IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS FOR RAISING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Rigg, Engineer, of 42, Old Broad Street, in the
City of London, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS FOR RAISING
WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Rigg at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st March 1881.
•
'
_ARTHUR RIGG, Engineer, of 42, Old Broad Street, in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS FOR RAISING WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS."
With a vacuum vessel on the suction pipe, and an air vessel on the delivery pipe
of pumps heretofore_constructed, only a moderate speed is attainable, and the
object of my present Invention is so to construct and apply air vessels and vacuum
vessels, that the pumps to which such vessels are adopted can be driven at higher
speeds than hitherto.
In order to carry this my Invention into effect with respect to an air vessel,
I arrange a chamber surrounding or covering the pump which discharges directly
into it, and with respect to a vacuum vessel I fix a chamber surrounding and below
the pump, so that it shall draw directly out therefrom. Air and vacuum vessels
constructed in this manner may either be used separately or in conjunction.
In the latter case, the pump may be conveniently fixed inside a chamber divided
into two parts, one part performing the functions of an air vessel, and the other part
those of a vacuum vessel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Arthur Rigg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th September
1881.
ARTHUR RIGG, Engineer, of Number 42, Old Broad Street, in. the City of
London, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS FOR RAISING
WATER OR OTHER FLUIDS."
In order to explain fully one method' for carrying my Invention into effect,
Figures 1, 2, 3, & 4 have been prepared illustrative of its application to a double
acting plunger and bucket pump of a well known type.
Figure 1 represents a vertical section; Figure 2, a plan; Figure 3, an elevation;
and Figure 4, a horizontal section through the vacuum vessel and inlet door.
Similar letters stand for corresponding parts in all four Figures.
The plunger P is about half the area of the bucket B, and suction takes place
only during its upstroke, while delivery takes place during both the up and down-
stroke. The bucket B is provided with a valve, and the suction valve S is fixed
below it.'
An air vessel A covers the upper rim of the pump barrel L, and contains a gland
& stuffing box for the plunger P, so that delivery takes place immediately into
this air vessel, & from thence into the pipe O. The upper part of the air vessel
may be conveniently formed as a separate casting, removable so as to give access
to the pump barrel & bucket. It is bolted to a lower casting E which constitutes
a vacuum vessel V, and into which the suction pipe I has its inlet at a higher level
than the suction valve S, and from which the delivery pipe O passes away at the
bottom of the acting air-vessel. A diaphragm D is cast right across the chambers A.
and V, thus separating the air chamber and vacuum vessel, and serving as a support
to the pump barrel L. For convenience of access, passages are shown in Figures
3 and 4, and may be cast into the barrel and into the vacuum vessel, and covered
with a lid C.
The mode of working this pump is as follows:-Having charged the vacuum
vessel with water and given a reciprocating movement to the plunger and bucket,
each alternate stroke causes a vacant space under the bucket, which fills with
water, and each single stroke causes half the quantity to be delivered, whenever
the bucket and plunger bear the proportions of two to one to each other's areas.
The fluid pumped is delivered directly into the air-vessel, until such air as may be
found or supplied within it is compressed sufficiently to overcome the pressure upon
the rising main.
Both air chambers and vacuum vessels used separately or in combination are
well known contrivances for equalizing the flow of water, and lessening the
shock due to the action of reciprocating pumps; but they have hitherto been
generally applied upon the suction pipe before it enters the pump, and upon the
delivery pipe after it leaves the pump, and not immediately above and below, as
shewn in the illustration of my Invention.
These Figures illustrate only one type of pump, but a bucket alone or a plunger
alone may also be used, and its axis may be vertical, as shown in the Figures, or
horizontal, or inclined, suitable modifications being made in the design for these
different positions.
I make no claim for the Invention of air chambers or vacuum vessels, nor for
their use either separately or together, nor for the construction of plunger and
bucket pump having half delivery at each stroke, and entire suction at each alternate
stroke.

page_text: Nor do I restrict myself to the exact details or proportions as shewn in the
Drawings and described in the foregoing; but what I do claim as my Invention
is,―
I. The application of an-air vessel placed over the working barrel of a pump,
so that delivery takes place directly into it before the fluid enters the delivery
pipe.
II. The combination of an air vessel placed over the working barrel of a pump
so that delivery takes place directly into it, with a vacuum vessel fixed immediately
below and wholly or partially surrounding the working barrel of a pump, so that
suction takes place immediately out of it, substantially as described.
In witness' whereof, I, the said Arthur Rigg, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty one.
ARTHUR RIGG. (LS.)