IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PUMPS FOR RAISING AND FORCING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Mellor at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
February 1869.
I, SAMUEL MELLOR, of Park Terrace, Old Ford, Victoria Park, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PUMPS FOR RAISING
AND FORCING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in so constructing pumps as to dispense with
the necessity for employing a pump bucket working water-tight in a
truly bored barrel, also valves or clacks as heretofore practised in the
construction of many kinds of pumps. I propose to effect these improve-
ments in the following manner and by the following means, that is to
say, I form the barrel of the pump of a tube of any suitable elastic or
flexible material; for example, within a casing semicircular at the
upper part I adapt a piece of elastic tubing, the said tubing passing
through holes formed through the rim of the said casing, one hole being
formed through one side of the rim a little above the springing of the
semicircular part thereof, and the other hole through-the opposite side of
the rim a little below the springing of the semicircular part thereof, so

page_text: that when the said tube is passed through the said holes it shall follow
the curvature of the inside of the curved part of the said casing. Through
the sides of the casing and at the centre from which the semicircular
part is described I form holes and adapt a short horizontal shaft or axle
working in suitable bearings, and on the said shaft or axle I fix a piece
of metal carrying two rollers mounted therein at opposite sides of the
said shaft and in a line with the centre thereof, and also with those parts
of the casing where the springing of the semicircle joins the straight
parts of the rim of the casing, the diameters of the aforesaid rollers being
such as to forcibly compress the elastic tube within the case when they
come into contact therewith by the rotatory motion of the shaft, which
may be imparted thereto by a winch handle fixed thereon or a pulley
driven by an endless band or other suitable contrivance; and suppose
one end of the said tubing to reach to the place from which the water
or other liquid is to be raised and the opposite end of the said tube to be
open to the discharge and rotatory motion imparted to the aforesaid
short shaft or axle, the effect will be as follows:-As one roller com-
presses that part of the tube in the casing nearest to the induction. this
roller as it continues its circular movement will force the air out at the
discharge end of the tube, thereby forming a vacuum in that part of the
tube that has been compressed and thus filling it with water, and before
this roller has parted with its forced contact on the tube the other and
opposite roller will have been brought into contact with the filled part
of the tube near the induction, and squeeze or force out the water at the
discharge end of the tube, and so on at each rotation of the shaft,
thereby raising and discharging a continuous stream of water or other
liquid. The same effect may be produced by squeezing a straight
tube of elastic or flexible material either by rollers or flat plates
suitably arranged and disposed; the principal feature of novelty in
this Invention consisting in forming a vacuum in a tube by com-
pressing it in the act of discharging the contents of the said tube.