IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Holmes, of Plumstead, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPS."
Sealed, the 7th January 1868, and dated the 10th July 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Holmes.
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 10th July 1867.
I, FREDERICK HOLMES, of Plumstead, in the County of Kent, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PUMPS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing pumps as hereafter described. From
about the middle of an ordinary pump barrel, having a double piston or two
pistons on the same rod,. I carry down a pipe which terminates at its lower
end in the liquid to be raised; a pipe leads from the upper part of the barrel
to deliver the liquid raised by the first-named pipe. From the bottom of the
pump barrel I carry down a pipe which also terminates at its lower end in a
box or chamber immersed in the liquid and filled therewith, such box or
chamber being closed at all points except that it is provided with inlet valves
and that a pipe is carried up from its lower part to deliver the liquid as
hereafter described.

page_text: The action is as follows:-In the down stroke of the pistons the air in the
pipe leading from the bottom of the barrel is compressed and forces liquid
from the box or chamber up the delivery pipe which leads from the bottom of
the box or chanıber, and the liquid thus forced from the box or chamber is
replaced through the inlet valves in the up stroke. In the up stroke the
liquid is sucked up the pipe leading from the middle of the barrel, enters the
barrel between the pistons, and is discharged through the delivery pipe leading
from the upper part of the barrel. The two delivery pipes may if desired be
connected. It is preferred to employ two pump barrels and two sets of pipes
arranged as before described, the two pumps acting alternately. The box or
chamber may in this case be divided vertically, and when the pumps are fitted
to ships, for which they are particularly applicable, the middle of the box or
chamber may be recessed at the bottom so as to fit over the keelson.
The chief features of my Invention are the pipe leading down from the
bottom of the barrel combined with the suction pipe and the construction of
the box or chamber as described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Holmes in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, FREDERICK
HOLMES, of Plumstead, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Frederick Holmes, Her special licence that I, the said Frederick Holmes,
my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said
Frederick Holmes, my-executors, administrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PUMPS," upon the condition (amongst others). that .I, the said. Frederick
Holmes, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in, writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was

page_text: 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 Frederick Holmes, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:
My Invention consists in constructing pumps as hereafter described. From
about the middle of a pump barrel having a double piston or two pistons, the
upper of which is a bucket piston, on the same rod I carry down a pipe which
terminates at its lower end in the liquid to be raised; a pipe leads from the
upper part of the barrel to deliver the liquid raised by the first-named pipe.
From the bottom of the pump barrel I carry down a pipe which also terminates
at its lower end in a box or chamber immersed in the liquid and filled there-
with, such box or chamber being closed at all points except that it is provided
with inlet valves, and that a pipe is carried up from its lower part to deliver the
liquid as hereafter described. It is preferred to employ two pump barrels
and two sets of pipes arranged as before described, the two pumps acting
alternately.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings represents two pumps constructed
as herein-before described, the two pumps being worked from the same shaft
and acting alternately. The description of one will suffice to explain both.
A is a pump barrel divided by a flange and stuffing box at A' into two
chambers, and having two pistons B, C, the upper of which B is a bucket piston;
these two pistons are on the same rod D, which is worked by a crank E of
the shaft F, to which rotary motion is imparted in any convenient manner by
hand, steam, or other power; G is a pipe carried down from about the middle
of the barrel A above the stuffing box A¹ to the liquid to be raised; H is a
pipe leading from the upper part of the barrel to deliver the liquid raised by
the pipe G; I is a pipe carried down from the bottom of the barrel to the
liquid to be raised; K is a box or chamber immersed in the liquid and filled
therewith; it is closed at all points except that it is provided with inlet valves L,
and that (in addition to the pipes G and I, which terminate in it) a pipe M
is carried up from its lower part to deliver the liquid.
The action is as follows:-In the down stroke of the pistons B, C, the
liquid in the pipe I is compressed and forces liquid from the chamber K
up the pipe M; the liquid thus forced from the chamber K is replaced through
the inlet valves L in the up stroke. In the up stroke the liquid is sucked up

page_text: the pipe G, enters the barrel A between the pistons B, C, and above the
stuffing box A1, and in the next down stroke passes through the valve of the
piston B, so as to be discharged by the delivery pipe H at the next following
up stroke. The two delivery pipes H and M may if desired be connected.
When I employ two pumps and two sets of pipes, as in the Drawing, the
chamber K may be divided vertically, as indicated by the dotted line N, and
when the pumps are fitted to ships the middle of the chamber may be
recessed at the bottom, as shewn at O, so as to fit over the keelson. By
leading a pipe, as shown in dotted lines at V, from the bottom of each barrel A
to the upper part of the lower chamber of the other barrel the pumps are made
double acting.
:
A modification of the pump herein-before described is represented in
elevation in Figure 2. Instead of the chamber K, Figure 1, fitted with
valves being immersed in the liquid to be raised I fit a valve chainber K to
the lower chamber of the barrel, and the valve chamber communicates with
the liquid to be raised by a suction pipe P. R is a pipe carried down from
the upper chamber of the barrel to the valve chamber; S is a pipe carried
from the upper part of the lower chamber of the barrel to the pump head;
T is a pipe carried from the upper part of the lower chamber of the barrel to
the lower part of the valve chamber below the valve. In the up stroke the
liquid is sucked up the pipe P through the valve chamber and through the
pipe R into the upper chamber of the barrel, and also into the lower chamber;
at the same time the liquid is forced from the lower chamber through the
pipe S into the pump head. In the down stroke the valve in the chamber K
is closed, and the liquid is forced from the lower chamber of the barrel through
the pipe R to the upper chamber, and through the bucket piston into the
pump head; at the same time the liquid is sucked up through the pipe T into
the upper part of the lower chamber to be discharged through the pipe S at
the next up stroke. If preferred channels may be cast on the barrel instead
of the connecting pipes R, S, T, and the valves brought together and
arranged in a valve box instead of being placed in the positions as before
described.
Figure 3 represents in elevation, partly in section, two of the pumps shown
in Figure 2 with an air or water vessel U applied thereto to enable them to
act as force pumps; suitable arrangements of the valves the upper chamber
of one or both of the pumps may be used for forcing air into the air vessel to
the pressure.
keep up
Figure 4 represents two pumps constructed like that represented in
Figure 2, but without the communications S'and T respectively between the

page_text: upper part of the lower chamber of the barrel and the pump head, and between
the upper part of the lower chamber of the barrel and the lower part of the
valve chamber; instead thereof I fit a pipe V between the upper part of the
lower chamber of one pump and the lower part of the lower chamber of the
other pump, and vice versâ, so that in the up stroke of one pump the liquid
above the piston of the lower chamber is forced out through the pipe V,
and meeting the liquid discharged from the lower chamber of the other
pump is discharged with it by the pipe R through the upper chamber.
The lower chamber is supplied at its upper part in the down stroke by the
pipe V.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my "Improvements
in Pumps,"
First, constructing pumps arranged and acting substantially as herein-before
described and represented in Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings.
Second, the modification represented in Figures 2 and 3 arranged and acting
as herein-before described.
Third, the modification represented in Figure 4 arranged and acting as
he ein-before described.
1
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Holmes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.
FRED. HOLMES. (L.S.)