Water-gauge Alarms.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 7th July, 1894
Water-gauge Alarms.
I, WILHELM BURKHARD, Workmaster, of Düren in the Province of
Rhineland and Kingdom of Prussia do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:—
The automatic hydraulic alarm represented in annexed drawing is intended in
works in which distant or not easily accessible tanks with fluids are employed―
such as high-level reservoirs-to call the attention of the engineers to certain
levels attained by the liquid in these tanks. On the one hand this apparatus shows
when the fluid in the tank is nearly used up, i.e. has reached a very low level, so
that the engineer in charge may start the pumps for feeding the tank at the right
moment, and on the other hand it shows when the fluid has attained its highest
level in the tank so that the engineer may stop the pumping and prevent the liquid
flowing over the edge of the tank.
The arrangement of the apparatus is as follows:
In the box G which consists of a tube-like casing H with drum-case T attached,
and provided at the top with an inlet-opening Q and at the bottom with an outlet-
opening E there is a little water-wheel W revolving on an axis A situated in the
centre of T. This wheel W has the float-boards placed in such a manner that the
fluid entering at Q falls down on the float-boards and thus causes the wheel to
revolve. The fluid passes out through the discharge-opening E in accordance with
the downward rotatory motion of the wheel.
By the revolving motion of the wheel a bell-apparatus which is connected
indirectly or directly with it, is set in motion. The transmission of the rotation of
the wheel may be carried out in the following manner, as shown in annexed
drawing:
On the same axis A on which the water-wheel W turns, but outside the box G
there is a disk P wedged on with wedges. A number of small projecting pegs D
are screwed on, or otherwise fixed to the circumference of this disk P. Arranged
loose and moveable about D, these pegs have little metal plates of an elliptic or
similar form M, at the lower end of which another little peg d is either screwed on
or otherwise fastened. On the pegs d loose and moveable about d are fixed little
plates of any shape, intended to strike against the bells, or little metal balls K
swinging on a wire.
The disk P reaches with an upper and lower segment into the interior of two
suitably arranged bells S.
If from any cause-whether it be that the fluid contained in a tank overflows, or
that the valve of a discharge pipe is opened by a float in order to let out the fluid
at a fixed level which is either too high or too low-the escaped fluid enters the
case G at Q, it will cause the water-wheel W to rotate. Simultaneously however
with the water-wheel the disk P which is on the same axis A also rotates, causing
the little metal plates M fixed on P and therefore also the clappers K which are
fastened to M to oscillate. These clappers continue to strike against the two
bells S hung above and below the disk P, and in this manner inform the absent
attendants of the state of the fluid. It is not necessary for the disk P to be on
the same axis A on which the water-wheel W is situated; the rotation of the
latter may be transmitted by means of toothed wheels or any other kind of gear to
the alarm which is fitted up at a fixed place lying distant from the water-wheel and
in the neighbourhood of attendant engineers.

page_text: The apparatus which we have described is thus worked by water streaming in
from above and in Fig. 4 of the annexed drawing we find an example of the water
of a high-level tank is used automatically to inform the workman by ringing a bell
when the tank is quite full and also when the height of the water in the tank sinks
below a certain level. In the neighbourhood of the upper edge of the tank there
is an overflow-pipe and at the bottom of the tank a pipe-joint with a valve set in,
the latter being opened by a float as soon as the level of the water has sunk to a
certain depth. Both pipes, the overflow-pipe above and the discharge-pipe below,
empty themselves into a common pipe leading to the bell-apparatus into which pipe
the water discharges itself, both when it flows over and flows off below, thus setting
the alarm in motion.
The apparatus may be used with advantage in every case where no one can be
present to superintend when a fluid is emptied from a larger reservoir into smaller
ones. In case also of a reservoir having to be filled up when the level of the fluid
reaches a certain point as has already been mentioned, or of any other work having
to be done and a workman not being always present, the apparatus may be easily
applied by means of a float and valve or in some other way to call the attention of
the workmen to what is necessary.
The apparatus may of course be applied to open as well as closed tanks and not
only to those containing water, but with the necessary modifications to those
containing any kind of fluid. In the same manner instead of the arrangement
shown in Fig. 4 two float-valves may be attached to the overflow-pipe of which the
lower is opened before the fluid reaches its lowest level by the sinking and the
upper after the fluid has reached its highest level by the rising of the float, thus
allowing the fluid to flow towards the alarm. This arrangement is also specially
adapted for steam-boilers. For them and in fact, for all vessels subjected to steam-
pressure in which the sinking of the fluid below a certain level is dangerous, the
apparatus may be arranged in such a manner that a steam-whistle is provided in
addition to the alarm, as shown in Fig. 5. This steam-whistle is sounded by the
steam which escapes through the lower valve after the water has flowed off down
its lowest level.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
Indicator of the level of the fluid in open or closed reservoirs, announcing the
highest or lowest permissible level by the fluid or steam entering either by the
action of floats on valves or directly through overflow pipes into a pipe and causing
an alarm in connection with it to sound.
Dated this Thirtieth day of March 1894.