Pease’s Patent Model of an Oil Ejector Pump – ca 1865
date: label: patent date
content: 1865-03-28
name: label: inventor
content: Pease, F. S.
notes: label: Description
content: This model was filed with the application to the U.S. Patent Office for Patent Number 47,034 issued to Francis S. Pease of Buffalo, New York on March 28, 1865. The patent was for a pump design for raising oil and other liquids from deep wells.
label: Description
content: The concept was to apply to the well alternating pulses first of high pressure air and then a vacuum in order to progressively draw liquid from the bottom. His design called for a steam-driven air pump to be connected to two cylinders. One cylinder was connected to the intake of the air pump, and the other was connected to the exhaust. In operation one cylinder developed a vacuum while the other became pressurized.
label: Description
content: As seen in the image of the patent model, the horizontal air pump is at the bottom, and the two vertical cylinders are mounted on either side of a vertical shaft with a lever arm at the top. The patent refers to this lever arm as the “vibrating lever”, and in an actual pump it would be driven by the steam engine. Its purpose was to alternately open and close a series of valves in the two cylinders thereby creating either a vacuum or high pressure in the horizontal pipe (shown just beneath the lever arm) which ran down to the lower portion of the well pipe.
label: Description
content: As the pump was put in operation to send pressurized air down the air tube, the pressure increase at the bottom of the well forced air and any liquid that was present upwards. Stopper valves prevented backflow while the next cycle’s vacuum drew the liquid up further. Repeated and rapid operation of the lever could therefore raise the liquid to the top of the well.
label: Description
content: Mr. Pease claimed that his invention would result in much more rapid and efficient pumping of large volumes of liquid. He compared his design to the then current pump designs which had long wooden piston rods extending from the top of the well to a plunger valve at the bottom. Each stroke of a pump of such a design required the rod to be lifted and lowered. This required additional energy from the pumping power source and significantly slowed the stroke rate. He claimed his pump design could be much faster than the 40 to 60 strokes per minute of those pumps.
label: Description
content: Mr. Pease was an oil dealer in the Buffalo, New York area and was the holder of a number of other patents dealing with the oil industry. A search of available trade literature material did not reveal any commercial use of the design of this patent.
label: Description
content: The patent model is shown in the image. It is made of brass and wood and illustrates the main external elements of the pumping mechanism of Mr. Pease’s design. The various valves and tubes that would be located beneath the surface are not modelled. Diagrams showing the complete design can be found in the patent document online (www.USPTO.gov).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
label: associated place
content: United States: New York, Buffalo
topic: label: Subject
content: Petroleum
label: Subject
content: Patent Models
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Patent Models
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ER.308668
label: accession number
content: 89797
label: catalog number
content: 308668
label: patent number
content: 47,034
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pump, oil ejector, model
label: Object Name
content: patent model, oil ejector
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: base - from catalog card: 4 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; x 11.43 cm x 8.89 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 4 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in; 17.78 cm x 11.43 cm x 8.89 cm