1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



279 



calibre as the syphon itself. At A, under water, and at D, 

 a few inches lower down than the end oi the pipe at A, are 

 stop cocks, also the same diameter as tJie interior of the pipe. 



" The cocks^ and D being closed, the cock at B is opened 

 so that water poured into the funnel C, will till both legs of 

 the syphon. This being completely filled, the cock B is 

 turned so as to cut oft' all communication with the funnel, 

 leaving the syphon still open. The cocks at A and D are 

 then opened simultaneously, when the water begins to 

 enter the short leg of the syphon and descends the leg D in 

 a continued stream, with a force amply sufficient to set the 

 machine in operation. 



" In this manner by employing a syphon instead of a 

 straight pipe, conducting from the spring or pond to the ram, 

 a fall six to twelve inches, which would not afford suth- 

 cient power to work the ram, may be increased in power so 

 as to equal that of a natural fall of many feet. A fall of one 

 foot or more may be obtained in any situation by partly 

 burying the ram, so as to place it lower than the feeding 

 reservoir ; and the escape of the waste water will not im- 

 pede the working of the valve, for I have made it work at 

 a depth of two feet under water by simply lightening the 

 escape valve at H of a part of its weight. A fall of five or 

 six feet is amply sufhcient for all ordinary purposes. This 

 will give a power of fourteen pounds to the square inch, if 

 merely the dead pressure be taken into consideration, but a 

 much greater power if the momentum of the descending 

 column of water be calculated." 



" My first machine," continues Mr. S., " was made en- 

 tirely of wood, including the air vessel, and worked well. 

 But when the syphon was applied and the descending cur- 

 rent set the valves in motion, so great was the power obtain- 

 ed that the machine burst with an explosion like that of a 

 swivel. The perpendicular height of the syphon when this 

 experiment was tried, might have been about ten or twelve 

 feet. Another put together more strongly, with cross bolts 

 and rivets of iron withstood the pressure, although the wa- 

 ter was forced through the pores of the wood and stood like 

 dew on the outside." 



Experimental Ram. — In order to illustrate the 

 capacity or the power of the Hydraulic Ram to 

 raise water at different heights, we give the follow- 

 ing diagram, from the 'American Agriculturist.' 



Experimental Ram. (Figure 11.) 

 The experimental machine we examined," says the 



editor, " was made by one of our subscribers, as the piece 

 A, of cast iron pipe, 2 inches in the bore, and about 2 feet 

 long, having two tlanch nozzles cast on it, B. and C. One 

 end of the pipe was closed, and the other open, with a 

 flanch to connect it about 35 feet of two inch cast or wrought 

 iron pipe E, The other end of the pipe E led to an open 

 water cask, F, placed seven feet above the ram, and this 

 cask was supplied by a hose, at the rate of eight gallons per 

 minute. Of course the fall from the level of the water in 

 the cask, is equal to a fall of seven feet, with a stream giv- 

 ing eight gallons per minute." 



The operation of this machine is the same as 

 those before described. 



" In the machine we saw, the strokes were seventy each 

 minute, and plainly heard at the distance of one hundred 

 and fifty feet. In the course of two or three minutes the 

 pipe J became full and ran over the top. On measuring the 

 quantity of water which was thus thrown up in twelve 

 minutes, seventy-three feet above the level of the cask, it 

 was found to be four gallons ; and as during the twelve 

 minutes ninety-six gallons of water had passed from the 

 water cask into the ram, it appears that it required twenty- 

 three gallons of water to raise one gallon to ten and a half 

 times its own height. 



" This experiment was continued and the same quantity 

 of water, four gallons, was thrown up sixty-six feet high 

 in eleven minutes ; fifty-three feet high in seven minutes ; 

 and forty-two feet high in four minutes. Thus, in the first 

 trial, the machine required twenty-eight gallons of water 

 to throw up four gallons to six times the height of the fall. 

 It would have been easy to have made the head of water 

 ten, twenty, or thirty feet high, and a series of interesting 

 experiments might be made to ascertain experimentally the 

 relative differences in the momentum of the water descend- 

 ing from a greater or less distance ; the fall of seven feet, 

 however, was preferred, in order to give the machines the 

 ability to throw up water to more than ten times the height 

 of the fall, a difference which would not often occur. — 

 Whether a fall of seventy feet instead of seven would have 

 thrown up the same relative quantity of water four hundred 

 and twenty feet is a question we confess we are not able 

 to solve. 



"The (driving) pipe E, it is found, must be thirty or 

 forty feet long, or the valve G will not work ; almost all 

 the water ran out of it, when the water cask was put di- 

 rectly over the ram. The valve made fifty strokes per 

 minute. It is not necessary to have the pipe E a perfectly 

 straight one, but it may be bent to suit the inequalities of 

 the ground and may even be bent at right angles, as shown 

 in the sketch K. It is far better, though, to have the pipe 

 straighter." 



The hydraulic ram when properly construct- 

 ed, it is said, is not liable to get out of order, or 

 to require repairs ; lapse of time or muddy wa- 

 ter passing through them may give occasion for 

 trifling repairs, and when these become necessa- 

 ry, the machine can be easily detached from the 

 pipes and carried in one hand for convenient re- 

 pairing. It is also said that the height to which 

 one of these machines can raise water is limited 

 only by the power of valves and pipes to resist 

 the pressure. A moderate sized one has been 

 made to send water to a perpendicular height of 

 three hundred feet. On this principle, works 

 have been erected at Marley, France, which 

 raised water in a continuous stream to the height 

 of one hundred and eighty-seven feet. Indeed 

 a ram has been made in England, to raise one 

 hundred hogsheads of water to a perpendicular 

 height of one hundred and thirty-four feet in 

 twenty-four hours, with a head of only four and 

 a half feet. 



There are two rules for ascertaining how 

 much a given stream of water will raise. First, 

 find how many times higher the water is to be 



