IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS AND AIR METERS AND CARBURETTERS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th December 1879. A communi-
cation from abroad by Thomas Hammill Hicks, of London, in the County of
Middlesex, Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS AND AIR METERS AND CARBURETTERS."
[A communication from abroad by Thomas Hammill Hicks, of London, in the
County of Middlesex, Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada.]
These improvements relate to the class of cylindrical drums or blowers used with
carburetters, and which rotate in water or other liquid, so that the liquid
alternately seals and opens the induction and exit orifices for the air or gas passed
through the drum. The machine is designed to be placed in a line of gas pipe
which is divided and suitably connected at opposite sides or ends of the machine, so
that the gas on its way to the burners will be measured, combined with a regulated
quantity of atmospheric air, and passed through the carburetting portion of the
apparatus, and become enriched by taking up vapor from the carburetting liquid.
The Invention consists, first, in means for reducing the friction of the drum
incident to its rotation to a minimum; secondly, in constructing the rotating
drum so as to ensure uniformity in the volume of gas passed through, and prevent
irregularities in the quantity by evaporation of the water, whereby also the
apparatus is adapted for use as a meter, the rotations of the drum being recorded
by suitable registering mechanism. Another feature of the Invention is the
arrangement of the induction and eduction passages, and 6 gas or air chambers of
the drum, whereby either gas or air, or the product formed by their combination, is
forced into the conducting pipe in uniform quantity in a given time or with a
pressure as nearly uniform as possible, so that "blowing" will be avoided and the
flame of the light will not flicker.
According to this Invention the sheet metal cylindrical drum is enclosed in a
casing and has two sets or series of chambers which are separated by a radial
partition. The chambers are six in number for each set or series and of segmental.
shape, being formed by radial partitions. The chambers are of different sizes, the
larger receiving the gas, and the smaller the atmospheric air, through right angled
tubes whose vertical portions extend up into the spaces at the heads of the drum,

page_text: while their horizontal portions extend through the casing and serve as supports for
the shaft of the drum. The casing is provided at the end where the pipe for the
gas enters with an extension into which the shaft of the drum extends and is fitted
with a worm for driving the registering mechanism which would be placed in such
extension. Around the shaft where it passes through the horizontal portion of the
pipe is a tube or sleeve carrying the journals of the shaft so that the bearings are
sealed by the water and gas cannot enter. The drum is buoyed in the liquid that
fills the casing to a certain height by a hollow air tight sheet metal cylinder fixed
on the shaft concentrically within the drum, but of less length. Around this
cylinder attached to the heads of the drum is a second hollow sheet metal cylinder
concentric with the first, and of such diameter that its upper side is above the
water line. The partition which separates the drum into two sets or series of
chambers surrounds this outer cylinder or is radial to it in a plane at right angles
to its axis, while the partitions which divide each set of chambers are in radial
planes which are parallel to the axis. Each chamber is provided with a tube
which extends from the surface of the outer cylinder into the spaces at the ends of
the inner cylinder, these tubes serving as passages to allow free access of the liquid
in which the drum floats, but preventing the entrance of gas to the outer cylinder
until the level of the water has fallen to near the shaft. By this construction the
amount of gas and air received and discharged by the chambers remains uniform
without regard to the level of the liquid.
Each gas and air chamber is provided with induction and eduction tubes or
passages. The induction tubes are on the outer sides of the ends of the drum
contiguous to its periphery and extend forward or to the left from the left hand
corners of the respective chambers, and the eduction tubes are likewise contiguous
to the periphery of the drum at opposite sides of the partition, and extend forward
from the right hand corners of the respective chambers; thus the latter tubes open
on the outer surface or periphery of the drum.
The operation is as follows:-The casing being filled with water, oil, or other
liquid to a certain height, the gas enters the mouth of that one of the induction
tubes which is exposed above the liquid in the casing, and having filled the
chamber with which said tube communicates, the force or pressure of the gas acting
against the surface of the liquid (which enters through one of the before mentionod
tubes attached to the outer cylinder) causes the chamber to rise and thus impart
rotation to the drum as a whole. The mouth of the tube by which the gas entered
the chamber directly enters the liquid and is thus sealed, and the liquid will rise
in the tube and fill the chamber as the drum continues to rotate and thus force the
gas out of the chamber through its eduction tube. Thus the gas or air enters the
chambers on one side and leaves them on the other. While this operation goes on
with respect to the gas, the air is being taken into and expelled from the other
side of the drum in like manner by means of the other chambers and their tubes,
but since the air is not under pressure it has no influence on the drum except to
slightly retard its rotation. The gas and air carried through the drum mingle in
the upper portion of the casing, and are from thence conducted through a pipe to
the carburetter proper which is filled with gasoline or other liquid hydrocarbon,
and provided with vertical transverse partitions and suspended fibrous packing for
taking up the liquid by capillary attraction, so that the gas and air passing
through will be caused to come into intimate contact with the hydrocarbon and
become enriched by the vapors. During the rotation of the drum the inner
cylinder floating on the water or other liquid buoys or carries the weight of the
drum and thus relieves the journals of friction as far as practicable. The friction
of the drum and cylinders with the water is therefore the only force opposing the
rotation. The drum having 6 chambers instead of four as in some blowers or
drums of this class, it results from this and the arrangement of the induction
and eduction tubes that each chamber as it is filled is carried a distance out of the
liquid before beginning to discharge so that the water may vary in height in the

page_text: casing without causing compression or unequal pressure of the gas in the chambers,
a want of uniformity of feed or supply to the burners, and a consequent jumping
or flickering of the flame. In a drum with four chambers one of them would begin
to discharge as soon as filled, but in a drum with six chambers each chamber is
carried an eighth of a revolution after being filled, before beginning to empty itself.
The chambers being in one position during rotation above the liquid, the volume
of gas passed over by each chamber will be uniformly the same without referenco
to change of water level, and the rotation of the drum being registered by con-
nections from the shaft the amount of gas passing through is accurately
ascertained.