IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PUMPS FOR RAISING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Easton, Edward Moore,
and William Gillies at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 15th May 1865.
We, WILLIAM EASTON, of Gateshead, EDWARD MOORE, of South Shields,
and WILLIAM GILLIES, of Gateshead, all in the County of Durham, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF PUMPS FOR RAISING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of
pumps for raising water and other liquids, the Invention being applicable to
all pumps, but particularly valuable in large pumps where engine power is
required to raise large quantities of water, as in the case of collieries. Let
us assume, as an example, an instance in which the water to be raised from a
colliery by pumping requires an engine that will lift fifty gallons at each stroko
of the pump; then the application of this Invention to the pump so raises the
water that the engine power is only required to be equal to twenty-five gallons
per stroke, and yet the whole fifty gallons are actually raised by that reduced
power, and in exactly the same time as by the ordinary pump. Or in a
colliery where au engine is capable of lifting one hundred gallons per stroke

page_text: of engine and pump; then, by the application of a pump of sufficient capacity
with the improvement herein-after described, the same engine shall raise by
this improved pump exactly double that quantity of water, viz., two hundred
gallons per stroke, and in the same time. The difference in the working of
an ordinary pump and this improved pump is, that whereas an ordinary pump
lifts all the water per stroke in the up stroke of the bucket, and requires
motive power equal to the lifting of the whole of the water in its up stroke,
and does not discharge any water by the back or down stroke of the bucket;
this improved pump lifts one-half (or thereabouts) only of the quantity of
water which an ordinary pump of same capacity of barrel would do in its
lifting or up stroke of the bucket, and only requires motive power for lifting
one-half quantity of water; it then, from its improved construction, discharges
the remaining half or similar quantity of water by its back or down stroke of
the bucket, requiring the same amount of motive power for its back or down
stroke as its up stroke. The improvement takes place in that part of the
pump which in large colliery pumps is called the spears or the column on
which the bucket hangs and works. These spears in the pumps referred to
are mostly heavy solid timber columns, and in this Invention these spears are
abolished, and we substitute in their stead an apparatus which in appearance
is a long hollow tube or closed and hollow ram; its length is equal to the
length of the ordinary spears; its breadth will be regulated by the breadth of
the pump barrel. Generally it will be required of sufficient diameter to
displace one-half of the water which the pump barrel will contain. It requires
to be fixed at both ends just as the ordinary spears are fixed; the bottom end
is attached to and immediately over the bucket, the other end is attached to
the engine apparatus overhead in the ordinary way that spears are so attached.
This hollow tube or ram is required to be water-tight and made of light
material, so as not to exceed the weight of an ordinary spears; the lighter it
is made the greater the advantage over the spears. The motive power of the
engine is required in the same amount for both up stroke and down stroke of
the pump, being à great improvement on the present mode of working colliery
engines in relation to those pumps. This improved pump thus described
when in action makes a continuous discharge of water; equal quantities are
discharged by both up and down stroke; the discharge of the up stroke arises
from ordinary pump action, but in this case, as only half the quantity of water
is raised, it only requires a corresponding amount of motive power, but in the
down stroke the discharge is caused by the hollow tube or ram displacing or
forcing out the water as it (the tube) descends the barrel. The action of the

page_text: up stroke is greatly relieved by the buoyancy of the hollow tube, being lighter
than the water which it displaces; or, if it is only a similar weight to the
water it displaces, it relieves the motive power of its weight. In the down
stroke, as the quantity of water in the barrel and to be discharged is the same
in quantity as was lifted in the up stroke, exactly the same amount of motive
power will produce the down stroke, the water being as rapidly discharged by
the tube or ram going down into the barrel.