IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF PUMPING WATER FROM SHAFTS, PITS, OR SIMILAR PLACES, WHICH METHOD IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR DRAWING GAS FROM GOAVES IN MINES AND FOR VENTILATING PITS OR SHAFTS IN COURSE OF SINKING
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Tarbuck and Thomas
Burns at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd September 1869.
We, JOHN TARBUCK and THOMAS BURNS, of Abram, near Wigan,
in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF PUMPING WATER FROM SHAFTS,
PITS, OR SIMILAR PLACES, WHICH METHOD IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR DRAWING GAS
FROM GOAVES IN MINES AND FOR VENTILATING PITS OR SHAFTS IN COURSE OF
SINKING," to be as follows:-
In the existing methods of pumping water the windbore or foot of
the pump stock is permanently immersed in the water to be drawn off,
and after the exhaustion of an adequate quantity of air from the pump
stock the water ascends in the stock to the height of about 30 feet,
the pressure of the atmosphere having no effect after that has been
accomplished; but we propose by our Invention to utilize the atmo-
spheric pressure quite up to the required point of delivery of the water.
We place on the lower end of the pump stock a sliding pipe kept tight
by packing, and the end of this pipe is immersed in the water to
any convenient depth when exhausting, and the foot of the pump stock

page_text: is some distance above the water. This sliding pipe can be lifted to
any required height above the surface of the water by means of one or
more wire ropes outside the pump stock passing up the pit, downbrow,
or other excavation, and connected to an L lever or other suitable appa-
ratus, the length of the stroke being regulated as required. We exhaust
the air from the pump stock by means of one or more air pumps placed in
any convenient position, and when a column of water has been elevated
by atmospheric pressure to the height previously named we raise the
sliding pipe and on the emergence of the lower end from the surface
of the water the column will be immediately severed and the atmo-
spheric air will have the means of ingress into the pump stock pursuing
and driving before it the upper portion of the so severed column of
water to its required point of exit from the pump stock. The sliding pipe
will either be either sufficiently heavy of itself or so weighted that after
its elevation and consequent propulsion of the water it will at the descent
of the L lever sink, until its lower end is again immersed in the
water, and by its alternate elevation and depression the pumping will
be continued, the exhaustion of the air and the pumping of the water
being brought into operation either alternately or simultaneously as
may be found most advantageous. To provide for the contingency of
the water to be drawn off rising to a greater height than the foot of
the pump stock, and thus preventing the severence of the column, we
connect to the pump stock two more pipes surrounded by sliding pipes
to suit the level of the water. In order to draw off gas from goaves
in mines we connect a pipe of suitable diameter to the pump stock
at a proper elevation and extend it to the goaf containing gas, and then
exhaust the air from the pump stock, and pump gas from the goaf when
not pumping water, a tap being inserted in the gas pipe in close
proximity to the pump stock, which tap will be closed when pumping
water and open when pumping gas..