402 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



regulator is formed of a cast-iron drum, having thin 

 corrugated heads. At the bottom of the suction-pipe 

 is a check- valve, which allows the ingress of the water 

 but prevents the escape. At or near the bottom of the 

 discharge pipe is a stop-cock. The siphon elevator is 

 filled with water the first time through the orifice, 

 which is then closed by a screw-cap. 



Its operation is as follows : By opening the stop- 

 cock in the pipe, the water in the siphon is submitted 

 to atmospheric pressure, with which it seeks equilib- 

 rium. Therefore, as it falls in one pipe it ascends in 

 the other pipe and penetrates into the receiver, where, 

 meeting the open check-valve, it forces the same for- 

 ward and closes it. Its exit being thus cut off, the 

 water by its momentum raises the puppet-valve and 

 escapes through the opening, whence it runs off in a 

 reservoir or other receptacle. During the time the 

 regulator partially empties into the pipe, causing a 

 partial vacuum and a depression of the corrugated 

 heads ; but the pressure upon the clack-valve mean- 

 while diminishes, allowing it to be thrown open by the 

 weight on the level, so that the water immediately fills 

 the regulator again. The corrugated heads assume 

 their original positions, and the same phenomena take 

 place again in a very brief period of time, varying 

 from four hundred to four hundred and fifty a minute. 

 The vibrations insure the continuity of the movement, 

 causing an uninterrupted flow of water from the reser- 

 voir over the puppet-valve. This elevator will lift 

 water eighteen feet in high altitudes and thirty feet at 

 sea-level, the difference being in the natural atmos- 

 pheric pressure. The elevator costs a few hundred 



