US101583A - Improvement in registering steam-gage - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIGE.

ELIJAH CLARK, OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED STATES STEAM GAGE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN REGI'STERING STEAM-GAGE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 101,583, dated April 5, 1870.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIJAE CLARK, of Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and Improved Steam-Pressure Gage and Detecter; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in .which- Figure l is a plan view, and Fig. 2 is a diametrical transverse section.

This invention has for its main object to prevent engineers from raising the pressure of steam upon their boilers beyond a certain fixed limit.

To this end the invention consists in an apparatus connected with the pressuregage that both registers the number of times the index has passed the xed limit, and also registers the highest point the index has reached, said apparatus being, as is usual, inclosed within a locked and sealed box, which prevents the engineer from tampering with it, so that the owner or other person in authority can instantly perceive when his vessel comes in from a trip whether at any time during the same, and how often and how much, the engineer has carried steam beyond the prescribed i limit.

In the drawings, Ais the hollow knobfthat receives steam direct from the boiler and transmits it to the spring B, placed within the inclosing-case C, that is covered by the dialplate D. This spring is rendered inaccessible to water by a passage leading from the chamber to the exterior of the knob A, which confrom the arm b, that receives the thrust of the spring and communicates the same to the index-iinger F, which set-screw is moved to one side when the spring is undergoing a pressure above that prescribed as the maximum, the set-screw being so placed that not till such a pressure is brought to bear upon the spring does the pin b reach it.

An arm, c, pivoted to the opposite extremity of the lever a, and having a pointed end, which is kept by a spring in contact with the ratchetwheel d, the teeth of which are numbered from 1 to 3l, consecutively, and which is connected with a spring-detent, e, the moving aside of the set-screw a before described having the effect to withdraw the arm c from the ratchet d, which arm returns to the ratchet again and moves it by the space of one tooth every time the pin b withdraws from contact with the setserew, so that the figure inscribed upon that tooth of the ratchet-wheel against which the arm c bears indicates infallibly how many times steam has run above the limit of pressure, a small space being left between the first and last teeth ofthe ratchet d, to the end that, should the misconduct of the engineer ever be so great as to bring the arm c to the last tooth, it would be out of his power to wipe out the record against him by running the ratchet on till the arm c was again in contact with tooth No. l, the only thing to be done after reaching the last tooth being to unlock the box and reset the register, which, as was before explained, the engineer cannot do.

An arm, e, having near one end a slot, e', through which passes a pin projecting upward from the lever a, and jointed at its other extremity to one side of a disk, 71 whose axis is the shaft of the index-finger F, from another point of the edge of which disk projects a smaller index-Enger, 1', which extends over a scale, G, 011 the inner edge of the dial-plate, which scale is divided into ten equal parts, each of which indicates ten pounds of pressure, so that if the pin b moves the set-screw a so far to one side as to cause the lever a to draw, by means of the connecting-arm e, the finger 11 over a portion of the scale G, that portion indicates the number of pounds excess over the limit of pressure which has been attained.

The index-fin ger i never goes back, nor does Y scribed limit.

2. The combination of the lever a, connecting-rod e, disk h, and indeX-nger i with the lever b, or such other part of the pressure-gage mechanism as receives the thrust of the spring,` B, substantially in the manner described, and for the purpose of recording the excess of pressure above the prescribed limit.

E. CLARK.

Witnesses:

FRED. WEBBER, J. E. PimmsoN,v WM. H. LEATHERMAN.

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