Improvements in and connected with Apparatus for Pumping or Lifting Fluids.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Jan., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 12th Oct., 1897-Accepted, 20th Nov., 1897
Improvements in and connected with Apparatus for Pumping or
Lifting Fluids.
I, JAMES LONGSHAW of 275 Burlington Street Liverpool in the County of
Lancaster, Chemical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to the method of and apparatus for pumping or lifting
fluids and more particularly to such apparatus as is used for pumping acids and
solutions and liquors produced or used in Chemical Works and the like. By my
Improvements I am enabled to pump either a single liquid or a plurality of liquids
simultaneously by a single pump, without allowing the liquid or liquids to enter the
pump or its accessories.
For the purpose of my Invention, I prefer to employ a single acting pump, that
is to say, a ram or plunger pump, without a foot valve. The outlet from this pump
is connected by suitable junction pipes with as many branch pipes as there will be
different classes of liquids to be pumped. Near the junction there is, in each branch,
a regulator which may consist of a suitable length of the pipe, at each end of which
there is a valve seating for a free ball or floating clack valve between them. Further
from the pump there is a vertical part of the pipe or a chamber which is preferably
fitted with a gauge glass by means of which the level of the contents may be
observed. Still further from the pump, each branch makes junction with a lifting
pipe, the lower part of which forms the suction and the upper part the delivery.
This pipe is provided with two ball or clack valves between which the junction with
the branch pipe is made.
.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-The branch pipe is filled with oil up
to a level indicated in the vertical part of the pipe or chamber. If now the plunger
or pump be set in action, the oil will alternately be forced upward and drawn
downward in the vertical part or chamber and will thus act as a fluid piston. In the
downward motion it will draw the liquid up through the suction part of the lifting
pipe, and in its upward motion it will force the same liquid through the delivery
part of that pipe. In other words, the oil in the vertical part or chamber of
the branch pipe will act as a pump.
Instead of oil, it will be obvious that I may use any other suitable fluid which will
not, preferably, mix with the liquid to be pumped.
:
Dated this 11th day of January A.D. 1897

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and connected with Apparatus for Pumping or
Lifting Fluids.
I, JAMES LONGSHAW, of 275 Burlington Street, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Chemical Engineer, 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 :--
This invention relates to apparatus for pumping or lifting liquids and fluids
particularly such as are produced in chemical works, and its chief object is to so
construct and arrange such apparatus that an ordinary ram or other suitable pump
may be employed without alteration for elevating or pumping corrosive liquids. In
addition, a single pump may be employed to operate more than one elevating system
and to raise more than one liquid without one interfering with another or without
them entering the pump, and in such a manner that in each system the proper
amount of liquid is raised.
In carrying this invention into effect and referring to a form in which only one
elevating apparatus is employed, the pump is connected by a suitable pipe or series
of pipes with a pumping chamber into which the liquid to be raised is drawn and
from which it is expelled by the action of the pump. When more than one system
is employed in conjunction with a single pump, each is provided with a regulator
or governor which ensures the proper amount of liquid being raised in cach system.
The pump and the pipes connecting it with the pumping chamber or chambers is
filled or partly filled with a light oil or other suitable liquid of low specific gravity
which will have no corrosive or similar action upon the metal of which the pump and
its accessories are formed. The pipes are so formed and arranged that the light oil
or the like is retained within the pump and the pipes between the pump and the
pumping chamber or chambers.
The accompanying drawing illustrates one form and arrangement of my improved
elevating or pumping apparatus.
A is a ram pump of the usual or any suitable pattern operated in any convenient
manner. This pump is connected by a pipe or series of pipes B with a pumping
chamber C. D is the suction pipe through which the liquid to be lifted is drawn
into the chamber near to the top, and E is the delivery pipe. When more than one
pumping chamber is operated from a single pump then a regulator or governor F is
placed within each pipe or series of pipes B between the pump and the chambers.
If only one chamber or elevating system is to be operated from the pump the
regulator may be dispensed with.
The regulator F consists of a cylinder or tube, which is illustrated partly in
section, and which contains a ball or piston ƒ capable of moving from end to end
of the cylinder into which it just fits. The ends of the pipes B project into
the ends of the cylinder and are so formed that they may be closed by the ball
or the like coming against either of them.
G is a vertically extending chamber or tube the lower end of which opens into the
pump cylinder and the upper end of which is closed by a plug or cock g. This tube
acts as an air chamber to the pump.
