IMPROVEMENTS IN VACUUM PUMPING APPARATUS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Carl Kesseler at the Office of the
A communication
Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd January 1880.
from Gerhard Frings and Richard Müller, Engineers, both of Berlin, in the
Empire of Germany.
CARL KESSELER, of 63, Mohrenstrasse, Berlin, W., in the Empire of Germany,
Civil Engineer and Patent Solicitor. " IMPROVEMENTS IN VACUUM PUMPING
APPARATUS," A communication from Gerhard Frings and Richard Müller,
Engineers, both of Berlin, in the Empire of Germany.
The apparatus which forms the subject of this Invention is fixed to the pumping
tube which passes into the ground, said apparatus being in connection with an air
pump, and having for its purpose the raising of large quantities of water at less
expense than with present pumping apparatus.
For this purpose a continual vacuum is produced within the apparatus above
the "well water" or water to be raised, in order that nearly the whole atmospheric
pressure will enter with great force upward into the pump tube and the whole
apparatus.
The apparatus consists of a closed vacuum cylinder which will be mounted upon
suitable supports, and a number of cylindrical chambers, two or more, are employed
which may be grouped around the vacuum cylinder, said chambers being in
connection with interior of the vacuum cylinder by valve ports provided with
clappets. The chambers are connected at the upper part thereof by a channel
upon which a reciprocating slide valve works. The channel is connected by a
suction pipe with the air pump employed for the purpose of drawing off the air
from said chambers; when this is permitted, by the position of the slide valve
when the apparatus is fitted, air is removed from the cylinder, whereby a constant
vacuum is maintained therein.
The bottom of the vacuum cylinder has the water passage or tube carried up
into the same and is of one piece, and in direct connection with the pump tube,
and within this passage is provided a clack valve and seating as usual in pump
tubes for preventing the return of the pumped water.
The slide is operated preferably by a small turbine which will receive its
motion from the outflowing water, but may be operated by any motor actuated by
the flow of water. This turbine rotates through two pairs of bevil wheels and

page_text: a shaft, on the end of which said shaft is carried a crank disc, which crank through
a connection and its rod moves the sliding valve. The vacuum cylinder is
connected at its upper end by a pipe provided with a cock with the suction pipe
of the air pump, in order to remove any air which may be brought into the said
cylinder along with the pumped water.
In order to prevent any sand or dirt falling into the channel upon which the
slide valve works, the slide valve carries a guard piece or screen of bent tin or
other convenient material. In order that the clappets may give the least possible
resistance to the water they have attached thereto counterbalance springs.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-Through the motion of the slide
valve there is produced alternately a vacuum in the chambers, so that the pumped
water from the vacuum cylinder can enter one of the said chambers by the opening
of its respective clappets until it attains the same level therein as that in the
vacuum cylinder. The slide valve then changes its position, and into the filled
chamber the air enters, the open clappet on the cylinder then immediately closes,
and the water in the chamber shut out from the vacuum cylinder flows out from
the chamber by the outer or discharge clappet of the chamber. Whilst the one
chamber is being emptied the other becomes filled, and again the slide valve
changes its position.
The open exterior clappet now becomes closed by the pressure of air, the air
pump produces the vacuum, and the chamber is again filled with water from the
vacuum cylinder, and from the other chamber the water flows out as previously
described for the first chamber, and so on. The connection of the apparatus with
'the air pump is simply effected through the pump tube which is bored into the
ground; the distance from the former to the latter is immaterial. The extraordinary
simplicity of this connection is especially striking when there are several of these
vacuum pumps, and especially remarkable that through the vacuum there is a
transmission of force which is sufficient to drive the air pump.