Improvements in and connected with Pneumatic Lifting Apparatus for Water, Sewage and other Liquids, the Regulation of Flow of Same, and their Partial Purification.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Sept 1808
Complete Specification Left. 22nd June 1899-Accepted. 2nd Sept., 1899
Complete Specification Left. 22nd June. 1899-Accepted. 2nd Sept. 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Pneumatic Lifting Apparatus
for Water, Sewage and other Liquids, the Regulation of Flow of
Same, and their Partial Purification.
We, ISAAC SHONE and EDWIN AULT, both of 47, Victoria Street, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of
our said invention to be as follows:-
The
Pneumatic apparatus for raising liquids by mixing them with compressed
air have heretofore been used consisting essentially of a tube immersed in the
liquid to be lifted and through which the liquid is caused to ascend and of a
second tube of a smaller diameter either inside or outside the first tube and also
immersed in the liquid to be lifted and through which compressed air is con-
veyed to a position inside the first tube near the lower end of the same.
column of liquid and of compressed air mixed together inside the first mentioned
immersed tube has its specific gravity diminished in proportion to the volume
of air contained in the liquid and an upward current of liquid and air can thus
be established in the immersed tube. By mixing a suitable quantity of air
with the liquid the mixture may be discharged at a considerable altitude above
the natural level of the liquid.
The compressed air used for lifting water or other liquids in this manner
works expansively, that is to say, its pressure is gradually diminished and its
volume increased as it rises from the lowest point of the immersed tube to the
highest and while it is performing the work of lifting the liquid. If such an
expansion of air takes place without any heat being imparted to the water then
the temperature of the air falls, the reason being according to the mechanical
theory of heat, that the heat abstracted from the air is equal to the amount of
work performed by the air. When however each bubble of air is surrounded
with a comparatively large weight of water or other liquid which naturally
contains much more heat than is required to supply the heat thus abstracted
from the air, then the air is able to draw upon this store of heat and the tem-
perature of the air instead of decreasing during the expansion remains practically
constant. The expansion of air when no heat is added or abstracted from the
air during the expansion is called adiabatic expansion, but when sufficient heat
is imparted to the air during the expansion to maintain it at a uniform tempera-
ture, then the expansion is called isothermal. The work performed by the air
in this latter case is considerably greater than in the former.
Now in order to get the air to expand isothermally and thus to perform the
greatest possible amount of work in lifting liquids we according to our inven-
Air is an
tion cause the air to be very intimately mixed with the liquid.
extremely bad conductor of heat and unless it is minutely subdivided during

page_text: its ascent through the immersed tube, the short duration of this ascent would
not permit it to abstract sufficient heat from the water to expand isothermally.
Minute subdivision of the air and a thorough mixing of the air with the liquid
is also essential where it is desired that the air shall exert a chemical action
on the liquid. This may be illustrated by the action of air upon the blood in
the lungs of men and beasts. Here the impure blood is brought in intimate
contact with atmospheric air and the blood is oxydized and thus purified almost
instantaneously.
Our apparatus for producing these important results consists in improved air
and water commingling or subdividing nozzle device to be attached to the pipe
conveying compressed air to the bottom of the immersed tube through which the
liquid is raised, the air acting upon the issuing liquid in such a way as to blow
it into a spray while intimately commingling therewith.
We prefer to fix the air pipe in the centre of the immersed tube and to
provide it with a nozzle device which practically occupies the whole area of the
tube. We provide openings in the lower part of the nozzle device through which
the liquid issues with a considerable velocity and in a thin stream or streams
or in a subdivided form and we provide corresponding openings for air, arranged
in such a way that the air blows across the orifices of the issuing liquid. The
jets of air in this manner spray or comminute the water and a very intimate
mixing of air and water takes place. We prefer to blow the air in an upward
direction and thus to utilize the initial velocity of the air for imparting velocity
to the upward current of water.
