THE Irt^ATER RAM. Jl| 



Hiilosophical Transactions for 1775. It consists of a pipe l| 

 inch diameter and upwards of 200 yards long, proceediug 

 horizoiJtally from a spring eighteen or twenty feet above tlie 

 level of the kitchen of the house, where a, branch of the pipe 

 terminates in a cock for supplying the domestic purposes- of 

 the family. The horizontal part of the pipe has a valve to 

 admit the water, but prevents its return. After passing this 

 valve it enters an air vessel similar to that described in the 

 preceding account, and proceeds from thence by mean^ 

 of another pipe upwards to the brewery and other offices. 

 Whenever the kitchen cock is opened to draw water, the whole 

 column of 200 yards is set in motion, and upon shutting the 

 cock, its momentum drives a portion of water through the 

 valve into the air vessel, and thence upwards to the place of its 

 liesli nation. 



Mi». Whitchurst does not say to what height it is thus con- 

 veyed, nor the quantity raised each tjme of opening aad shut- 

 ling the cock» 



It is certainly of in?portanc€ to know w.hat may be the true IntrocJuctiotjto 

 value of the water ram ; and as M. IVIongolf^er has left some ^""'"^ '■'^"'^^^"- 

 parts of his account defective as to this object, I shall tat:o the 

 liberty of making some additional remarks. 



P. lOi. tJiis water -iiill fall] It is not exactly the case that The theory of 



die water in the pipe moves by its fall. It is put into motion 1^^ '^''^' "?"' 

 , , rill,, has not be^i 



tjy the jnessure ot the head, and would acquire a velocity equal publishetl. - 



to that of a body that had fallen through the whole height from 

 the surface of the flood (impediments of friction, eddy, or ob- 

 struction in the pipe excepted), I do not know that any one 

 has examined the theory of this engine. The general pro- 

 position may be made thu», and I hope some of my corres- 

 pondents will investigate it : 



Pro/)0577w«.— Given the heirhtof an head of water and the Proposition to 

 height to which a part of the fluid is required to be elevated by ^^^**^*'^*^- 

 the water rajn, it is required to determine the diameter aiid 

 length of the pipe with the dimensions of the other pi^rts of the 

 engine, and also the number of strokes per minute which shall 

 afford the greatest possible quantity of water by a (given) 

 long-contiwucd action. 



P. 105. 



