Feed pump

“ The main feed pump is, even in the independent type, often placed in the engine room, while the auxiliary pump, or the injector, is in the fire room. The feed pumps draw usually from the hot well, feed heater and feed tanks and discharge through main feed pipe into the boiler.
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This “doctor” pump is a substantial piece of mechanism. The bases of columns and pump chamber flanges are accurately planed, the cylinder has spring piston packing and the plain slide valve is made of gun metal. ”

“ In practice it is advisable to keep the pump always working, and to regulate the delivery to the boiler by means of a by-pass tap on the feed pipe, through which all or some of the water may be returned direct to the tank. ”

“ The full-stroke crosshead pump with which the Jenny Lind (fig. 22) is equipped, was of course the most common style of feed pump used in this country in the 19th century.
Of all the mechanisms on a 19th-century locomotive, the feed pump was the most troublesome. If an engineer could think of nothing else to complain about, he could usually call attention to a defective pump and not be found a liar. ”

“ Fig. 304 shows the Worthington Admiralty pattern boiler feed pump which is designed to meet the requirements of the United States Bureau of Steam Engineering for steam boiler pressure up to 250 lbs. to the square inch. The ordinary slide valves are replaced by piston valves with outside, adjustable, lost-motion links, making it possible to readily adjust the stroke. The water end is made of composition, gun metal, or cast-iron, as desired. When made of cast iron the water end is brass-fitted throughout. ”

“ The regulating is done by the feed valves at the boilers; if it is desired, all feeds may be closed, and the pressure will not rise, the pump will stop; if its plungers need packing it will be detected by the fact that the pump will creep, to keep up the required pressure. ”

“ It is advisable occasionally—say once a month—in towns where fires are not frequent, to fire up and take the engine out for practice and drill, and to make sure that it is in proper working order, after which the boiler should be blown off and refilled with fresh water, as hereinafter directed.
Every engine required to pump salt water, or other water unfit for the boiler supply, should be provided with a fresh-water feed tank. ”

“ The water pressure will vary only as the steam pressure varies, always keeping the same per cent. of excess. The results are directly opposite to what would or does occur where feed water is delivered at a stated pressure. On a battery of boilers, during the cleaning of fires, the closing of feed valves on one, two or more boilers, does not affect the feed of those already set in the least, the pump will simply make less strokes necessary to properly feed the others. ”

“ Dirt under the valves is the cause of much pump trouble, as a very small particle of dirt will allow the water to pass in both directions through the valves. Leaking packing will also destroy the vacuum in one end of the cylinder. For the best results the pump should be run slowly but continuously, feeding a small amount of water at one time. This method of feeding allows the feed water heater to bring the water up to the highest possible temperature which reduces the 362fuel consumption and reduces the strains on the boiler. ”

“ In the country, where there are no great central pumping stations, water for the daily need must be raised from wells, and the supply of each household is dependent upon the labor and foresight of its members. The water may be brought to the surface either by laboriously raising it, bucket by bucket, or by the less arduous method of pumping. These are the only means possible; even the windmill does not eliminate the necessity for the pump, but merely replaces the energy used by man in working it. ”

“ A centrifugal pump will throw more water with less machinery than any other device, but like all other mechanical inventions, it has its limitations. In figuring economical pumping, the minimum quantity should be at least 100 gallons per minute, because time is an object, and irrigation, if done at all, should cover an area sufficient to bring substantial returns. Centrifugal pumps should be placed near the surface of the water in the well. ”

“ Again the apparatus in almost any department used for cooking and manufacturing is irregular in its use and an actual record will show hardly to exceed six hours’ demand or use. Why operate engines and pumps at a disadvantage all the time for the sake of a supply six or eight hours daily? The engine and pump requirement increases rapidly with the exhaust steam pressure and requires larger production from the boiler. ”

“ In both these cases it may be a simple matter to connect a small duplex pump with the installed boiler, as is done frequently in creameries, for the sake of pumping the necessary water-supply for the house. Whenever extensive improvements are contemplated, it is well worth while to consider the possibilities of one boiler operating the different kinds of machinery referred to. In Fig. 48 is shown a small pump, made by The Goulds Manufacturing Co., capable of lifting forty-eight gallons of water per minute against a head of a hundred feet. ”

“ Irrigation is the new handmaiden of prosperity. A rainy season is a bountiful one. Irrigation supplies the bounty without encouraging destructive fungus [114] diseases. Where water is abundant within easy reach, pumping irrigation water is thoroughly practical. Improvements in pumps in recent years have increased their capacity and insured much greater reliability. A centrifugal pump is recommended for depths down to 75 feet; beyond this depth the necessity of installing more expensive machinery places the business of pumping for irrigation on a different plane. ”

“ You can have considerable patience with a windmill if you only depend upon it for pumping water, provided you have a tank that will hold a week’s supply to be drawn during a dry, hot time when every animal on the farm demands a double allowance of water. That is the time when a farmer hates to attach himself to the pump handle for the purpose of working up a hickory breeze. That also is the time when the wind neglects a fellow. ”

“ Should the water being delivered by the main pumps be unsuitable for feeding the boiler, this valve must remain closed, and a supply from a barrel or tank introduced through the connection provided for that purpose.
When feeding the boiler, it is a good plan to occasionally feel the pipe leading from check to boiler with the hand, as one can tell by this means whether the pump is feeding properly. If feeding all right, the pipe will be cool. If the pipe is hot, the pump is not feeding properly, try the pet cock.
Always keep a good torch, ready for use, in the fuel pan. ”

