THE HYDRAULIC RAM. 



83 



The first person who is known to have 

 raised water by a ram, designed for the 

 purpose, was Mr. Whitehurst, a watchma- 

 ker of Derby, in England. He erected a 

 machine similar to the one represented by 

 the next figure, in 1772. A description of 

 it was forwarded by him to the Royal Society, 

 and published in vol. Iv., of their Transac- 

 tions. 



poses, may serve to raise a portion of their 

 contents to a higher level ; an object that 

 does not appear to have been previously 

 attempted, or even thought of. The de- 

 vice also exhibits another mode, besides 

 that by pressure engines, of deriving mo- 

 tive force from liquids thus drawn, and con- 

 sequently opens another way by which the 

 immense power expended in raising water 



Fig. 13. Whitehurst^ s Water-Ravi. 



A, represents the spring or reservoir, the 

 surface of the water in which was of about 

 the same level as the bottom of the cistern 

 B. The main pipe from A to the cock at 

 the end of C, was nearly six hundred feet 

 in length, and one and a half inches bore. 

 The cock was sixteen feet below A, and 

 furnished water for the kitchen offices, &c. 

 When it was opened the liquid column in 

 A C was put in motion, and acquired the 

 velocity due to a fall of sixteen feet ; and 

 as soon as the cock was shut, the momen- 

 tum of this long column opened the valve, 

 upon which part of the water rushed into 

 the air-vessel and up the vertical pipe into 

 B. This eflfect took place every time the 

 cock was used, and as water was drawn 

 from it at short intervals for household pur- 

 poses, " from morning till night — all the 

 days in the year," an abundance was 

 raised into B, without any exertion or ex- 

 pense. 



Such was the first water-ram. As an 

 original device, it is highly honorable to 

 the sagacity and ingenuity of its author ; 

 and the introduction of an air vessel, with- 

 out which all apparatus of the kind could 

 never be made durable, strengthens his 

 claims upon our regard. In this machine 

 he has shown that the mere act of drawing 

 water from long tubes for ordinary pur- 



for the supply of cities, may again be given 

 out with the liquid from the lateral pipes. 

 Notwithstanding the advantages derived 

 from such an apparatus, under circumstances 

 similar to those indicated by the figure, it 

 does not appear to have elicited the atten- 

 tion of engineers, nor does Whitehurst him- 

 self seem to have been aware of its adapta- 

 tion as a substitute for forcing pumps, in 

 locations where the water drawn from the 

 cock was not required, or could not be used. 

 Had he pursued the subject, it is probable 

 the idea of opening and closing the cock 

 (by means of the water that escaped) with 

 some such apparatus as figured in No. 160, 

 would have occurred to him, and then his 

 machine being made self-acting, Avould 

 have been applicable in a thousand loca- 

 tions. But these additions were not made, 

 and the consequence was, that the inven- 

 tion was neglected, and but for the one 

 next to be described, it would most likely 

 have passed into oblivion, like the steam 

 machines of Branca, Kircher, and Decaus, 

 till called forth by the application of the 

 same principle in more recent devices. 



Whenever we peruse accounts of the la- 

 bors of ingenious men, in search of new 

 discoveries in science or the arts, sympathy 

 leads us to rejoice at their success and to 

 ffrieve at their failure : like the readers of 



