A NEW APPA- RATUS FOR RAISING OR FORCING WATER, APPLICABLE TO SHIPS, MINES, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Sinefi Dracopulo at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 24th February 1868.
.I, GEORGE SINEFI DRACOPULO, of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW APPA-
RATUS FOR RAISING OR FORCING WATER, APPLICABLE TO SHIPS, MINES, AND OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of apparatus to be
used as a substitute for pumps, for the purpose of raising or forcing
water from ships, mines, or other places, whereby suction valves,
cylinders, and pistons and other moveable parts are dispensed with,
thus rendering it impossible for the apparatus to get out of order or
to be choked with foreign substances as is the case with ordinary
pumps, especially on board ship. I propose to operate the apparatus
by the force or agency of compressed air derived from a force pump
of any suitable construction, such air pump being placed and fixed on
the deck of a ship, or at the surface of a mine or in other elevated
position according to the purpose to which the apparatus is to be
applied. The apparatus consists of a metal tube closed at the top and

page_text: of any length and diameter required, at the bottom of which a reservoir
is attached having a perforated base or a funnel-shaped perforated base,
through which the water enters into the receptacle when it is immersed
in water at the bottom of a ship's hold or elsewhere. Above this inlet
of water a tube is brought from an air pump or other machine for
compressing air to a jacket or casing surrounding the receptacle, by
which means the water is suddenly forced or expelled up the tube to
the deck and escapes by an exit pipe, whence it is conveyed away.
Another supply of water then rushes into the receptacle or reservoir,
and is in turn raised up the tube and carried off by the impetus or
rush of air. It follows therefore that no foreign substances can enter
the reservoir and tube, and the air pump or compressing apparatus
being secure on deck may be easily worked, and the water exhausted
from a vessel with rapidity and certainty. The top of the tube is
provided with an enlarged head above the outlet pipe, and the resistance
of the air contained therein tends to force the water with great power
through the exit pipe. By the ordinary method of raising water by
suction pumps it is only possible to raise water from a depth of about
thirty feet, but by this apparatus it only depends upon the pressure
of the air to determine the height to which the water can be elevated.
The apparatus is also well adapted to fire engines, where it is desired
to force water to a great elevation. In such instances the tube or
pipe should be about 6 inches in diameter; the enlarged top or cap
should be connected with the tube by an opening of about two inches
in diameter, and the outlet pipe should be of a similar section. In
raising water from mines a succession or series of apparatus would be
required, one above the other, communicating with separate reservoirs
into which the water is elevated, and whence it is again raised by a
separate apparatus and so on successively until the surface of the mine
is reached.