IMPROVEMENTS IN water. METERS
Year: 1884

page_text: I WILLIAM COTTON of Loughborough in the County of Leicester Machinist,:
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN water.
METERS "to be as follows
"
The object of my invention is to provide an efficient water meter which can be
constructed at small cost and will not be liable to get out of order.
For this purpose I construct a water meter of a wheel having around its-
circumference a number of buckets or receptacles for water formed in a similar,
manner to the buckets of what is known as an over-shot water wheel.
. .J
'
The supply cock is placed above the water wheel so that any water passing from
it is received into the buckets of the wheel. The wheel is impeded from turning.
too easily by means of springs or weighted arms made to bear upon the serrated.
circumference of a disc fixed upon the axis of the wheel or is otherwise prevented
from turning too easily so as to ensure that the wheel shall not turn unless each.
bucket as it comes into position to receive water from the supply cock becomes
filled to the required amount.
Any water before it can be drawn off has therefore to pass from the supply cock
into and to fill in succession the buckets of the water wheel.
As the wheel revolves and the buckets first get filled and then empty themselves
they discharge the water.into a fixed casing with which the wheel is surrounded
and from this casing the water passes away through an outlet discharge pipe.
The exact amount of water drawn off will be known by the number of
revolutions made by the wheel and the number of revolutions made can be
recorded by a train of recording wheels.

page_text: I, WILLIAM COTTON of Loughborough in the County of Leicester, Machinist
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATER
METERS" and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The object of my invention is to provide an efficient water meter which can be 5
constructed at small cost and will not be liable to get out of order.
For this purpose I construct a water meter of a wheel having around its
circumference a number of buckets, or, receptacles for water formed in a similar
manner to the buckets of what is known as an overshot water wheel.
The supply cock is placed above the water wheel so that any water passing from 1
it is received into the buckets of the wheel. The wheel is impeded from turning
too easily so as to ensure that the wheel shall not turn unless each bucket as it
comes into position to receive water from the supply cock becomes filled to the
required amount.
Any water before it can be drawn off has therefore to pass from the supply cock. 1
into and to fill in succession the buckets of the water wheel
As the wheel revolves and the buckets first get filled and then empty themselves
they discharge the water into a fixed casing with which the wheel is surrounded
and from this casing the water passes away through an outlet discharge pipe.
The exact amount of water drawn off will be known by the number of 2
revolutions made by the wheel and the number of revolutions made can be recorded
by a train of recording wheels.
Figure 1 shews an end view, Figure 2 a vertical longitudinal section and
Figure 3 a vertical transverse section of a water meter constructed as above
described.
A is the outer casing, B the wheel carried by hollow axes or trunnions C which
rest in bearings D at the centre of the ends of the casing. E is a rod passing
through the hollow trunnions C. The rod at one of its its ends extends the bearing
and has an arm F secured to it which can be locked at any angle desired. Any
desired means may be adopted to prevent the position of the arm from being
altered after the meter has been once adjusted. Inside the wheel the rod has arms
extending from it which carry another rod G on which are hung a series of
weights H. These weights at their lower ends rest against the inner circumference
of the wheel which is made of a serrated form as shewn so that if the wheel is
rotated the weights are raised in succession and again allowed to drop by the
inclined surfaces of the serrations. The extent to which the weights have to be
raised controls the amount of water required to be filled into the buckets on one
side of the wheel to cause the wheel to turn.
C
The extent of lift given to the weights by the rotation of the wheel can be
adjusted by altering the angle at which the arm F is set. The resistance offered by
the weights to the rotation of the wheel should be so adjusted that the wheel will
rotate freely before any one of the buckets into which the water drops from the
perforated pipes. K gets completely filled,
2

page_text: Other means than those above described for impeding the wheel from turning
until the required amount of water has been filled into the buckets may be adopted,
the arrangement shewn in the drawings is however the one I prefer to adopt.
I is a toothed pinion on one of the hollow trunnions of the wheel, it is made to
gear with a train of wheels by which the number of rotations made by the wheel
is recorded. The train of wheels is enclosed as shewn in a casing the outer face of
which is glazed. K K are perforated pipes by which water can be supplied to the
buckets of the wheel they branch off from a water supply pipe on which is a tap
or cock L. M is the outlet from the bottom of the casing A.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The construction of water meters of an outer casing within which is mounted
a bucket wheel caused to rotate by water being filled into its buckets and which
in its rotation has to raise and again allow to drop in succession a series of weights
or which in other ways has a constant resistance offered to its rotation so that the
wheel shall only rotate when the requisite quantity of water has been filled into
the buckets and of a train of recording wheels to record the number of revolutions
made by the wheel substantially as described.
2. The construction of water meters substantially as herein before described and
illustrated in the drawing annexed.