IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO PUMPS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Hadkinson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th September 1883. Communicated
to him from abroad by Jamjee Hadji Halil Efendi of Smyrna Asia Minor.
ROBERT HADKINSON, of Smyrna, Asia Minor, but at present of 15 Water Street,
Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO
PUMPS " [communicated to him from abroad by Jamjee Hadji Halil Efendi of
Smyrna Asia Minor.]
This Invention relates to certain improvements in pumps, and has for its object
the saving of power in forcing water up to any height, as compared to the power
usually exerted in forcing water with pumps of the usual construction.
A pump according to this Invention consists of a pump barrel, which is placed
at, or near the level, of the water to be lifted and forced up. The pump barrel is
provided with a suction pipe and a foot, or inlet valve, and with a pump barrel
pipe, which extends from the cover of the pump barrel to the pump handle, and
serves as a lead for the pump rod. The pump barrel is also provided with a
delivery, or discharge pipe, which leads from the bottom of the pump barrel to an
air vessel. At its junction to the air vessel the pipe is provided with a delivery,
or discharge valve, and from the air vessel ascends the main delivery, or discharge
pipe to the required height. The pump barrel is provided with a piston, which is
fitted with a small double acting valve, which may take the form of two mushroom
valves connected by a spindle, one valve having its seat on the top of the piston
and the other valve having its seat on the underside of the piston. The pump
barrel pipe is provided with a small outlet, or overflow orifice, which is positioned
someway up the pump barrel pipe, a convenient place being midway between the
suction valve of the pump barrel and the pump handle
The working of the pump may be thus described (the pump handle being taken
as a lever of the first order, the end of which is connected by the pump rod to the
piston in the pump barrel) when the piston in the pump barrel is raised by pressing
down the pump handle, the small valve on the top of the piston closes and the
discharge valve at the foot of the air vessel also closes and the suction valve of the
pump barrel opens the water rushes up into the pump barrel and on lifting the
pump handle the piston descends allowing a small quantity of water to pass
through the valves of the piston and forcing the rest of the water through the

page_text: discharge valve into the air vessel and up the discharge pipe. The action being
repeated until there is a column of water which has passed through the piston
valves and into and fills the pump barrel pipe up to the small orifice, or outlet
before spoken of. The column of water above the piston in the pump barrel pipe
thus balances an equal column of water in the discharge pipe and power is only
required to force the water from this level in the discharge pipe up to the point of
discharge. Thus in this pump a column of water in the pipe over and communi-
cating with the pump barrel serves to counterbalance an equal column of water in
the delivery pipe. At half the distance between the pump barrel and the discharge
pipe outlet, the small opening in the pump barrel pipe serves as an overflow and
allows about one per cent of the water to flow out to waste, the rest of the water
being discharged through the delivery pipe. Thus the pump barrel pipe is
maintained full of water as high as the said small orifice and a certain supply of
water is constantly passing up through the small valves in the piston to maintain
this column of water in the pump barrel pipe, and this column of water counter-
balances a similar one in the discharge pipe, so that no power is required to
maintain this column in the discharge pipe. Upon raising the pump handle, the
weight of the column of water in the pump barrel pipe, together with the piston
and pump rod serves to diminish the force to be exerted. By the downward
movement of the piston, the water is forced into the air vessel with a jerk, owing
to the energy with which the piston passes down and in this way the principle is
evolved by which the water forces itself up the delivery pipe, in manner similar to
that which occurs in working a hydraulic ram.
From the foregoing it will be seen that the force exerted on a column of water
in a tube of 60 feet has to bear the strain on only half the column, say 30 feet
either way, that is the weight of the column between the discharge outlet and the
orifice in the pump barrel pipe. The object is to keep the weight lifted as low as
the circumstances allow, having due regard to the distance between the pump and
the discharge outlet. It has been found that if the balancing column is maintained
at half the distance between the pump and the discharge outlet, whatever that may
be, offers the best advantage for working this sort of pump.