ON DRAWING WATER FROM DISTANT PLACES. 
343 
feliould they be of the same opinion, I shall 
feel much pleasure in communicating the 
mode of operation, by which any number of 
apertures, hardly visible to the naked eye, 
and of any length (even a foot, if required) 
may be made in any metal in ten minutes / 
“The process consists merely in turning 
one cylinder to fit another very accurately, 
and then, by milling the outside of the inner 
cylinder with a straight milling-tool of the 
required degree of fineness, and afterwards 
sliding the milled cylinder within the other, 
apertures are produced perfectly distinct, and 
of course of the same length as the milled 
cylinder. A similar effect may be produced 
on flat surfaces, if required.” — Mechanic’s 
Magazine. 
EASY METHOD OF FILLING LONG 
SYPHON TUBES. 
BY WILLIAM FOSTER ESQ. 
(From Silliman’s American Journal) 
The application of the syphon upon a 
large scale, for the purpose of drawing water 
from distant places, may not be new; but I do 
not remember to have seen it in this, or any 
other country, before I tried the experiment. 
The ancients, we know, brought water 
for the supply of their cities, by means of 
costly aqueducts, over hills and valleys, with- 
out ever using the fountain principle. 
Some years ago Mr. Chapman, proprie- 
tor of a distiller in Charlestown, requested 
me to describe my plan for carrying water 
through a syphon several hundred feet in 
length, and drawing water from one well into 
another : and with the instruction I gave 
him, he employed a plumber to lay a leaden 
tube of three-quarter inch bore, from a well 
twenty-five feet deep, several hundred feet 
distant from the well of his distillery, which 
was about thirty feet deep, and where he 
wanted a greater supply of water. 
The operation failed. He then came to 
me, told me that I had led him into an ex- 
pensive error. I told him that, had he 
communicated to me this intensions, I 
would, with great pleasure, have superin- 
tended the wmrk ; but now, not knowing 
what defects there might be in the tube, I 
consented to assist him, but my first essay 
was uncuccessful. 
The power of the syphon to overcome an 
eminence is limited to about thirty-two feet, 
answering to the column of water w'hich 
the pressure of the atmosphere can raise ; 
or that any defect in the syphon, or any 
air confined in it, would be fetal to its opera- 
tion. The usual mode of charging a syp- 
hon is by exhausting it partially by inspi - 
ration at the longer end. But [this was not 
possible with a tube several hundred feet 
long, and the expense of a pneumatic ap- 
paratus, to procure a vacuum, would have 
been too great ; therefore, I had determined 
to put it in operation by filling it with water, 
both ends being stopped ; this was done by 
a small branch at the summit of the tube ; 
and, when filled, this branch was well cork- 
ed, and the cork pressed down hard on 
the water, so as to exclude all the air at the 
surface. It was to be apprehended that 
some undulations might exist in the hori- 
zontal part of the tube, and afford a recep- 
tacle for air, which would there be confined 
without a possibility of escaping, and also 
prove fatal to the success of the experiment ; 
but of this I could know nothing, as I had 
not seen the tube laid. 
In this state of uncertainty, I began the 
operation, and filled the syphon ; but, as I 
said before, it failed. On the second trial, 
I observed that, when the syphon was full, 
the water in the filling branch rose and fell 
alternately, and so much that as water has 
but little elasticity, I concluded that there 
was air in the tube, and it was, therefore, 
emptied. Then, to charge it anew, and, at 
the same time, to exclude the air, it was 
proposed to perforate the lower end of the 
long branch, at the bottom of the receiving 
well, with a fork, just above the cork, 
which closed it. These small holes allowed 
the air to escape as it was driven before the 
water, without losing enough water to pre- 
vent the filling the tube with ease. Thus 
was the air excluded, and the syphon put 
into operation, and continued for a long 
time, with some occasional obstruction, 
arising from the smallness of the tube, and 
the want of water at the source. 
I should suppose that there were many 
situations where water might be brought from 
one valley to another, over any hill not ex- 
ceeding thirty-two feet or which could, 
without too much expense, be reduced to 
that point, for the purpose of UTigation, or 
manufacturing. Large quantities of water, 
as well as small, may be raised by means of 
iron mains of large dimensions ; and the 
cutting down hills to procure levels, or sur- 
rounding them, and thus increasing the 
length of aqueducts, at a great expense, and 
loss of water by percolation and evapora- 
tion, may be avoided. Mountain swamps 
may be drained, or any swamps, where a 
lower level is not too far distant for the 
place of issue, or even in a level country, 
provided some vein of loose gravel can be 
found, into which a place of discharge may 
be dug below the surface of the swamp. The 
ingenuity of our countrymen will, I am 
confident, yet find many other useful pur- 
poses to which the principle may be ap- 
plied. 
