Pump

“ Suction Pumps. A pump is a device for lifting water. The pumps in common use work on the principle that water which is under the pressure of air will rise to fill a vacuum or a partial vacuum. The pump is composed of a combination of valves and a piston for forcing the air out of the pipe to allow the water from below to be forced into it. A valve catches the water as it starts to flow back. ”

“ 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. ”

“ This pump is very popular with the users of power driven pumps and is generally selected for high pressures and for hot or gritty water. Its simplicity of design and construction, together with the convenient arrangement of working parts, renders it desirable in isolated places where little attention is given to any kind of pumps. ”

“ When we suck or pump, it seems to us as if the liquid was drawn up, and so we use the word draw in regard to it. So, too, we talk about the suction or drawing power. But, as I have showed you, the liquid is pushed up instead of being drawn. All that the piston in a pump does is to make room. It does not draw the water into that room, but the pressure of the air forces it in. Whenever there is any room made, the air is always ready either to go in itself or to force something else in. ”

“ This engraving is plain and requires no description. Fig. 170 shows a diaphragm pump in which a sheet of rubber or its equivalent is used as a substitute for a piston in a cylinder.
Fig. 170.
Note.—When an ox or a horse plunges his mouth into a stream, he dilates his chest and the atmosphere forces the liquid up into his stomach precisely as up the pipe of a pump. It is indeed in imitation of these natural pumps that water is raised in artificial ones. The thorax is the pump; the muscular energy of the animal, the power that works it ”

“ They have even begun to call the place Pump Court, as if I were no better than a common every-day pump! What is worst, there is an upstart just the other side of the way,—it lets out water to be sure, but it has nothing to say about it; it has no handle, and the water comes out by just turning a screw; altogether it is a very plebeian thing; it can know nothing of the pleasure of feeling a box go rumbling down your inside, and fetching up water from the depths of the earth. ”

“ The economical operation of a pump depends, to a great extent, upon the kind and condition of the packing in the stuffing-boxes and pistons, its quality, adaptability to particular requirements, and the method of placing it in the stuffing-boxes and plungers. ”

“ A pump M, called the hot water pump, lifts hot water out of the hot well to feed the boiler, and another pump N lifts cold water from a well or other source of supply, to maintain the supply of water to the cold water cistern, in which the condenser and air pump are placed. ”

“ Careful experiments on a large number of pumps of various makes at full speed, show that in a new pump with clean valves, and an air-tight suction pipe, and less than 15 feet lift, the actual delivery is only from 11⁄2 to 5 per cent. less than plunger displacement. This slip will increase with wear, and for a good average pump in practical use, probably 10 per cent. is a fair allowance to cover slip, valve leakage, slight short-stroke, etc. ”

“ The pump must be warranted so designed and with such arrangement of thickness of metal that it shall be safe to instantly turn a full head of steam on to a cold pump without cracking or breaking the same by unequal expansion. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A very useful pump, in regions where transportation is a problem, is the California pump. It is a rough chain-pump. A box 10 inches by 3 inches, inside measurement, and 10 feet to 30 feet in length, according to requirements, forms a tube reaching from the water to be removed to the level at which it is to be discharged. ”

“ A single acting pump is one in which the water enters the pump barrel during one piston or plunger stroke, and is expelled from the pump during the next stroke, hence the action of the suction and of the delivery is intermittent, although the pump is in continuous action. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is worked by a long winch-handle, at which several men may be employed at once; and it thus discharges more water in a given time than the common pump, and with less labour.—Main pumps. The largest pumps in a ship, close to the main-mast, in contradistinction to bilge pumps, which are smaller, and intended to raise the water from the bilges when a ship is laying over so that it cannot run to the main pump-well. Hand-pump, is the distinctive appellation of the common small pump. ”

“ Once again our engines were causing trouble: the circulating pump had gone “phutt,” and it was necessary for all hands to turn out and pump the bilges clear. A lovely job, there in the darkness, with the ship trying to tie knots in herself! And bilge water is so pleasant! Pumping is a back-aching job at best, but when you’re performing nautical gymnastics throughout your spell it exercises every muscle in your body, and you marvel at the number of muscles you possess, when they’re all aching at once! ”

“ The inside of the upper part of the plunger is threaded to receive the lower part with a cup leather packing and contains a valve of metal having a conical seat. Fig. 156 shows a design of a pump in common use in the 14th century.
Note.—The action of a pump is as follows: The piston or plunger by moving to one end, or out of the pump cylinder, leaves the space it occupied, or passed through, to be filled by something. As there is little or no air therein a partial vacuum is formed unless the supply to the pump is of sufficient force to follow the piston or plunger of its own accord. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To often try the pump is no less necessary than to change the watch, for which purpose is given sincere repentance, such as sinks to the bottom of the heart, searches out every lust and evil desire, brings it to the surface, and casts it out, as does the pump-rod the stagnant bilge-water, which, if allowed to remain, would finally sink the vessel. ”

