AN IMPROVED SUCTION APPARATUS FOR PUMPING AND EXHAUSTING PURPOSES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet, of
Paris, in the Empire of France, and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City),
London, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SUCTION APPARATUS FOR
PUMPING AND EXHAUSTING PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean
Baptiste Hector Bouvet at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 23rd August 1854.
I, JULIEN LOUIS PIERRE JEAN BAPTISTE HECTOR BOUVET, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City), London, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SUCTION APPARATUS
FOR PUMPING AND EXHAUSTING PURPOSES" to be as follows:-
My improved apparatus consists of a flexible cylindrical or prismatic bag of
vulcanized india-rubber, or any other suitable air-tight, flexible or elastic
material. This bag is closed at one end by a fixed bottom of wood or any
other suitable substance; the other end is closed by a moveable lid. This
latter may be depressed upon the fixed bottom by any suitable mechanism or
by its own weight, so as to compress and fold the bag, and expel all or nearly
all the air; for this purpose I apply on the top lid an exit valve. The moveable

page_text: lid is then raised again, and by the reciprocating motion thus effected a vacuum,
or partially so, is produced. This vacuum, in conjunction with atmospheric
or other pressure, is applied to pumping up or exhausting any liquid or fluid
matter, and for this purpose I collocate in the lower or fixed bottom an inlet
valve, which allows said fluids or liquids to rush in, but prevents them from
returning back. For the purpose of better folding and compressing the
elastic bag or capacity, I surround it internally and externally at suitable
distances with hoops or rings of large and small diameters alternately; for
instance, a hoop of large diameter inside the bag, and next a hoop of small
diameter outside; next again a large hoop inside, and so on in such manner as
to form a folded appearance like a bellows. The reciprocating motion of the
moveable top may either be rectilinear or else angular about a hinge on
the fixed bottom, and the moveable top being connected with a hose or flexible
tube, the liquid pumped up into the bag may be transmitted to where it is
required.
+
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULIEN
LOUIS PIERRE JEAN BAPTISTE HECTOR BOUVET, of Paris, in the Empire of
France, and of 16, Castlo Street, Holborn (City), London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet, Her special
licence that I, the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVED SUCTION APPARATUS FOR PUMPING AND EXHAUSTING
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Julien Louis
Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector Bouvet, by an instrument in writing under my

page_text: hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste
Hector Bouvet, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My improved pumping apparatus consist of a flexible bag or hoze of
vulcanized india-rubber, or any other suitable air-tight, flexible and collapsible
material. This bag is closed at one end by a fixed bottom of wood or any
other suitable material, the opposite end being shut by a moveable lid. These
top and bottom plates have one or both of them valves suitably adjusted, so as
to let the liquid in and out, which it is desired to raise or set in motion. The
moveable lid may be depressed or brought down upon the fixed bottom by any
suitable mechanism or by its own weight, so as to compress and fold the bag,
and expel all or nearly all the air, an exit valve being applied to the moveable
lid for that purpose. The moveable lid is then raised again, and by the
reciprocating motion thus effected a vacuum, or partially so, is produced. This
vacuum, in conjunction with the atmospheric or other pressure, is applied to
pumping or exhausting any liquid or fluid matter, and for this purpose I
collocate in the lower or fixed bottom an inlet valve, which allows said fluids
or liquids to rush in, but prevents them from returning back. The bag taken
in its transverse section may have any shape, such as circular, square, &c., and
in order to facilitate its motion and allowing it to be compressed more easily,
I construct this bag in the manner of accordeons, &, and I surround it
internally and externally at suitable distances with hoops or rings of large and
small diameters alternately; for instance, a hoop or large diameter inside the
bag, and next another of small diameter outside next again.
Having thus briefly set forth the principal features of my Invention, I now
proceed to describe the same in detail, in order that the way in which it is
carried into effect may be fully understood. The different modifications of
pumps are represented on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, where Fig. 1 is an
clevation of a pumping apparatus for gaseous fluids, this pump working with
a reciprocating motion; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same kind of pump,
working with an angular motion; Fig. 3 is an elevation, partly in section, of
a pump for liquids, and is similar to the one shewn at Fig. 1, but cased up;
Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of a double-acting pump with conveying pipes
attached to it; Fig. 5 is a partly sectional elevation of a double-acting pump

