IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPING & FORCING LIQUIDS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Burness, of 2, Prospect Terrace, Brixton,
in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PUMPING
& FORCING LIQUIDS."
Sealed the 31st May 1859, and dated the 7th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Burness at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
December 1858.
I, WILLIAM BURNESS, of 2, Prospect Terrace, Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PUMPING & FORCING LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pumping and forcing
liquids, and consists in combining with machines used for pumping or forcing
liquids apparatus herein-after described in order to render the flow of the
liquid uniform, notwithstanding the intermittent action of the pumping or
forcing machines. For this purpose the liquid as it passes from the pumping
or forcing machine is caused to enter a cylinder or vessel containing a piston
of large area and furnished with guides to ensure it rising and falling truly
within the cylinder or vessel; this piston is heavily weighted according to its
area, and the height or distance to which the liquid is to be raised or forced,
and the quantity to be discharged. The pipe or pipes for conducting the
liquid away are connected directly with the cylinder or vessel, and while the

page_text: pumping or forcing machines are at work a uniform flow is maintained in
the pipe or pipes, the rise and fall of the weighted piston compensating for
the want of uniformity in the action of the pumping or forcing machines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Burness in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th June 1859.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BURNESS, of 2, Prospect Terrace, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, tho
said William Burness, Her special licence that I, the, said William Burness,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Burness, 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN PUMPING AND FORCING LIQUIDS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Burness, 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 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 William Burness, 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 fol
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in pumping and forcing
liquids, and consists in con.bining with machines used for pumping or forcing
liquids apparatus herein-after described in order to render the flow of the
liquid uniform, notwithstanding the intermittent action of the pumping or
forcing machines. For this purpose the liquid as it passes from the pumping

page_text: or forcing machines is caused to enter a cylinder or vessel containing a piston
of large area and furnished with guides to ensure it rising and falling truly
within the cylinder or vessel; this piston is heavily weighted according to its
area, and the height or distance to which the liquid is to be raised or forced
and the quantity to be discharged. The pipe or pipes for conducting the
liquid away are connected directly with the cylinder or vessel, and while the
pumping or forcing machines are at work a uniform flow is maintained in
the pipe or pipes, the rise and fall of the weighted piston compensating for the
want of uniformity in the action of the pumping or forcing machines.
The Invention is applicable to all purposes where liquid or liquified matter
has to be pumped and forced to any distance, and the accompanying Drawing
will illustrate one out of many arrangements by which it can be reduced to
practice.
In the Drawing, A is the chamber of the forcing apparatus into which the
liquid is thrown through the induction pipes a, a, a, from the pumps; B is
the eduction or discharge pipe through which the liquid is forced by means
of the ram or piston P, which works in the cylinder D; C is the shaft of the
ram which supports the platform E for carrying the weights; and e, e, are
guide rollers, which work in guides (not shown in the Drawing) so as to make
the ram work freely in the cylinder; d, d, are small eduction pipes with stop
cocks for the removal of air when the chamber A is first filled with liquid,
and similar provision is made for the removal of air from between the valves
or stop-cocks of the induction pipes a, a, a, and the pump valves, which it is
not necessary to shew on the Drawing. When a continuous supply of fluid
has to be pumped and forced, an additional forcing apparatus and pump will
be required for repairs. The induction pipes a, a, a, may lead from the pumps
to both chambers by means of the discharge pipe band valve v to the common
discharge pipe B.
Supposing the Drawing to represent a pumping and forcing station, then
any number of such stations may be conjoined so as to form a general system
for collecting, pumping, and forcing liquid through a common discharge pipe
from a common station. When these subsidiary stations are below the level
of the common one, a greater pressure will be required on the ram, and when
they are above it a less pressure, advantage being taken of the pressure of the
liquid in the subsidiary discharge pipes.
Having thus shown the nature of the Invention, I shall next notice some
of its principal advantages.
1st. A more uniform velocity or discharge of liquid is obtained than can be
done either by an air chamber or by raising the liquid to a certain height. by

page_text: means of a bent pipe or otherwise. This will appear manifest when the fact
is considered that the pressure of air or of a column of water ranges between a
maximum and a minimum, so that it is unequal, and consequently the velocity,
while a column of liquid such as sewage would putrify and give off gases.
Again, both in the case of air chamber and bent pipe a certain amount of
reaction is experienced by pumps, for they have not only at every stroke to
start the liquid from a state of rest to the given velocity, but from moving
in the opposite direction; hence the consequences.
These objections I
obviate.
2. No air or gases can accumulate in my discharge pipe at bends on the tops
of hills over which it may have to pass, from the velocity and volume of liquid
in it being uniform and unbroken throughout its length. Now that liquid
manure from farm buildings, and sewage from towns are being conveyed
through pipes, this is a most important desideratum gained, for such liquids
generate, and give off gases very rapidly, and as such when accumulated at
bends of the discharge pipe act as air chambers opposed to the pumps, the
objectionable result need not be detailed.
3. I can increase or diminish the velocity of the liquid in the discharge pipe
as circumstances may require, simply by increasing or diminishing the pressure
upon the ram, the pressure of steam or other motive power, the number of
pumps and size of the induction pipes, or length of time of each pump stroke,
by mechanical means.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Burness, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
WILLIAM BURNESS. (L.S.)