IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH MINE AND OTHER PUMPS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st October 1878. A communication
from abroad by William Paris Barclay, of Virginia City, in the County of
Storey, State of Nevada, United States of America.
William Clark, of Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,. Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH MINE AND OTHER PUMPS." [A coin-
munication from abroad by William Paris Barclay, of Virginia City, in the County
of Storey, State of Nevada, United States of America.]
The object of this Invention is to provide apparatus for economically raising
water from mines and deep shafts, and it consists in a novel construction;
arrangement, and combination of hydraulic force puinps, wire rope connections, and
in certain other details as herein-after more fully described.
In pumping machinery such as is commonly employed in freeing mines from
water, heavy rods of wood joined and bolted together by iron plates are used,
causing a greatly reduced tensile strongth for the sectional area of pump rods by
the unavoidable boaring of the rods and plates for bolts, so that necessarily the pump
rods become excessively heavier than the power required to overcome the weight
and friction of water when being forced up, causing engineers to have resort to the
balancing of the pump rods by balance bobs or beams loaded with weight equal to
whatever the pump rods and connections may be heavier than the column of water
raised, thus putting in motion a mass greatly in excess in weight of what is actually
required to do the work.
By the present improvements these difficulties are obviated and the pumping is
accomplished effectively and economically.
In carrying out this Invention I use as many force pumps in the mine or shaft
as may be required; the pumps are placed one above the other at convenient
distances apart and the plungers are connected by cross heads to steel wire ropes
that pass down on each side of pumps. The force pumps are supplied with the
usual inlet and discharge valves placed one above the other. The plungers pass
through stuffing boxes in the upper end of the pumps, and their upper ends aro
reduced in diameter and extended upward into working barrels which are placed
axially in line with the pump barrels and supported by brackets attached.to
delivery, pipes that are bolted to the top of the valve chests.

page_text: The delivery pipes extend upwards and are provided with discharge spouts, and
the valve chests are provided with a suction pipe which takes water from the
bottom of the mine or from a tank or receiver which receives it from the next
pump below. The working barrels are provided with a pressure pipe that extends
upward and with a pipe that extends downward and is connected with the top of
the next working barrel below.
At the mouth of the shaft or mine in which the pumping system is employed
there is a steam cylinder whose piston rod is connected with a working beam
which is provided with any of the well-known devices for producing parallel
motion. The longer end of this beam is pivoted to a suitable support, and the
shorter end thereof projects over the axial line of the pressure pipe and is connected
by links (one at each side) with wire ropes which extend downward, one upon
cach side of the delivery pipe. A crosshead is secured at the centre of the length
of each pump plunger and provided with clamps that securely bind the wire ropes.
An bydraulic cylinder is attached to one side of the steam cylinder, said cylinder
being connected with the upper end of the pressure pipe of the working barrel of
the pump and provided with a branch pipe which is connected with a force pump
for supplying the pressure pipe with water and increasing the pressure therein if
required.
The plunger, which is fitted to the hydraulic cylinder and works in a stuffing box
in the upper end thereof, is connected by links with the end of the beam of the
steam cylinder. The piston rod of the steam cylinder extends through a stuffing
box in the lower head of the cylinder, and is provided with a weight box in which
weights are placed to increase the pressure on the plunger of the hydraulic
cylinder, and thus increase the pressure in the pressure pipe.
The operation of the pump is as follows:-
Steam being admitted to the steam cylinder so as to act upon the under surface
of the piston, the beam is forced upward carrying with it tho wire ropes and all of
the plungers connected with it, and also the plunger of the hydraulic cylinder.
The upward movement of the plungers draws the water from the bottom of the
mine or shaft, and also from the tanks or receivers.
When the steam piston descends the pressure created by the downward move-
ment of the plunger of the hydraulic cylinder in addition to the weight of the
column of water contained by the pressure pipe forces the upper and smaller ends
of the plungers out of their working barrels, and thus operates the pump plungers
in their cylinders so as to force water up the delivery pipe. The lowest pump in
the series delivers water to the lower tank and the next above draws the water
from that tank and delivers it to another tank above, and so on to the upper pump
in the series, which delivers the water to a sluice or conduit that conveys it away
from the mouth of the shaft or mine. It will be observed that the wire rope may
always be kept under more or less tension by the pressure of the water in its pipe,
and that the weight of the rope and the water in pressure pipe is less than the
weight or power required to operate the plungers.