page_text: with conveying pipes encasing the pumping bag; Fig. 6 is a section at right
angles to Fig. 5; Fig. 7 is a sectional plan of Fig. 5, through the lines *;
Fig. 8 is a partly sectional elevation of lifting pumps with stationary &
moveable pipe part. The same letters of reference stand for like parts on the
Drawing.
The pump when used for gases may be constructed as is shewn at Fig. 1.
a, a, are the double truncated cones mentioned above; b, b, Fig. 2, ligatures
or hoops for forming the small diameter, the larger hoops being in the inside
of the flexible bag; c is the top plate or lid of the bag, and has a rod d
secured to it for giving to the apparatus a reciprocating motion. The bottom
plate e may have two valves, one for the inlet, the other for the outlet of the
gaseous fluid; or else there may be one valve f in the bottom of the bag, and
another g in the top plate, as shewn in Fig. 1.
The gascous fluid pump shewn at Fig. 2 differs from Fig. 1 only by the
mode of motion, which is angular instead of rectilinear, there being a hinge
at A, round which the top lid is turned, and a rod or lever B, by which the
pump is worked. The action of both these pumps at Fig. 1 and 2 is too
simple to require any further explanation.
Although the two kinds of pumps described may also be used for liquid
matters, yet it will be obvious that, on account of liquids not being able to
rush into the vacuum formed by the up stroke as readily as gaseous fluids, the
bag will during the up stroke be exposed to a beavy external pressure. To
avoid this pressure, I have devised the arrangement shewn at Fig. 3, where a
pump of the same construction as that represented at Fig. 1 is encased in
a cylinder h, h, which is closed hermetically at the top and bottom by means
of cover plates i, i. The lower plate has the suction pipe & secured to it,
opening inside the bag through the valve f. The cylinder lid has a stuffing
box l, through which the pump rod works air-tight; there are also holes m, m,
in the cylinder lid, for letting out the air from the cylinder when it is exhausted.
This
pump works in the following manner:-When it is started, the apertures
m, m, are opened, and the bag is drawn up so as to expel the air in the
cylinder case. Before the down stroke is then performed, the holes m, m, are
plugged up again to prevent the return of the air. By the up stroke, as will
be seen, a vacuum is formed in the bag, into which the water or any other
liquid rises from the suction pipe k, the same as in common pumps, by opening
the valve f in the bottom plate of the bag. When the top plate is at the end
of its up stroke, the down stroke begins, and this motion is not aided by
atmospheric pressure since a partial vacuum has been made in the cylinder.
But when the down stroke begins, it is easy to see that the valve f cannot

page_text: shut as fast as the one 9 opens; hence at the beginning of the down stroke the
atmospheric pressure, acting through the valve f, materially assists the valve g
in opening, a slight pressure on the top plate being sufficient for causing this
valve to open, and to be wide open by the time the valve f sluts. By this
action the water contained in the bag is readily expelled, notwithstanding the
vacuum outside, this vacuum only serving to render the motion easier, by
taking away the resistance that the atmosphere would oppose to the pump
plate. The vacuum must be renewed from time to time, as above set forth,
For in any other suitable manner. The valves fand 9 are suitably counter-
weighted, as shewn on the Drawing, so as to obtain a more perfect fitting
and closing, and prevent the valve from lifting by the pressure of the liquid.
The remaining Figures of the Drawing shew several applications of the
pumping bag; the main feature of these applications being the attachment of
lifting or conveying pipes to the pumping bag, either enclosing the same, or
else being fixed to the top plate of said pumping bag. Fig. 4 shews a double-
acting pump, in which two conveying pipes A, A, are fixed on the moveable
top plates of two bags, which are suitably fixed at the bottom end of the
bags, and communicate with them by means of valves opening upwards.. The
conveying pipes A, A, are suspended on the moving beam B, being in equi-
librium about the point C, and each pipe, rising in turn, pumps liquid into the
bag, in order to force the same up the column A at the down stroke, and
cause it to flow over during the descent, through a suitable nozzle D, into a
reservoir E. The object and effect of these additional pipes is to convey the
liquid to any desired elevation above the point in which it is delivered by
atmospheric pressure alone.
Figs. 5, 6, and 7 relate to another variety of these lifting pumps, which has
a set of bags outside and another inside the pipes, the outside ones acting like
those represented at Fig. 4, and the inside ones F, F, receiving the water
pumped by the outside bags; delivering the same into the pipe at the up stroke
the latter makes, and forcing the same out into a reservoir E, by nozzles D, at
the top of the pipes. The bags are arranged as shewn in transverse section
& sectional plan, Figs. 6 & 7. G are butterfly valves, all opening upwards the
top of bags; from the position of these valves it will be seen that in Fig. 4
the pump is shewn at or near the end of its up stroke, whilst at Fig. 5 it is
represented on the point of beginning its down stroke, as indicated also by the
arrows. The pipes are suspended in equilibrio by rods H, crosses I, and chains
K, from the oscillating wheel L, which is moved by the lever M; the top plate
of the inner bags are hung by a chain N from a substantial framing, on which
the wheel L is mounted; O, G, are guides for the top plate of the bag. The

page_text: outer bag in the pump, Fig. 5, may sometimes be dispensed with. Fig. 8 shews
another modification of the pump with conveying pipes, which are here made
in two parts A, A', the upper part A being suitably fixed, whilst the lower
part is moved up and down by means of rods H. The connexion between the
two parts is established by means of a flexible bag O, the same as those used
for exbausting, and which may have a top or a bottom plate or not. The
liquid is raised into the tube A¹, by means of a pumping bag fixed outside to
the bottom of the conveying pipe, and by raising this pipe displaces a column
of liquid, so as to cause a corresponding discharge at the upper orifice of
the fixed pipe A. The flexible junction O may be adapted at any suitable
height of the pump, so as to avoid it being subjected to any undue pressure.
In Fig. 9, the conveying pipe is fixed at its lower part, and the flexible bag
is moved up and down by means of a rod H.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood
that what I claim as being secured to me by the herein-before Letters
Patent is,-
First, producing a vacuum by the development of flexible bags, as above
described.
Second, elevating water or any other liquids by moving alternately up and
down two columns of said liquid that are in equilibrio with each other, and
producing in this manner a greater useful effect with any given motive power
than without said equilibrio.
Third, using conveying pipes with internal or external bags, or a flexible
joint, as described, for the purpose of elevating water or any other liquids above
the height due to atmospheric pressure.
In witness whereof, I, the said Julien Louis Pierre Jean Baptiste Hector
Bouvet, have hereunto set my hand & seal, this 19th day of February