60 



Raising Water. 



Vol. IX. 



vance after all; because, if the head of 

 water varied, the weight required to be 

 varied also, and so long as the weight was 

 the only known method of making the ram 

 self-acting, the machine did not get into 

 very general use, being found oftener on 

 the shelves of philosophical cabinets than in 

 farmers' barn-yards. The improvement of 

 Easton and Amos cloes away with the 

 weight and makes the hydraulic ram as 

 nearly perfect as any known machine. It 

 consists in placing a small air chamber in 

 the body of the machine, the air in which 

 acts as an elastic cushion, against which 

 the water in the main pipe rebounds when 

 the outlet valve is closed, and thus relieves 

 the valve from the pressure which has closed 

 it, and allows it to open, when the water, 

 escaping at it, again closes it; the rebound 

 again takes place, the valve again opens, 

 only to shut again, and the machine is thus 

 kept steadily at work until the materials of 

 which it is made wear out. A small va- 

 cuum valve supplies to the air chamber last 

 mentioned, as well as to the air vessel which 

 makes the flow from the raising main uni- 

 form, enough air to compensate for that 

 which the water absqjbs, besides aiding the 

 opening of the outlet valve by the partial 

 vacuum consequent on the rebound. 



I have thus, as clearly as T can without a 

 diagram, described the principle and mode 

 of operation of the hydraulic ram, which is 

 a means of raising water by the agency of 

 two valves, without water wheel or forcing 

 pump — a means unequalled for its simplici- 

 ty, cheapness, and universal adaptation to 

 all situations where there is a stream of 

 runnirifr water. 



With the ram used' by me, I have a head 

 of 30 feet^my main or supply pipe is of 

 iron, two inches in diameter, and one hun- 

 dred and firty feet long, — laid pcrfeclly 

 slraighl, the lower end of which, where it 

 is connected with the machine, being of 

 course thirty feet lower than the upper end, 

 to which the water is brought by common 

 chesnut pipes from the rivulet. The raising- 

 main is an inch lead pipe three hundred and 

 fifty feet long, and the elevation overcome, 

 or the vertical height between the lam and 

 the basin where the water is discharged, is, 

 as already stated, 150 feet. One-sixth of 

 the water passing through the supply pipe 

 is forced up the raising main — that is, if the 

 rivulet furnishes eighteen gallons of water 

 per minute, I am supplied with three of 

 them at the top of the hill. If it furnishes 

 but eighteen pints, which in this dry season 

 has been much oftener the case, I get three 

 pints. The machine requires no care, no 

 attention, and no oiling or packing. For 



the effects produced, it is really, to the eye 

 ridiculously small, weighing perhaps 120 or 

 1.30 lbs. It is protected from mischief by a 

 suitable covering, and when it is set in mo- 

 tion, which is done by pressing open the 

 outlet valve by putting the foot on the stem, 

 it goes on working day and night, pulsating 

 with the reguli^rity of a time-piece until the 

 valve wears out, when a new valve must be 

 put in its place, and on it will go again. 

 Three outlet valves, I am told and believe, 

 will last for about five years, and a new 

 valve may cost five dollars. The wear of 

 the other valves is imperceptible.* 



The quantity thrown up at each pulsa- 

 tion depends upon the play given to the 

 valve, which is regulated by washers upon 

 the stem. When the machine is throwing 

 up a gallon a minute, it makes CO pulsations 

 with unvarying regularity; and a very sim- 

 ple mechanism would furnish a clock at the 

 engine house as accurate as any that de- 

 pended upon pendulum or balance wheel 

 for isochronism. 



So iar as I am aware, the machine at 

 Fairy Knowe is the first that has been put 

 up in this country; and as there are hun- 

 dreds of situations where it must be most 

 desirable to have it, I have attempted in 

 this long communication to explain its prin- 

 ciples and usefulness. The ram itself, with- 

 out the pipes, cost, all duty and charges 

 paid, $!l00. The cost of putting one up, 

 must depend of course upon the length of 

 the iron and lead pipes leading to and from 

 it. Two inch iron pipe, laid down, will 

 cost about 45, perhaps 50 cents a foot — and 

 lead pipe, say 20 cents — though this last 

 depends upon the weight of the pipe, which 

 again depends in some degree on the height 

 to be overcome. The labour of ditching and 

 the cost of an engine house or shelter for 

 the ram, depend upon distance and the 

 views of the parties in regard to expense. 

 These estimates are very rough: but should 

 my example induce others to follow it, I 

 w ould reconrimend them to Jchn Elgar, Esq., 

 wlio has made the machine his particular 

 study, and to whose careful and judicious 

 superintendence, I am indebted for saving 

 in lime and money in putting the machine 

 to work. Mr. Elgar's address is Sandy 

 Spring, Montgomery county, Md., and he is 

 prepared to furnish accurate estimates, to 



* A much less head of water than thirty feci, will an- 

 s\^cr all purposes. Indeed a ram has been made in 

 England, to raise one hundred hogsheads of water to 

 a perpendicular height of 134 feet in twenty-four 

 hours, with a head of only four and a half feet. The 

 scant supply furnished by my rivulet, was the cause 

 of my using so great a fall as 30 feet, 



