IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING WATER OR OTHER LIQUIDS FROM ONE LOCALITY TO ANOTHER OVER INTERVENING HEIGHTS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by Thomas Casson at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 26th June 1879.
THOMAS CASSON, of Denbigh, in the County of Denbigh, Bank Manager. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING WATER OR OTHER
LIQUIDS FROM ONE LOCALITY TO ANOTHER OVER INTERVENING HEIGHTS."
My Invention relates to means and apparatus for conveying water or other
liquids from one locality to another (situated at a lower level) over intervening
heights or obstacles of such altitude that the ordinary siphon tube is not applicable
for this purpose, while nevertheless the entire power for effecting the transmission
of the liquid is furnished by the column due to the difference of height of the two
levels, as in the ordinary siphon tube. For this purpose I connect the two levels by a
pipe or conduit passing over the intermediate height, which pipe is kept filled with
water by means of the pressure exerted by loaded pistons or plungers in chambers
communicating therewith. At each level there is a piston or plunger of large area,
and one or more of small area, the two being connected together but working in
separate chambers. At the lower or discharge level the chamber of the plunger of
large area is alternately put in communication with the conduit and with the
receiving basin for the transmitted water which is open to the atmosphere. When
the first named communication is established, the pressure due to the column of
water in the conduit forces the large and small low level plungers upward or
outward, the chambers in which they work becoming filled with water flowing
through the conduit pipe from the higher level. When the second communication
is established, the water in the chamber of the large plunger flows freely into a
receiving basin, and the entire load on the plungers being now sustained by that of
smaller area, the increased pressure exerted thereby causes it to force a certain
volume of water back through the conduit, thereby raising the small plunger at the
higher level. This also raises the plunger of large area connected thereto, which is
thereby made to draw into its chamber a fresh charge of water from the high level
basin, such charge being transferred through the conduit to the low level chambers
by the sinking of the plungers as soon as the large low level plunger is made to
communicate with the conduit again, and thus the above operations being con-
tinuously repeated by the automatic charging of the said communications of the
large low level plunger, a periodical discharge of the water from the high level to
the low level over the intervening height is made to take place. The apparatus for
carrying the above described mode of operating may be variously constructed;

page_text: thus according to one arrangement the chamber of the large plunger at the high
level communicates with the water supply basin and the conduit, by pipes or
passages having valves acting as those of a force pump, that is, causing the water
that is drawn into the chamber from the supply basin by the outstroke of the
plunger to be forced into the conduit pipe by the return stroke, while the chamber
of the small plunger always communicates with the conduit pipe. Both plungers
are loaded to such an extent that the combined pressure exerted by them
somewhat exceeds that due to the column of water which has to be sustained by
them after deducting the column which is supported by atmospheric pressure. The
chamber of the large plunger at the low level communicates with the water in the
discharge basin by a pipe or passage governed by a valve or slide so arranged that
in one position it establishes a communication between the chamber and the
discharge basin, while in the other position it puts the chamber in communication
with the conduit, such valve or slide being actuated through tappets or other
known means from the reciprocating motion of the plungers. The small plunger
is always in communication with the conduit pipe. Both plungers are loaded to
such an extent that when the large plunger cominunicates with the conduit pipe,
their combined pressures will be equal to or slightly less than the column of water
in the conduit pipe after deducting the column supported by the atmosphere, but
that when by causing the large plunger to communicate with the receiving basin
open to the atmosphere, the whole load is put upon the small plunger, the pressure
exerted thereby will be more or less in excess of that due to the said column, so
that under this condition the plunger will descend, forcing a quantity of water back
through the conduit pipe and into the chamber of the small plunger at the higher
level, whereby this and with it the large plunger will be raised as before described.
In order to make good any loss through leakage or discharge of air in the conduit
pipe or elsewhere, the large plunger at the high level may be made of slightly
greater area than that at the low level, and to prevent any possible choking of the
apparatus from this excess, a snift valve may he provided on the conduit pipe at the
high level, worked by tappets from the motion of the plungers. A valve or cock
may also be provided at the crown of the conduit pipe for the escape of any air
that may accumulate there owing to the variations in pressure that occur in
working, which valve may be worked by a float in the conduit pipe.
My above described Invention may also be applied in cases where the level from
which the water was actually to be transmitted, is below that where it has to be
delivered, by raising the water at the first named locality by means of an ordinary
force pump to a level which is the requisite height above the discharge level, at
which point the before described apparatus is applied, or a motor engine might be
directly applied to the apparatus at the lower level for raising the water to the
additional height. Or again a discharge basin might be sunk to the required depth
below the level from which the water has to be transmitted, and the water be
pumped up from this to the level where the actual discharge has to take place.
Two or more of the above described apparatus may be arranged to work in com-
bination, making their strokes consecutively, whereby a continuous transmission of
water might be attained. A separate small pipe would in that case be provided for
conveying the water back from the receiving apparatus to the sending apparatus for
raising the plunger as described, and force pump valves would be replaced by slides,
which would also be worked by means of water pressure from the small plunger of
the receiving apparatus conveyed through another small pipe.