We are aware that the action of air on such liquids as sewage from towns and
villages may not be sufficient for their complete purification but we consider
the oxydizing action of the impelling air as very important where it is used in
conjunction with chemical or bacteriological purification as many substances
contained in such liquids may be reduced by the effect of air used as above
described.
The apparatus described above may be used for deep well pumping and
general pumping purposes, and for the drainage and sewerage of towns, villages
and buildings and a number of such pneumatic lifting apparatus may be actuated
from a central air compressing station in the same way as the socalled Shone's
pneumatic ejectors are used for this purpose. It is specially applicable where
large quantities of sewage are litted outside of a town and also for sewage effluents
from filters tanks or bacteria beds or at such points where considerable quantities
of sewage have to be lifted and where ejectors would require much lower air
pressures than that to which the engines at the central station are compressing
air. In such cases the air can be used expansively in our aforesaid pneumatic
lifting apparatus and the full air pressure can be utilized while the coal con-
sumption of the air compressing engines can be reduced. Where the flow of
sewage or other liquids is intermittent we provide means for automatically start-
ing and stopping the action of pneumatic lifting apparatus according to flow
or stoppage of flow of the liquid and for this purpose we arrange an equili-
brium air valve of any well known design to cut off the flow of compressed air
to a pneumatic lifting apparatus. This valve automatically opens and closes
by means of a balanced arrangement of two floats which allows the sewage (or
other liquid) in a manhole communicating with the lifting apparatus to rise
to a certain upper level before the valve is opened and closes the valve when
a quantity of sewage has been removed from the manhole and the level has
fallen down below the second float.
Dated this
1
P

page_text: Improvements in and connected with Pneumatic Lifting Apparatus
for Water, Sewage and other Liquids, the Regulation of Flow of
Same, and their Partial Purification.
We, ISAAC SHONE and EDWIN AULT, both of 47, Victoria Street, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:.
-
The
Pneumatic apparatus for raising liquids by mixing them with compressed
air have heretofore been used consisting essentially of a tube immersed in the
liquid to be lifted and through which the liquid is caused to ascend and of a
second tube of a smaller diameter either inside or outside the first tube and also
immersed in the liquid to be lifted and through which compressed air is con-
veyed to a position inside the first tube near the lower end of the same.
column of liquid and of compressed air mixed together inside the first mentioned
immersed tube has its specific gravity diminished in proportion to the volume
of air contained in the liquid and an upward current of liquid and air can thus
be established in the immersed tube. By mixing a suitable quantity of air
with the liquid the mixture may be discharged at a considerable altitude above
the natural level of the liquid.
The compressed air used for lifting water or other liquids in this manner
works expansively that is to say, its pressure is gradually diminished and its
volume increased as it rises from the lowest point of the immersed tube to the
highest and while it is performing the work of lifting the liquid. If such an
expansion of air takes place without any heat being imparted to the water then
the temperature of the air falls, the reason being according to the mechanical
theory of heat that the heat abstracted from the air is equal to the amount of
work performed by the air. When however each bubble of air is surrounded
with a comparatively large body of water or other liquid which naturally
contains much more heat units than is required to supply the heat thus abstracted
from the air, then the air is able to draw upon this store of heat and the tem-
perature of the air instead of decreasing during the expansion remains practically
constant. The expansion of air when no heat is added or abstracted from the
air during the expansion is called adiabatic expansion, but when sufficient heat
is imparted to the air during the expansion to maintain it at a uniform tempera-
ture then the expansion is called isothermal. The work performed by the air
in this latter case is considerably greater than in the former.
Now in order to get the air to expand isothermally and thus to perform the
greatest possible amount of work in lifting liquids we according to our inven-
tion cause the air to be very intimately mixed with the liquid. Air is an
extremely bad conductor of heat and unless it is minutely subdivided during
its ascent through the immersed tube, the short duration of this ascent would
not permit it to abstract sufficient heat from the water to expand isothermally.
