IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING OR LIFTING AND FORCING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS, AND IN THE APPARATUS OR MECHANISM EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Hugh McPhail at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st March
1866.
I, HUGH MCPHAIL, of Nitshill, in the County of Renfrew, North
Britain, Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING OR LIFTING AND FORCING WATER AND OTHER LIQUIDS,
AND IN THE APPARATUS OR MECHANISM EMPLOYED THEREFOR," to be as follows,
that is to say :-.
This Invention has reference particularly to new or improved forms,
constructions, and arrangements of pumps or pumping mechanism, and
in their arrangement and mode of action, for raising water and other
liquids from a low level to that of a higher level, particularly where great
quantites of liquid have to be raised from a great depth, as for the clearing
of water out of mines, whereby such mechanism is rendered much more
simple, durable, and economical in its construction and use than that of
the pumping mechanism used for the like purpose heretofore.
The main features of this Invention consist in the employment of a long
barrel or pump of a length reaching the whole depth and height from and
to which the water or other liquid has to be raised, having its lower end
immersed some distance in the liquid at the lowest level, and fitted with a
rose or other finely perforated or wire gause chamber, so as to prevent
large solid matter from passing into the pump along with the liquid. The

page_text: said barrel is fitted with an inlet valve at or near the lowest end a little
higher than the rose, and also with a discharge or overflow pipe at or near
the top, which may or may not be fitted with a valve opening outwards
as desired. The pump barrel is arranged or fitted with a plunger nearly
the whole length of the barrel, of a slightly less diameter than that of the
inside of the pump, so as to leave a very narrow annular space between the
barrel and the plunger for the liquid to be raised or forced up through by the
action of the long plunger, which is made by preference to reciprocate for
a short distance or stroke at a quick velocity within the pump by any usual
mechanism or prime mover for working pumps, such as a crank, excentric,
or oscillating beam or lever, or steam cylinder, or by an intermediate
connecting rod or pump rod attached to such mover and the top of the
plunger. The plunger is by preference made pointed or of a cylindro-
conoidal shape at its lower end, and at the lowest part of its stroke comes
down nearly to the inlet valve, while the top of the plunger comes nearly
up to the outlet or discharge pipe at the top of its stroke, and the action
of the pump or apparatus is as follows:-The inlet valve being. 'so; near the
level of the water below, the least sudden rising of the plunger in its
upward stroke causes the liquid to rise through the valve into the lower
part of the full bore of the pump above the valve, which shuts at once
on the first part or reverse action of the downward stroke of the plunger,
and as it continues to desend the liquid is forced up the long, narrow
annular space and out at the discharge orifice, and the next quick.upward
action or stroke of the plunger holds the whole column of water in the
narrow annular space up by the friction and capillary attraction of its
surfaces and that of the pump barrel, so that the water flows easily in
through the lower valve by the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface
of the water outside to fill the full bore or vacuity of the pump below,
caused by the rising of the plunger, than it can do by coming down..the
narrow annular space, and as the plunger comes down again the water
drawn in is forced up the annular space at the bottom, and an equal
quantity is thrown out or discharged through the outlet .orifice or valve at
the top of the pump, and so on in like, manner during or throughtout
every up and down stroke of the plunger. The width of the long and
very narrow annular space between the inner surface of the pump barrel
and the outer surface of the plunger depends to some extent upon the
density and nature of the liquid to be raised in the pump, also upon the
height to which it has to be raised and the velocity at which the plunger
is driven; but as an approximation the Inventor finds that the tenth of
.
:

page_text: an inch all round answers in the case of water being raised between
twenty or thirty feet, with the plunger working twenty-five feet per minute.
When the weight or height of the column of liquid to be raised is too
great for the judicious working of this improved pump, which limit has
not yet been determined, one, two, or other number of these pumps as
described may be employed, the first and each succeeding one delivers the
liquid into an open vessel at its top discharge pipe, and from which vessel
the one immediately above it shall draw and raise it another height or
stage in the same manner as the first or former one did, and so on until
the water is delivered at the extreme height to which the liquid has to be
raised. This improved pump may be worked either with or without a
cover on the top, so as to close it in or leave it open from or to the atmo-
sphere, and when closed in the cover is fitted with a stuffing box for the rod
working the plunger to pass through. When these pumps are worked singly
the weight of the very long reciprocating plunger, which is made as light
as possible, by preference of metal tubes jointed together, may be balanced
by counterweights and levers or other mechanical means, such as those
now in use for counterbalancing heavy vertical reciprocating mechanism,
such as saw frames or otherwise, by working them doubly, that is, by
attaching and working one, two, or other equal number of plungers to or
at the opposite ends of an oscillating beam or lever, or to cranks on
opposite sides of a revolving shaft; and when two pumps are so worked
their outlet pipes at the top may in some cases be made to flow into one
central discharge pipe for a few feet down by desending curved syphon
pipes, so that the descending current of discharged water from the one
pump in its downward stroke would tend to draw off the pressure air and
water from the top of the other pump, while its plunger was on its upward
stroke, or when an outlet valve was used on the discharge pipes tend to
open the valve of the opposite pump quicker and at the proper time to
releive the pressure from the top of the rising plunger for the time being.