THE HYDRAULIC RAM. 



85 



rest, and as in that slate its pressure is in- 

 sufficient to sustain the weight of the valve, 

 E opens ; (descends) the water in B is 

 again put in motion, and again it closes E 

 as before, when another portion is driven 

 into the air vessel and pipe F ; and thus 

 the operation is continued, as long as the 

 spring afibrds a sufficient supply and the 

 apparatus remains in order. 



The surface of the water in the spring or 

 source should always be kept at the same ele- 

 vation, so that its pressure against the valve 

 E may always be uniform — otherwise the 

 weight of E would have to be altered as 

 the surface of the spring rose and fell. 



This beautiful machine may be adapted 

 to numerous locations in every countr}'. 

 When the perpendicular fall from the spring 

 to the A'alve E is but a few feet, and the 

 Avater is required to be raised to a conside- 

 rable height through F, then, the length of 

 the ram or pipe B, must be increased, and 

 to such an extent that the Avater in it is not 

 forced back into the spring when E closes, 

 which Avill always be the case if B is not of 

 sufficient length. Mr. Millington, Avho 

 erected several in England, justly observes 

 that a very insignificant pressing column 

 is capable of raising a very high ascending 

 one, so that a sufficient fall of water may 

 be obtained in almost every running brook, 

 by damming the upper end to produce the 

 reservoir, and carrying the pipe down the 

 natural channel of the stream until a suffi- 

 cient -fall is obtained. In this way a ram 

 has been made to raise one hundred hogs- 

 heads of water in twenty-four hours, to a 

 perpendicular height of one hundred and 

 thirty-four feet, by a fall of only four feet 

 and a half. M. Fischer of SchafThausen, 

 constructed a water-ram in the form of a 

 beautiful antique altar, nearly in the style 

 of that of Esculapius, as represented in A-a- 

 rious engravings. A basin about six inches 

 in depth, and from eighteen to twenty inches 

 in diameter, received the v.-ater that formed 

 the motive column. This water flowed 

 through pipes three inches in diameter 

 that descended in a spiral form into the 

 base of the altar ; on the valve opening a 

 third of the Avater escaped, and the rest 

 Avas forced up to a castle seA'eral hundred 

 feet above the level of the Rhine. 



A long tube laid along the edge of a ra- 

 pid river, as the Niagara above the falls, or 

 the Mississippi, might thus be used instead 

 of pumps, Avater-Avheels, steam-engines and 

 horses, to raise the Avater over the highest 

 banks and supply inland towns, howeA-er 

 elevated their location might be ; and there 

 is scarcely a farmer in the land but AA'ho 

 might, in the absence of other sources, fur- 

 nish his dAvelling and barns AA'ith Avater in 

 the same Avay, from a brook, creek, rivulet 

 or pond. 



If a ram of large dimensions, and made 

 like fig. 14, be used to raise Avater to a 

 great eleA^ation, it Avould be subject to an 

 inconvenience that Avould soon destroA' the 

 beneficial efTecis of the air chamber. When 

 speaking of the air A^essels of fire-engines, 

 in the third book, Ave observed that if air 

 be subjected to great pressure in contact 

 Avith Avater, it in time becomes incorporated 

 Avith or absorbed by the latter. As might 

 be supposed, the same thing occurs in wa- 

 ter-rams ; as these, Avhen used, are inces- 

 santly at Avork both day and night. To 

 remedy this, Montgolfier ingeniously adapt- 

 ed a very small A'alve (opening iuAvards) to 

 the pipe beneath the air chamber, and 

 Avhich Avas opened and shut by the ordinary 

 action of the machine. Thus, Avhen the 

 floAv of the Avater through B is suddenly 

 stopped by the A'alve E, a partial vacuum 

 is produced immediately beloAV the air 

 chamber by the recoil of the AA'ater, at 

 Avhich instant the small valve opens and a 

 portion of the air enters and supplies that 

 AA'hich the Avater absorbs. Sometimes this 

 sniftvig vah-e, as it has been named, is 

 adapted to another chamber immediately 

 beloAV that Avhich forms the reservoir of air, 

 as at B in fig. 15. In small rams a suf- 

 ficient supply is found to enter at the A'alve 

 E. 



Although air chambers or vessels are not, 

 strictly speaking, constituent elements of 

 Avater-rams, they are indispensable to the 

 permanent operation of these machines. 

 Without them, the pipes Avould soon be rup- 

 tured by the violent concussion consequent 

 on the sudden stoppage of the efflux of the 

 motive column. They perform a similar 

 part to that of the bags of avooI, &c., Avhich 

 the ancients, Avhen besieged, interposed be- 