Minute subdivision of the air and a thorough mixing of the air with the liquid
is also essential where it is desired that the air shall exert a chemical action
on the liquid. This may be illustrated by the action of air upon the blood in
the lungs of men and beasts. Here the impure blood is brought in intimate
contact with atmospheric air and the blood is oxydized and thus purified almost
instantaneously.
Our invention comprises apparatus for producing these important results, said

page_text: apparatus consisting in improved air and water subdividing and commingling
nozzle device attached to the pipe which conveys compressed air to the lower
end of the immersed tube through which the liquid is to be raised and that in
such a way that the air blows the liquid into a spray while intimately comming-
ling therewith the action being constant and not pulsating We prefer to fix
the air pipe in the centre of the immersed tube and to provide it with a nozzle
device which practically occupies the whole area of the tube or governs the
annular zone between the nozzle device and the tube.
In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the lower end of
the immersed tube with one form of nozzle device arranged in the centre. Fig. 2
is a vertical section of another such arrangement. Fig. 3 is a like view of
another nozzle device. Fig. 4 a like view of yet another such, and Fig. 5 a
plan view of same. Fig. 6 is a vertical section through another form of nozzle.
Fig. 7 is a vertical section through a well which is provided with an immersed
tube having a nozzle device of one of the aforesaid forms Fig. 8 a plan view
and Fig. 9 a vertical transverse section.
In Fig. 1 the pipe A for conveying the compressed air is arranged centrally
in the immersed tube B. The nozzle device consists of a socket having its
bottom rim, curved or sloped and the lower opposite part D correspondingly
curved or sloped so as to give an upward direction to the compressed air which
issues at a considerable velocity and we thus utilize that initial velocity of the
air for imparting velocity to the upward current of the water or other liquid.
The latter issues from a number of small equidistantly arranged pipes or an
annular opening E having their upper mouths cut off in a slanting upward
direction so that the issuing water in meeting the issuing thin annular sheet
like stream of compressed air at a suitable angle. becomes thoroughly broken
up and comminuted into small particles, which become intimately commingled
with very small volumes or globules of compressed air, the spray thus produced
taking an upward direction in the pipe B. Instead of one thin annular opening
for the issuing air we may provide a number of small jet openings arranged
to meet the water in a similar manner.
The nozzle shown separately in Fig 2 and shown applied in Fig. 7 consists
of a socket C having its upper wall pierced with a number of small holes (" and
having its underside chambered out, a plate C, below it also pierced with a
number of holes and having its lower edge sloping upwards, and a bottom part 1)
correspondingly sloped, so as to give an upward direction to the air issuing between
the opposite sloping surfaces. The parts C, C and D) are held together by a
serew. The air issuing between the socket (and the plate C in a horizontal
direction impinges on the air issuing between the sloping faces of the parts C
and D and thus tends to break up the air so as to commingle effectually with
the water.
Fig. 3 shows a nozzle in which the air pipe A is formed with a sloping bottom
flange or socket C, that by three or four bars C* is united to a funnel shaped
deflecting cone 1 the air issuing between the flange C and cone D. The latter
is fitted in a socket F so that it can be raised and lowered therein, said socket
having an upper inwardly curved lip which may serve to break up the annular
issuing stream of air. The socket F is here shown screwed into the openworked
bottom wall B₁ of the pipe B.
In Figs. 4 and 5 is shown a form of nozzle consisting of a socket C, a deflector D,
and a screw 1) which unites these parts. In this example the edges of C and D)
are not made sloping.
Fig. 6 shows a somewhat similar arrangement but where by means of inter-
mediate discs D2 and D³ the air is split up into three annular sheets.
We are aware that the action of air on such liquids as sewage from towns and
villages may not be sufficient for their complete purification but we consider
the oxidizing action of the impelling air as very important where it is used in
conjunction with chemical or bacteriological purification as many substances

page_text: contained in such liquids may be reduced by the effect of air used as above
described.
