The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-09
New Internal Combustion Pumps
Used in London's Water Supply

these strange circular machines gath
er in the river water at its natural
level and force it by q series of eX-
blossoms into curiously shaped water
towers, from whence the water is
poured into the lake. 1t is all really
very simple, based on first principles,
like all great inventions. The pumps
work on the internal combustion prin-
ciple, like a motor engine, and the
successive explosions of a mixture of
compressed air and producer gat set a
column of water ~oscillating, which
with each explosion of the mixture.
discharges a portion of itself into the
water tower. TO adopt a telling
phrase, it is really "a gas engine in
which the piston, the connecting rod
and the fy-Wheel are all composed or
water"
Gigantic CaIabash Pipes.
AS a rough illustration, the com
bustion chamber and theS water tower
into which the water is forced are
shaped like the body and bowl of a
calabash pipe. The mixture is admit
ted into the chamber and fired, and
the pump begins business without the
slightest fuss. There are ten explo-
sions a minute, but the noise they
make is remarkably slight-a good
hearty cough and nothing more. BY
the time when the king inspects the
plant it will be practically noiseless.
There are a number of youthful en-
gineers in charge of the erection Of
the pumps-the kind Of quiet, pur-
poseful young men that III sees in
charge of q torpedo-boat destroyer.
1t is their boast that they can start
the pumps going and leave them alone
In perfect security. Nothing can hap
pen to the pumps. or, at h very
.c~st, they can only stop. A little
L nIi11 nntt1H Load fhnrfa and fWn mon
at a time will be sufficient to look aft
: er the pumping station.
One of the young engineers dropped
down into the pit and bruised himself
with a valve that needed attention.
Then he gave the signal for the pump
to start. 1t drew in a great breath
and coughed, then coughed again, and
the water In the chamber below the
pump swirled about madly. The two
coughs had filled up the great water
tower-the bowl of the calabash pipe,
fifty feet deep-attached to. this pump,
and with this the water began to pour
into the lake. Each cough represents
twenty tons of water passing through
the pump, and the only signs on the
surface of all this hidden energy were
the agitation of numerous valves, the
gentle coughing Of the machine, and
the Swirling of the water below.
AT the head of the lake is a. long
flight of granite steps, and at the top
of these are five huge mouths point
ing to heaven like gigantic howitzers,
The two coughs from the machine
given, one of these instantly spouted
forth a green column of water, which
went leaping and ~cascading down the
steps into the reservoir. Two pumps
made a cataract which leaps two yards
into the air at the top of the stairs.
and ON gala days, when the whole i've
are going. It will be Niagara itself.
The Romance Of q Pump.
Nothing is more romantic about the
pumps than the way in which they
were discovered by the world. The in
~ventorS "A. Fl. Humphreys, gave a
lecture on his new internal combustion
pump, and the Metropolitan water
board, which had intended to use the
ordinary pumping installation for it's
new reservoir, decided to try the new,
revolutionary system. Up to that time
nothing had been made by models,
and the suggestion of applying the
principle to such a huge installation
was one to be thought about seriously,
But the inventor had every confidence
in his child, and the contract was un-
dertaken--with q penalty of e 1000
ii it did not do what was expected oil
it. No wonder that the hand that
started the nrst pump OF its kind