254 



IRKIQATIOK FAKMIXG. 



stream. The water wheel was supplied from a power 

 ditch and the pump took up the water that was dis- 

 charged from the wheel. A water motor or a turbine 

 would have answered in the same way. 



Vacuum Pumps. These clever contrivances are 

 used quite extensively in the West and in the rice fields 

 of the South. There are two kinds shown in Figures 75 

 and 7G. The one shown in Figure 75 is the Huffer 



patent and is calcu- 

 lated to lift water 

 twenty feet or less 

 and discharge it at the 

 pump on the surface 

 of the ground. The 

 other is the Rogers 

 patent and is made 

 for deep wells, not to 

 exceed one hundred 

 feet, however. It has 

 a standpipe for taking 

 the water at the 

 pump, which is set in 

 the well just above 

 the water line, and 

 carrying to the sur- 



!!;. 75. THE LOW-LIFT VACUUM PUMP. filCC, where it IS dis- 



charged. The mechanism is simple, consisting of two 

 vertical cylinders attached to a single suction pipe below 

 and connected above by a sliding steam valve contrived. 

 for automatic movement, allowing steam to enter the 

 cylinders alternately, where it is condensed, creating a 

 vacuum into which the water rises by the pressure of 

 the atmosphere, escaping from one cylinder while the 

 other is filling, thus giving a continuous flow vary in. ir 

 from fifty to three thousand gallons a minute, or a three 

 hundred and thirty inch stream under a four-inch head 



