IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATORS OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING OR EXTRACTING WATER FROM MINES, DOCKS, OR OTHER PLACES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Day and George Day at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th July 1880.
JOHN DAY, of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, Shoemaker, and GEORGE
DAY, of the same Place, Engine Driver. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATORS OR
APPARATUS FOR RAISING OR EXTRACTING WATER FROM MINES, DOCKS, OR OTHER
PLACES."
Our object in this Invention is to produce a cheap, simple, and useful elevator
for mines and other places and purposes, which may obviate the use of the forms of
elevator or pump now generally adopted. For mines steam is objectionable in
almost any way, as it condenses and also makes the places where it is employed
unbearably hot; and compressed air, though useful in many ways, yet nevertheless
involves expensive compressing machinery, and is a more or less constant source
of trouble in the mine on account of its producing such cold in the cylinders of the
engines it drives, that ordinary lubricants are little or no use, and glycerine has
generally to be used; the moisture also is sometimes turned into ice.
Now our Invention is in general form somewhat like a steam injector, but the
motive power is water, not steam; and while the vacuum in the steam injector is
formed partly by condensation, in ours it is formed entirely by the velocity of the
small stream of water. The elevator consists mainly in a body provided internally
with two nozzles, one the discharging nozzle a fixture, and the other through which
the head water flows, either adjustable by means of a hand wheel and screw or
their equivalent, or a fixture like the first, according to the requirements of the
case. One form is constructed as follows:-About the centre (lengthwise) of the
body is a branch, through which the head or pressure water flows into one enlarged
portion or chamber in the body, through which chamber in the direction of the
length of the body passes the adjustable nozzle, said adjustable nozzle being hollow
and pierced with suitable holes or openings for the free passage of the water within
the chamber to enter. A little further along the body is another branch and
chamber forming the intake for the water which is to be removed or raised, and the
adjustable nozzle fits sufficiently tight into the intervening space to stop the
passage of water between it and the body, though still free to move as needed;
packing can be used for this purpose if found desirable.
The second chamber terminates in the discharge nozzle, which is arranged in any
convenient manner, but preferably in a line with the central axis of the body. The

page_text: action of this elevator is that when the head water enters the first branch and
chamber it passes through the spaces into the inside of the adjustable nozzle, and
passes out by its orifice (which is preferably contracted) into the discharge nozzle
with great velocity, thereby producing a vacuum into which the water to be
removed rushes, and is driven out through the discharge nozzle with the head
water.
The relative areas of the nozzles may be varied to suit circumstances.
A simpler form of elevator consists of a short body provided with the two
branches, chambers, and discharge nozzle as before, but instead of being adjustable
by hand wheel or otherwise, the internal or supply nozzle is fixed (preferably
screwed) into the body at or near the bottom of the first chamber projecting into
the second chamber, as in the case of the movable one, a suitable cap closing the
top of the first chamber. The action is the same as in the former case.
A third form has the discharge nozzle, second branch, and chamber, and also the
fixed supply nozzle as before, but instead of the first branch being upon the side of
the body, as in the previous cases, it is attached at the top of the body either
beyond the chamber or in place of it, and the head water enters the supply nozzle
direct, the supply branch being straight or curved in any convenient direction. In
all cases we prefer to taper the discharge nozzle, the smaller area being at the second
chamber and the large area beyond it at the end of the body. These elevators can
be made of various materials and in various ways, but we prefer to cast them
in iron or brass, and to screw the different parts together; in working they may be
placed vertically or horizontally, or in fact in almost any position.