The apparatus so far described may be used for deep well pumping and general
pumping purposes, and for the drainage and sewerage of towns, villages and
buildings, and a number of such pneumatic lifting apparatus may be actuated
from a central air compressing station in the same way as the so-called Shone's
pneumatic ejectors are used for this purpose.
It is specially applicable where large quantities of sewage are to be lifted
outside of a town, and also for lifting sewage effluents from filter tanks or
bacteria beds, or at such points where considerable quantities of sewage have
to be lifted, and where ejectors would require much lower air pressures than
that to which the engines at the central station are compressing the air. In
such cases the highly compressed air can be used expansively, the full initial
air pressure being utilized, whereby the coal consumption of the air compressing
engines would be reduced. In Figs. 7 8 and 9 we illustrate the application of
our lifting apparatus to a case where the liquid (for instance sewage effluent
from filter beds or bacteria beds) flows into a well G from a pipe H and where
high pressure air supply intended for other purposes, is available for the purposes
of our invention. An outer tube P is passed from the bottom of the well G
to such a depth that the head of the effluent sewage (or water) shall be equivalent
or nearly so to the aforesaid high pressure of air. We thus utilize the full
air pressure. If on the other hand the compressed air were throttled or other-
wise reduced to suit the mere depth of the well G, there would be a waste of
power.
Where as for instance in the case of sewage the flow is intermittent, we
provide means for automatically starting and stopping the action of the pneu-
matic lifting apparatus according to the flow or stoppage of the flow of the
liquid, and for this purpose we arrange a valve K of any well known design
to cut off the flow of compressed air to the pneumatic lifting apparatus.
The rod L of this valve is continued down in a manhole O communicating
with the well G and fitted with a compound float M, N, which arrangement
allows the sewage (or other liquid) to rise to a certain upper level before the
valve K is opened; the said valve closing when a quantity of sewage has been
removed from the manhole and well, and the level has fallen below the float N.
Having now particularly described; and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is:-
1. The application and use in a tube immersed in water, sewage or other
liquid to be raised up through it by means of compressed air, of a nozzle device
attached to the pipe which conveys compressed air to the lower end of the
immersed tube, said nozzle device having a narrow air outflow aperture or aper-
tures so constructed or arranged that the compressed air issuing therefrom in
a constant stream blows the liquid into a spray while intimately commingling
therewith, substantially as described and shewn.
2. The construction of nozzle device described with reference to Fig. 1 and
for the purpose stated.
3. The construction of nozzle device described with reference to Fig. 2 and
for the purpose stated.
4. The construction of nozzle device described with reference to Fig. 3 and
for the purpose stated.
5. The construction of nozzle device described with reference to Figs. 4, 5
and 6 and for the purpose stated.
G. An apparatus for raising liquid to a certain point by means of air com-
pressed to a higher pressure than that due to the height or head of such point,
comprising a well to receive the liquid to be raised, a pipe supplying the liquid
to the well, a tube or bore hole descending from the bottom of the well to such
a depth as to correspond to the air pressure, the liquid raising tube descending

page_text: into such tube or bore hole, and the compressed air pipe with nozzle inside the
liquid raising tube, substantially as set forth.
7. An apparatus for raising liquid to a certain point by means of air com-
pressed to a higher pressure than that due to the height or head of such point
comprising a well to receive intermittently or irregularly the liquid to be
raised, a pipe supplying the liquid to the well, a tube or bore hole descending
from the bottom of the well to such a depth that the head of effluent liquid
corresponds, or nearly so, to the air pressure, the liquid raising tube descending
into such tube or bore hole, the compressed air pipe with nozzle inside the
liquid raising tube, a valve in the aforesaid air supply pipe and a compound
float connected to the valve in such manner that it is automatically opened
when a certain predetermined level has been attained in the well and automati-
cally closed when the level has sunk below a predetermined point thus starting
and stopping the pneumatic liquid raising operation substantially as set forth.
8. The mode of raising and simultaneously oxidizing or purifying sewage
and other impure liquids, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 22nd day of June 1899.
JENSEN & SON,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agents.