A NEW METHOD OF AND NEW APPARATUS FOR RAISING, MOVING, TRANSFERRING, AND DISCHARGING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Forster Waldo at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd July 1868.-A communication from abroad by Charles
Johannson, of Ploochoff, in the Government of Pschernigoff, in the
Empire of Russia.
I, CHARLES FORSTER WALDO, Merchant, of No. 13, Bread Street,
Cheapside, in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "A NEW METHOD OF AND NEW APPARATUS FOR RAISING,
MOVING, TRANSFERRING, AND DISCHARGING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS," a com-
munication, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of a novel application of mechanical principles
to effect the raising, moving, transferring, or discharging of water or
other fluid, accomplishing thereby the results heretofore obtained by
what are called and known as pumps. It comprises
It comprises also a novel
contrivance and apparatus for effecting the same.
. The novel principle consists in obtaining vacuum by the sudden con-
densation of steam instead of by operating valve boxes, and the usual
well-known apparatus of pumps which by suction exhaust the air
chamber or chambers so that the water or fluid is drawn into the vacuum

page_text: resulting therefrom, and is thence by a system of valve or equivalent
boxes mechanically, so to say, lifted away; whereas by this Invention
by means of the sudden condensation of steam an instantaneous vacuum
of far greater comparative proportions is obtained, into which the water
or fluid almost as instantaneously is drawn, and is then expelled there-
from simply by the force of steam pressure directly applied, so that by
the alternate application of the suction power of a vacuum caused by
the condensation of steam in a vacuum chamber, whereby such chamber
is caused to be filled with water or fluid, and the direct application of
the power of steam pressure to the water or fluid to expel it therefrom,
the water or fluid is transferred from one elevation or place to another
more economically and efficiently as well as more simply than heretofore.
As this method is so much in contrast with the present so-called
pumping" system it is proposed to call this new apparatus by the
name of "the steam ram" when referring to the same in proceeding
with the Specification.
66
This Invention has for object the substitution (wherever steam
power is available) of steam by means of its condensation, and then by
the direct application of its pressure, to draw water or other fluid into
and eject the same from its containing chamber or vessel for and
instead of the machinery of pumps and pumping engines heretofore
used or known for lifting, ejecting, transferring from one place to
another or changing the position of water, liquids, or fluids; in short
to replace all known pumps by the more simple operation of the "steam
ram" in all cases where steam power is available.
This Invention can be made to serve the office of a lifting pump; within
certain limits of a force pump; of an ejector, such as fire or other engine
for throwing water; of an injector, such as feeder of water to boilers
and the like; of an air pump, as for maintaining vacuum in sugar
refineries and the like; and to serve for all the purposes for which pumps
are now applied, and it is believed more economically, especially on a
large scale, such as the extraction of water from lakes, fens, and other
large areas, docks, mines, and the like. It may be constructed "single,"
that is to say, with only one chamber for receiving and ejecting the
water or fluid, by which an intermittent discharge of water is effected,
or it may be constructed "double" or "compound," that is to say, with
two or more chambers by which a continuous flow of water or fluid is
discharged. It may be constructed to be worked by hand for the

page_text: admission of the steam to operate it, or to work automaticany by the
steam power itself.
For the purposes of this Provisional Specification I have believed it
sufficient in order to convey a clear and practical idea of the nature and
scope of this Invention, together with the accompanying general descrip-
tion and explanations now given, to represent by Drawings some of the
more simple forms in which I have proposed to employ it, being one of
those for a "single" chamber apparatus intended to be worked by hand,
one for a "double" chambered, one to work by hand or that can easily
be adapted to be worked by steam, and one arrangement to adapt it to
the feeding of water into boilers.
Referring to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, the forms of
apparatus therein shewn and the manner of their operation are described
as follows:
Fig. 1 represents the "steam ram" in one of its simplest forms,
consisting of a vessel or reservoir A constructed of boiler iron or any
other suitable material, and furnished with mountings, thus :-A steam
valve B controlling the supply steam pipe M; a steam cock O controlling
the discharge steam pipe K; a water cock D controlling the water pipe
which communicates with a water tank or other receptacle placed at a
suitable height above the apparatus; the other end of the water pipe
terminates in a "rose" or perforated nozzle cap N. A water cock E
controls the supply water pipe G which communicates with the pit or
other place whence the water or fluid is to be removed. A water cock F
controls the discharge water pipe H conveying the discharged water
away from the apparatus. And the operation is as follows:-By opening
the cock C and then the valve B the steam will, through the pipe M,
enter and expel the air from the reservoir A; then shut first the steam
valve B, and the steam that escapes will leave only a little pressure
within the reservoir A; next shut the cock C; then open the cock D,
when the water from the tank will be ejected in fine streams or jets
through the rose N%; the remaining steam will be thereby condensed
into water and the interior of the apparatus becomes a vacuum; now
shut the cock D, open the cock F, the outer atmospheric pressure will
cause the water to rush through the pipe G and fill the reservoir A with
water; as soon as this is filled shut the cock E, open first the steam
valve B and then the cock F, when by the pressure of the entering steam
the water will be expelled and rise through the discharge pipe H to a

page_text: serving as a portable fire engine.
wherever a pump is to be used.
The "steam ram
The "steam ram" may be employed
By means of hose it could become a
simple and cheap apparatus always ready to work for mines, emptying
docks, and the like.
The
Fig. 3 represents an apparatus adapted to feeding boilers.
apparatus is fixed on the top of the boiler A by laps. The steam inlet
is by the way of the pipe K and valve C into the chamber B. The
escape cock F serves the same office as in the other illustrations, as also
does the rose served by the pipe and cock D. The water supply inlet
being by the pipe and cock E and the water from the reservoir B is
by way of the cock G and pipe H injected into the interior of the
boiler A, and as the steam within the "ram" is nearly at the same
pressure as in the boiler the water by its own weight descends into the
boiler in necessary quantity. In this form the "steam ram" may be
made a very simple and useful means of feeding boilers without pumps,
having also a decided preference over other injectors, that it will inject
the water with greater force, will work efficiently either at the highest
or lowest steam pressure, nor will any state of the water put this injector
out of order.