A tap a is arranged upon the upper part of the pump cylinder and a cock bis
placed in the pipe B near to the pump. The pipe B before reaching the pumping
chamber C is bent vertically upwards as shown and at the top of the bend is arranged
a cock or valve c. The vertical part of the pipe B leading downwards from the
valve to the pumping chamber is preferably of a capacity equal to double that
of the regulator F, and this chamber C should also be of at least double the capacity

page_text: of the regulator. Attached to the upper part of the chamber C and opening
therein is a tap d by means of which the elevation of the liquid may be started or
stopped. H and J are ball or non-return valves situated respectively in the
suction and delivery pipes, the former being preferably arranged as low as
possible.
In operation the pump and the pipes B or parts of the pipes B are filled with
a light oil or similar liquid and this tight oil comes into contact with the liquid
to be lifted or pumped. The pipes are so arranged that at the point of contact the
light oil is above the liquid to be elevated and consequently no diffusion takes place.
By this arrangement the pump always works in oil and it and the pipes B which
contain the oil may be of iron. Only the chamber C and those parts into which the
liquid to be elevated has access need to be constructed of a special material or metal
to resist the corrosive or other liquid.
The pump and the pipes may of course be charged with the oil or the like in
many various ways but I give the following as an example.
The ram is withdrawn to the end of its stroke and the tap f' arranged upon one
end of the regulator and the cocks b and g are opened. A pipe extending above the
level of the vertical bend in the pipe B is screwed or attached to the tap f¹ and light
oil is poured in until the regulator F, the pump A, the intervening pipe B and the
pipe G are filled, the latter up to the level marked x-y. The taps or cocks are then
closed and the cock fat the other end of the regulator is opened. A similar pipe
to that which was attached to the tap f¹ is now attached to the tap 2 and this and
the intervening pipe B is filled with light oil from the cock or tap c. The tap f² is
then closed and the remaining part of the apparatus is filled, also through the tap c,
with the liquid which has to be raised. The tap or cock c is of a construction which
permits the passage of liquid from outside to the pipes on either side of it at will,
and it may also be turned so as to close the external passages and place the pipes at
each side of it into communication with each other. It is now turned into this
latter position and the valve 6 is opened. The pump may now be started and the
liquid to be elevated is drawn into and expelled from the pumping chamber C, the
oil remaining always within the pump and the desired pipes. No diffusion or
displacement between the oil and the liquid to be pumped takes place and the
apparatus once charged remains charged in the absence of leakage.
By opening or closing the tap d the pumping may be started or stopped at
will.
The cock b is provided so that the ram may be packed or repaired at any time.
Although only one pumping chamber and its connecting pipes are illustrated in
combination with the pump it will be understood that any convenient number of.
such chambers and pipes may be employed with a single pump. In such cases each
system is provided with a regulator F and the capacity of each regulator is
proportioned according to the number of systems employed. Thus, for example,
if five chambers were connected to the pump each regulator would have a
capacity equal to that of one fifth the capacity of the pump cylinder.
By this arrangement it is ensured that each pumping system raises its due
proportion of liquid, no matter under what conditions it may be working. The
passage of the oil to and fro within each regulator moves the ball f from end
to end and alternately closes the inlet and the outlet. No more oil will pass than
the regulator will contain and thus each regulator and pumping system receives
from the ram pump its due supply of oil which acts as a liquid piston.
The light oil or other liquid employed must, of course, be of such a nature as
not to be acted upon by the liquid pumped.
It will be evident that the apparatus described may be modified in some
particulars without departing from my invention, which consists in so arranging and
disposing the pump and its accessories that they may be filled with a light oil or
equivalent liquid in such a manner that where the oil comes into contact with the
liquid to be raised no diffusion or intermingling takes place. The liquid is thus
prevented from gaining access to the pump.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a pumping or lifting apparatus, filling the pump and its accessories with
light oil or similar liquid to act as a fluid piston to raise the liquid operated upon,
substantially as and for the purpose and by the means hereinbefore described and as
illustrated by the accompanying drawing.
2. In a pumping or lifting apparatus, the combination with the pump an the
pumping chamber of intervening pipes or receptacles which together with the pump
are filled with oil or other suitable liquid, constructed and arranged substantially as
and for the purpose hereinbefore set forth and as illustrated by the accompanying
drawing.
3. In a pumping or lifting apparatus, the combination with a single pump of a
plurality of pumping systems each of which is filled with oil or the like and is
provided with a regulator, substantially as hereinbefore described and as illustrated
by the accompanying drawing.
4. A pumping or lifting apparatus, constructed and arranged substantially as and
for the purpose hereinbefore set forth and illustrated by the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 11th day of October 1897.
W. E. HEYES & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
W. E. HEYES & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.