In another arrangement an hydraulic engine is combined with a ram to force
down a column of water, by which the power of the engine is transmitted to the
pumps in the mine or shaft.
The hydraulic cylinder is provided with inlet and outlet valves at each end, the
chests containing the inlet valves being connected together by pipes, and the chests
for the outlet valves being also similarly connected. The same valve chests are
also connected by pipes to a valve chest which is secured to the hydraulic cylinder,
and their valves are subjected to and relieved from the pressure of the water by the
action of a slide valve working in the said chest, the pipes from which are so
arranged that when the water pressure in the said chest is transmitted to the top
side of one inlet valve the opposite inlet valve is relieved of the pressure on its top
side, while the reverse takes place with the outlet valves. The ram is connected to
the piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder and works in a barrel beneath. In order
that the strain on the wire ropes may always be constant, the pressure pipos

page_text: through which the power of the engine is transmitted to the pumps in the mine or
shaft are supplied with water when the wire rope connections stretch, the water
being supplied under pressure to the underside of a small valve opening upwards
and contained in a chest on a supply pipe.
When water is admitted under pressure to the hydraulic cylinder through the
lower inlet valve the piston of the hydraulic cylinder is forced up, causing it to lift
the wire ropes which are attached to a cross hend secured on the piston rod of the
hydraulic cylinder, and also the plungers of the force pumps. These plungers being
secured to the wire ropes by cross heads, the smaller and upper end of the plungers
forces up the water that is in the pressure pipes.
When the piston of the hydraulic cylinder has completed its stroke upwards it
is then made to descend. The arm on cross head attached to the piston rod coming
in contact with a collar on a tappet rod and which is secured to the valve rod of
the chest on the hydraulic cylinder reverses the action of the inlet and outlet
valves, and the water pressure is now admitted on to top side of the hydraulic
cylinder (the under side of piston being relieved at same time), and forces the
piston of the hydraulic cylinder downward, and the ram working in the barrel
forces down the water in the pressure pipe, and the power in the engine is trans-
mitted thereby to the force and other pumps in connection therewith, causing the
force pump plungers to descend and force the water that entered into their working
barrel on the up stroke.
To the cross-head on the plunger of the lower force pump is secured a pair of
tubular distance pieces, which go down and connect with a cross-head which joins
the lower ends of wire ropes. To this lower cross-head is fastened a spear to
which is bolted a wooden rod that works a bucket lift or sinking pump, which is
supplied with a discharge valve in the chest and at the lower or bottom end with
an inlet valvo.
In another arrangement there are a pair of steam cylinders with a crank shaft
and fly wheel between and arranged to oscillate two bell cranks at the mouth of
the pit, and by them operate a double system of force pumps, rams, &c.
For this purpose the rams are connected by links to the bell cranks and
reciprocate in their working barrels, and through stuffing boxes at the upper ends.
The lower ends of the barrels are connected by pressure pipes to the upper ends of
the working barrels of the smaller diameter of the force pump plungers. Placed in
the pit at any convenient distance down are the double force pumps with the
working barrels, for the smaller diameter of force pump plungers secured to a
central rising main discharge column..
The pressure pipes leading from branches on the upper working barrels go down
and connect with the upper ends of the working barrels next underneath, and so on
till the required number are joined together. The column of water enclosed in
barrels and pipes propels the motion of the downward stroke of the rams to effect a
downward stroke of the plungers of the force pumps, and the said plungers are
raised on the upward stroke of the rams by the wire ropes, which are secured to
cross heads on the rams and on the upper end of the plungers of the force pumps.
The main central discharge pipe is divided in sections suitable to the working
height of each set of force pumps, the second set discharging through one section
into a receiver or tank, and the first set pumping the water froin that receiver
through the upper section into another receiver.
By a similar repetition of parts, the water can be raised by this apparatus to
any desired altitude.