“ You say I said to force the water through the boiler, and to do this you must use a force pump. No engineer ought to attempt to run an engine without a force pump. It is one of the necessities. You say, can't you wash out a boiler without a force pump? Oh, yes! You can do it just like some people do business. But I started out to tell you how to keep your boiler clean, and the way to do it is to wash it out, and the way to wash it out is with a good force pump. ”

“ It is difficult to overestimate the importance, in connection with a steam plant, of the appliance which supplies water for the boiler, not only, but a hundred other uses. Upon the steady operation of the pump depends the safety and comfort of the engineer, owner and employee, and indirectly of the success of the business with which the “plant” is connected. Hence the necessity of acquiring complete knowledge of the operation of a device so important. ”

“ A hydraulic ram is the cheapest method of pumping water, provided that the necessary flow with a sufficient head to do the work is available. It requires about seven times as much water to flow through the ram and be wasted as is pumped, so that if it is desired to pump five hundred gallons a day, the stream must flow at the rate of about thirty-five hundred gallons per day to lift the necessary water. ”

“ The big, electric motor spun into action and settled into a workmanlike hum. The overhead light dimmed briefly when the pump load was thrown on and then the slip-slap sound of the pump filled the shed. They watched and listened for a couple of minutes. Assured that the pump was working satisfactorily, they left the wrecked pumphouse.
Johnny was carrying the gasoline can of milk. "Good thing you set this off to one side where it didn't get hit and go off," he said. "The way this stuff reacts, we'd be without a pump, engine, or windmill if it had. ”

“ An improvement which, it is claimed, is found in no other factory, is an elevated “whey vat” placed over the boiler-room, into which the whey is raised by a rotary pump, and from which the farmers draw their supply of whey to be carried into the country. When all that is wanted has been drawn out a gate is opened, and the balance is run into the river, after which the tank is scalded out and kept sweet and clean. ”

“ Instead of the fat and the water being maintained during the entire operation in a state of intimate mechanical mixture, as required in the specification, a pump is provided, not to force the mixture into the heating vessel, but to be kept constantly at work to draw the water from the bottom of the vessel and to discharge it on top of the charge of fat, in order that it may percolate down through the fat and supply the deficiency occasioned by the fact that the water is constantly being converted into steam. ”

“ Water is lifted in a continuous stream by a turbine wheel revolving under high speed. Water is admitted at the center and discharged at the outside of the casing. Centrifugal pumps work best at depths ranging from twenty to sixty feet. Manufacturers claim that farmers can afford to lift irrigation water sixty feet with a centrifugal pump driven by a kerosene engine. ”

“ I said nothing, but of course her interdiction of the only possibility killed any weakening inclination. And yet ... yet.... Afterall, I had to have something....
"All right, Weener. This pump—" she produced miraculously from the jumble an unwieldy engine dragging a long and tangling tail of hose behind it, the end lost among mementos of unfinished meals "—this pump is full of the Metamorphizer, enough to inoculate a hundred and fifty acres when added in proper proportion to the irrigating water. I have a table worked out to show you about that. The tank holds five gallons ”

“ The boiler is merely a long coil of tubing, into which a small jet of water is squirted by a pump at every stroke of the cylinders. The steam is generated and used in a moment, and the speed of the machine is regulated by the amount of water thrown by the pumps. By an ingenious device the fuel supply is controlled in combination with the water supply, so that there may not be any undue waste in the burner. ”

“ Every village pump is an apparatus for such experiments. In thousands of instances, moreover, pumps have refused to work; but on examination it has infallibly been found that the well was dry, that the pump required priming, or that some other defect in the apparatus accounted for the anomalous action. In every case of the kind the skill of the pump-maker has been found to be the true remedy. In no case has the pressure of the atmosphere ceased; constancy, as regards the lifting of pump-water, has been hitherto the demonstrated rule of nature. ”

“ There is nearly in front of our office, an old pump—a kind of town pump which every one mar use, and whose wet and bespattered base speaks plainer than sign boards could do, of water for man and horses; and a very excellent pump it is, too—never out of order, easily worked, and furnishing the purest, clearest, coolest water in the world. Many a thirsty school boy and omnibus driver has refreshed himself at that pump—the trackmen and draymen stop there and the old iron ladle that hangs by its side has been pressed to many a sweet and pretty lip. ”

“ The speed at which a pump is operated is a matter of more or less importance, according to its widely varying conditions. In all calculations regarding the capacity of a pump the regularity with which it makes its “stroke” is taken into consideration; the uniformity of the supply of water to a boiler is always a subject of anxiety to the attendant. The capacity of a pump is usually determined by its number of strokes in a given time, hence the need of a pump regulator or governor.
Fig. ”

“ It is too rarely that we see it, and as it dies out and gives place to the odiously convenient pump, with the last patent on its cast-iron uninterestingness, does it not seem as if the farmyard aspect had lost half its attraction? So long as the dairy farm exists, doubtless there must be every facility for getting water in abundance ”

“ For this reason, a large, dry well is dug down to the level of the water-table and the pump is solidly bolted to a concrete foundation built on the bottom of this well. A supply pipe may be extended any depth below the pump, but the standing water surface in the well should reach within a few feet of the pump. The pump and supply must be so well balanced against each other that the pull-down from pumping will not lower the water-level in the well more than twenty feet below the pump. The nearer the ground water is to the pump the better. ”

“ Also the same engine that does the pumping may be used for other work in connection with the farm, so that the irrigation pump engine, instead of lying idle ten or eleven months in the year, may be utilized to advantage and made to earn its keep. [120] Well-water contains many impurities. For this reason, it is likely to be valuable for crop growing purposes in a wider sense than merely to supply moisture. Well-water contains lime, and lime is beneficial to most soils. It has been noticed that crops grow especially well when irrigated from wells. ”