IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSURE REGULATORS FOR GAS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray of No 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane in the county of Middlesex for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRESSURE REGULATORS FOR GAS communicated to him from abroad by
"
Henry Giroud of Paris France
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd February 1883.
JOHN IMRAY of N° 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSURE REGULATORS FOR GAS" [communicated
to him from abroad by Henry Giroud of Paris France]
This invention relates to pressure regulators for gas of the kind in which a cone
attached to a floating gasometer bell serves to throttle more or less the opening
through which the gas has to pass. Such regulators have to be adjusted according
as they are intended to determine a constant pressure of the gas issuing in their
immediate neighbourhood, or to determine the pressure at a distance after the gas
has passed through a considerable length of pipe. In a regulator according to the
present invention the gas enters a chamber above the regulating cone, and, after
passing the opening governed by the cone, a portion of it can ascend a tubular stem
by which the cone is attached to the floating bell into a chamber formed in the
upper part of the bell. From this chamber it can issue into an annular compart-
ment of the bell through two orifices. One of these is a small hole, the area of
which is never altered, the other is a small hole which can be adjusted by a screw
plug from without.
A central compartment of the bell is open to the gas supply pipe and is con-
sequently subject to the pressure of supply, whilst the annular compartment is
subject to the pressure of the gas after it has passed the regulating cone. Sudden
changes of pressure which would, under ordinary circumstances, cause rapid move-
ments of the bell, are prevented from doing so by the communication above
described through the two small holes, the speed of movement being capable of
077

page_text: being varied as desired by the adjustment of the screw plug in one of these. When
the regulator is employed to regulate the pressure of gas issuing at a distance from
it, the floating bell has its uppermost chamber in free communication with its
annular chamber without any adjustable orifices, and the pressure is determined
by more or less loading the bell. There is however attached to the regulating cone
on its underside a smaller floating bell from which the gas passes through the
tubular stem of the cone to the top of the larger bell. The small bell attached to
the cone is supplied by a branch pipe from the main pipe, this branch pipe having
in it an adjustable orifice, a three way cock and a stop cock, also a by-pass pipe
with a test burner. The three way cock being turned one way the burner is
lighted, and the pressure is adjusted to give a flame of the desired length, the
three way cock is then turned back and the regulator maintains the pressure so
determined.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th July
1883.
JOHN IMRAY of N° 28. Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the County of
Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSURE REGULATORS FOR GAS" A communi-
cation to me from Abroad by Henry Giroud of Paris France
This invention relates to pressure regulators for gas, of the kind in which a cone
attached to a floating gasometer bell serves to throttle more or less the opening
through which the gas has to pass. Such regulators have to be adjusted according
as they are intended to determine a constant pressure of the gas issuing in their
immediate neighbourhood in which case they may be termed "consumption
regulators," or to determine the pressure at a distance after the gas has passed
through a considerable length of pipe, in which case they may be termed "emission
regulators."
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a vertical section of a consumption
regulator embodying improvements according to this invention. The gas entering
by A and issuing by B has on its way to pass the regulating cone C. The space
above the cone C communicates by the pipe D with the central chamber E of the
bell, and the space below the cone communicates by the inner pipe G with a
space H at the top of the bell. From this space there are two passages, I being of
constant area, and J of variable area, to the annular space F in the bell. The
passages I and J are shewn in section to an enlarged scale at Figs. 2 and 3
respectively. The casing a of the passage I (Fig. 2) has a screwed cap b and a
lateral hole d, and within it is a small nozzle c of fixed area.
The other passage J
(Fig. 3) has within it a screw plug by which the passage e can be more or less
throttled so as to regulate the pressure of delivery of the gas. The emission
regulator, of which Fig 4 is a vertical section, is similar to the consumption
regulator Fig. 1, but with free passage from the space H to F, and it has in addition
a small gasometer under the cone C, the bell of this gasometer being attached to
the cone so as to move with it. This small gasometer communicates by a pipe T
with any desired part of the gas district, so that the pressure there acts upon the
cone C. Part of the pipe T with its fittings is shewn to an enlarged scale in
elevation at Fig. 5 and in plan at Fig. 6. There are two cocks, an ordinary stop
cock f, and a three way cock g carrying a burner h. From a junction piece i there
is a by-pass k the inlet to which from i is a nozzle of fixed small area. By the
cock f the passage along the pipe can be varied. The regulation is effected in the
following manner. The cock g is turned until gas issues from the burner h which
is lighted; the flame is then adjusted by means of the cock f to the desired height,
and this adjustment being made, the flame is extinguished by turning the cock
so that all the gas that passes f proceeds along the pipe T which is thus fed partly
through the orifice of constant area in the nozzle of k, and partly through the
adjusted orifice of the cock f. This adjustment of the cock f determines the flow
into the small gasometer under the cone C and thence into the bell above and so
determines the pressure of the gas passing the cone C.
g
Having thus described the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim in respect of pressure regulators for gas, in which a gasometer bell works a
regulating cone,―
First. Regulating the pressure of the gas delivered by adjusting the area of passage
for gas into the upper part of the bell, substantially as described with reference to
Tio 1

page_text: Second. For the purpose referred to in the preceding claim, the combination
with the upper compartment of the bell of two passages, one I of small fixed area,
and one J of area variable by a screw, substantially as described with reference to
Figs. 1, 2 and 3.
Third. Regulating the pressure of the gas delivered by adjusting the area of
passage for gas into a gasometer bell attached to the cone and communicating with
the upper part of the bell, substantially as described with reference to Fig. 4.
Fourth. For the purpose referred to in the preceding claim, the combination
with the upper compartment of the bell, of a subsidiary bell under the cone, and of
the pipe supplying the same with its burner, cocks and by-pass, substantially as
described with reference to Figs, 4 5 and 6.
In Witness whereof I the said John Imray have hereunto set my hand and
seal-this Twenty fifth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eighty-three.