IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Albert Louis Thirion at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th February
1855.
I, ALBERT LOUIS THIRION, of Asche-en-Refail, Province of Namur, in the
Kingdom of Belgium, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS " to be as follows:-
I place several levers circularly corresponding with an equal number of
pumps or pump cylinders, or with a single pump or pump cylinder, set in
motion by the weight of a conical roller moving round a fixed centre. The
means whereby I now intend to carry this Invention into effect are these:
A vertical wheel turned by any ordinary power gives motion to an horizontal
wheel, which motion is communicated to the conical roller, the axis of which
turns in an upright shaft. The conical roller (the weight of which is deter-
mined by the column of water it is required to raise), when passing over the
levers causes them to descend. These levers act upon four different pumps,
each lever having two arms, and each arm acting upon a separate pump.
These levers turn on a pivot fixed to the vertical shaft, the main centre piece
of the apparatus. Each lever is in the form of a frame, the distance between
the two lateral sides of which gradually widens from the inner end, attached

page_text: to the vertical shaft to the opposite external end, on which is fixed an inclined
plane, which the weight of the conical roller causes to descend whilst passing
over it. Whilst one of these inclined planes descends the other rises; conse-
quently when the bucket of one pump is lowered, that of the other is raised.
The surface of the conical roller should be polished, to avoid any uneven
movement and to diminish friction, such conical roller travelling on an outer
frame or circle. The feed pipes of the four pumps may be united into one
which is plunged in the water.
To counteract the shock which would arise from the conical roller passing
too rapidly over the inclined planes attached to the levers, I purpose to arm
these with a spring which, when they arrive at the lowest point of their descent,
will keep them stationary for a moment, thereby affording time for the valves
to fall by themselves. The conical roller continuing to advance successively,
releases the levers by pressing upon a second spring corresponding with the
first. Any of the well-known mechanical arrangements may be employed to
effect this object.
It is obvious from what has been stated, that more than one conical roller
may be employed for the same pump or series. of pumps. Likewise that more
than one lever may be attached to one bucket. In the latter case, I place the
pump in the centre of an iron frame to which I adapt several levers. The
conical roller passing over one lever causes all to descend, but no sooner has it
passed over that lever, than by the action of a counterpoise weight the whole
rises again immediately. In making therefore one revolution around the
circle or frame, the roller causes the pump to act as many times as it comes in
contact with a lever during the circuit.
I do not confine myself to the peculiar form of pump herein described, as I
can apply my principle to any description of pump, and modify the various
parts of each as may be found necessary in the construction of sucking or
forcing pumps or others.