Patent ID: 8015807

Claim:
A sphere circulating apparatus comprising: a liquid storage chamber having a seal plug at an upper end portion and a lower end aperture at a lower end portion, in which the chamber is filled with liquid up to at least a predetermined height; a rising chamber in which the liquid is held up to an upper end aperture of an upper end portion of the rising chamber at the predetermined height to form a first liquid surface and a plurality of spheres, each having a predetermined weight, fed from a lower end aperture at a lower end portion of the rising chamber are sequentially passed through at least two upward-opening check valves arranged at intervals and risen up to the upper end aperture; a falling chamber having an upper end aperture at an upper end portion connected to the upper end aperture of the rising chamber through a first communication chamber, thereby allowing the spheres sequentially fed from the upper end aperture of the rising chamber to naturally fall up to a lower end aperture of a lower end portion of the falling chamber; a liquid storage box having a second communication chamber mutually communicating the lower end apertures of the liquid storage chamber, the rising chamber and the falling chamber to form, at the lower aperture of the falling chamber, a second liquid surface into which the spheres having fallen within the falling chamber dive, guide means for sequentially guiding the spheres dived to the lower end aperture of the rising chamber and a drain port aligned with a level of the second liquid surface in side walls of the box; and a supply pipe connected to the upper end portion of the rising chamber to automatically supply liquid to the upper end portion of the rising chamber from a liquid supply device when a level of the first liquid surface is lowered; wherein each of the spheres rises by a buoyancy force within the rising chamber, so that the rising spheres are pushed up beyond the upper end aperture of the rising chamber by buoyancy forces of other spheres and fed to the upper end aperture of the falling chamber, where the spheres fed naturally fall within the falling chamber, dive under the second liquid surface and are then fed to the lower end aperture of the rising chamber by the guide means whereby each of the spheres is sequentially circulated between the rising chamber and the falling chamber.