Patent ID: 6920401

Claim:
A method which may be used for measuring and inducing flow in a liquid, said method comprising: a) measuring the amount of a liquid in a container, wherein said measuring further comprises measuring a weight, P i , of said liquid in said container at a time t i , wherein: 1) said i ranges from 0 to n, this measurement being repeated at time t i+1 , then at time t i+2 , until time t n ; 2) n is an integer greater than about 3; 3) the weight change ΔP i =P i −P i+1 of said liquid ranges from times t i and t i+ ; and 4) Δt=t i−1 −t i , is also measured so as to generate at time t n a signal, S indicating that the container may be considered empty when ΔP i is less than a predetermined fraction F of the weight of the container and/or of the liquid initially contained in the latter; and b) making said liquid flow from said container to a point of use, said flow induced by a flow means.