IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF WATER OR LIQUID METERS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Johann Maximilian Plessner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th June 1876.
JOHANN MAXIMILIAN PLESSNER, of 11, Golden Square, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, late Captain Prussian Army. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND
ARRANGEMENT OF WATER OR LIQUID METERS."
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction and arrangement of
water or liquid meters, and consists of two vessels surmounted each by another
vessel, the four capacities being in communication by passages through taps in
connection pieces, and also by pipes through other passages in the same taps from
opposite sides for the flow of liquid.
The taps are opened and closed by an oscillatory or pendulous motion of the
whole apparatus by the alternate inflow and outflow of the liquid, the taps being
acted upon by levers attached to a fixed framing between or on which the appa-
ratus is suspended. The lower or measuring vessels have at their lower ends two
outlet pipes, which meet and have a tap common to both, which tap is also acted
upon by a lever or levers attached to the same framing. This latter tap is not
only the outflow tap for the discharge of the liquid from each vessel alternately,
but also serves as the inlet tap for the main supply to the apparatus, the tap plug
having side openings to permit the inflowing liquid to pass them alternately to
recharge the vessels. The charging orifices of the tap plug are of smaller area than
the outflowing orifices, so that the charging occupies a longer time to fill the vessel
than it takes to empty the neighbouring one, the apparatus at the end of each
oscillation being retained by a slip catch until the weight of the liquid, both of the
completely filled measuring and its partly filled upper vessel, overcomes the weight
of a counterpoise on a lever which carries the catch. The taps in the connection
pieces between the two superposed vessels have each three passages, one uniting
both vessels, another uniting the lower vessel with the upper neighbouring vessel,
and the third for admitting the atmosphere into the measuring vessel to break the
vacuum when this vessel is discharging.
The apparatus above described is intended to be fitted to a cistern or tank from
which the water will be withdrawn. The water in this cistern or tank is kept at
a constant level by a float, the sinking of which opens a tap in the main pipe
through which the water flows into the meter, and is discharged as described before
according to the capacities of the measuring vessels first spoken of, the oscillation
being registered by a tell-tale or counter of ordinary construction.
Price 2d1

page_text: Both of the upper vessels are fitted with float valves, should by accident the
oscillations of the vessels be stopped. The lower or measuring vessels have also
float valves, which close when the water through the passages mentioned above as
Number Two fills the measuring vessel, thereby preventing the passage of the water
to the upper vessel on the opposite side of the apparatus.
The height at which the two upper vessels are placed above the two lower or
measuring vessels depends upon the angle of oscillation. The upper vessel in its
lowest position must still be above the neighbouring measuring vessel in its highest
position to insure the outflow of the surplus water from the former into the latter.
By this Invention the varying pressure of the main supply can have no influence
upon the quantity of liquid measured, but only upon the speed of the measuring,
the self-acting operation of absolute measuring being insured by the emptying of
an invariable quantity of water contained in a closed vessel of a given and un-
changeable capacity.