providing in the
gauge very large passages or thoroughfares for the water, and of a muclı
greater diameter than has hitherto been practicable, whereby I am enabled to
maintain a continuous and uninterrupted circulation of the water through the
gauge, as by so increasing the bore or diameter of the passages or tubes they.

page_text: become self cleansing, and are not liable to become choked as the narrow
passages hitherto employed.
A second part of the Invention consists in the novel application of a hollow
conical plug in the taps or valves of water gauges, so constructed that the
water is supplied to the gauge through the hollow plug, and communication is
made with the boiler, and is shut off by such hollow plug, regulated by a
handle, which arrangement also simplifies the passage and assists in main-
taining the requisite circulation of the water through the gauge.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said .Richard Needham in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st August 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
NEEDHAM, of Dukinfield, in the County of Chester, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February; in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Richard Needham, Her special license that I, the said Robert
Needham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Richard Needham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at 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 "AN IMPROVED
WATER GAUGE FOR STEAM BOILERS," upon the condition, amongst others, that
I, the said Richard Needham, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 sd Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Needham, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
Jowing statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
Hitherto water gauges have been constructed with small or contracted
thoroughfares or water passages to the indicating tube; these passages have

page_text: been found. by experince to fill or "choke up" with accumulating particles,
& thereby to render the gauge ineffectual; now, my Invention is designed
to. prevent such accumulation & choking up, and consists in providing in the
gauge very large passages or thoroughfares for the water, and of a much
greater diameter than has been hitherto practicable, whereby I am enabled to
maintain a continuous and uninterrupted circulation of the water thro' the
gauge, as by so increasing the bore or diameter of the passages or tubes they
become self-cleansing, and are not liable to become choked, as are the narrow
passages hitherto employed.
A second part of the Invention consists in the novel application of a hollow
conical plug in the taps or valves of water gauges, so constructed that the
water is supplied to the gauge through the hollow plug, and communication is
made with the boiler, and is shut off by such hollow plug, regulated by a.
handle, which arrangement also simplifies the passage and assists in main-
taining the requisite circulation of the water through the gauge.
In order that the Invention may be clearly understood, I have here-
unto attached a Sheet of Drawing illustrative of the same, shewn about
the real size, and having similar letters of reference marked upon corre-
sponding parts.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the water gauge, and Fig. 2 is a vertical section,
shewing the conical hollow plugs and the water ways of increased diameter.
In Fig. 2, a, a, is the plate of the boiler, upon which the gauge is secured; b, b,
are the thoroughfares or waterways, of large diameter, communicating with
the boiler; c, c, are hollow conical plngs, by means of which the flow of water
through the glass tube d is regulated, which, together with the enlarged
waterways, allow of the agitation of the water caused by ebulation to be com-
municated to the glass tube, which tends to keep it and the passages free and
unobstructed by silt or dirt, or the passages may be thoroughly cleaned by
removing the screw plug e, and turning the hollow plug half round, which
shuts off the steam from the glass tube, and allows the steam to blow through
the said passages without endangering the glass tube, as at present; and the
glass tube may be removed to be cleaned by lifting it from the socket 9 in
which it bears or is supported. By removing the thumbscrew at the top, and
screwing in the steam engine indicator, then turning the handle half round,
the accuracy of the steam gauge and safety valve is at once tested.
g
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, together with the
method of carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I claim,-
First, enlarging the bore or area of the thoroughfares or waterways in

page_text: water gauges in contradistinction to the. employment of the present contracted
waterways.
Secondly, the novel application and use of hollow conical plugs or taps, to
regulate the flow of water thro' the gauge.
And, thirdly, I claim the general arrangement and improved construction of
water gauge as herein-before described, set forth, and fully exhibited in the
Drawings attached.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Needham, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
D NEEDHAM