“ Pitcher Pump. A hand pump which takes its name from the shape of its discharge.
Plug-valve. This is a tapering plug which turns in a shell, example, the plug of a faucet. See Cock. A fire-plug is a street hydrant to which a hose may be attached.
Plumb-bob. This is a device for testing whether anything stands exactly vertical; a plumb-rule contains a plumb-bob.
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Pressure-reducing Valve. A valve for reducing high boiler pressure to low pressure, for steam heating, etc.
Priming. To fill a pump with water when it refuses to lift of its own action, is called “priming the pump.” ”

“ The pump is usually of the centrifugal type and consists of a fan-shaped wheel operated in a snugly fitted housing. The water enters at the hub and is thrown out against the housing and is forced on by the rapid action of the fan blades. Another type of pump is used by some manufacturers which consist of two meshed gears of the same size, which operate in a snugly fitted housing. ”

“ SUCTION OF VACUUM PUMP AND BLOWER.--John Doyle and Timothy A. Martin, New York City.--This invention consists in arranging valves and air passages with a hollow cylinder or drum having an oscillating movement, and provided with a chamber or chambers to receive water, mercury or other fluid, whereby an exceedingly simple and compact pump or blower is obtained, one not liable to get out of repair or become deranged by use. ”

“ Most of you, no doubt, know that the plunger in a pump is made air-tight by one or a set of leather washers, which, owing to their pliable structure, can expand or contract so as to always fit air-tightly the pipe in the pump. ”

“ PUMP, [1] a machine which drives a liquid from one point to another, generally at different levels, the latter being usually the higher; an air-pump is an appliance for exhausting or removing the air or other gas from a vessel, whilst a compression pump compresses the air. The simplest forms of pumps employed for forcing liquids are “plunger pumps,” consisting essentially of a piston moving in a cylinder, provided with inlet and outlet pipes, together with certain valves. The disposition of these valves divides this type of pump into suction pumps and force pumps. ”

“ Engraving, Fig. 243, represents a Quintuplex pump used principally in mining operations, or wherever large quantities of water are to be delivered under high pressure in the shortest possible space of time. The pump here shown was designed to deliver 225 gallons of water per minute under a head of 1,200 feet. It has five plungers 4 inches in diameter each and having a uniform stroke of 12 inches.
These pumps driven by electric motors it is said represent the most economical method of transmitting power, as compared with the best designs of steam pumps. An efficiency of 80 per cent. ”

“ Where power can be had from a shaft in motion there is no pump so economical as the power or belt driven pump. This fact is shown by the rapid increase in the number of applications of this type of pump: the reduced cost of manufacture in making the teeth of the gear wheels, the use of automatic machinery, the production of interchangeable parts have tended to produce a high grade of machine at an attractive price. ”

“ Pump, with the meaning ‘ship’s pump’, is found in English in the fifteenth century, but in the sense of ‘instrument for raising water’ it is unknown to the Teutonic languages before the sixteenth century, though instruments of some sort had been used for that purpose in classical times. An understanding of the underlying mechanical principle, however, only developed, as we should expect, in the seventeenth century, when the words suction and hydraulic appeared in, for instance, Bacon’s writings. ”

“ I have seen the picture, and it might be true. The pump is not bad, being merely beaten into shape. On the top is a giant who used to cut off merchants' gains by means of tolls, and their hands by means of axes. ”

“ The automatic action of the pump and its speed are controlled by a float in the receiver operating directly, without the use of intervening levers, cranks and stuffing boxes, to open or close a governor valve in the steam supply pipe to the pump, thus making the action of the pump conditional upon the rise and fall of the float in the receiver. ”

“ Although this pump from Colonel Thacher was probably around fifty years old, it proved to be a most reliable and excellent piece of apparatus, consisting of a large, horizontal, single cylinder, “make and break” engine, driving a heavy, eighteen-inch rubber diaphragm pump. It certainly puts to shame some of the modern pump equipment of today, chugging along hour after hour like a patient old horse without much noise and clatter. ”

“ If the pump is to work under this condition, it is better to use a pump with a vertical discharge and deliver through an elbow, or else lead the discharge pipe upward for a short distance so as to keep a slight pressure, or head on the pump, and after priming as high as possible start quickly.
Generally nothing is gained by running a pump above the proper speed required for a given elevation. ”

“ The principal feature of this pump is its valve; there is but one valve for the suction and one for the discharge, which greatly simplifies the pump end. When working against high pressures, the ordinary rubber or leather faced valves are oftentimes pounded to pieces, but in this pump, on account of the mechanical control, the valves work well under all pressures. ”

“ The general form of the blades is of great importance in this type of pump, because the water is driven through the fan partly by the pressure of the blades on the water and partly by centrifugal force. The ratio which each of these forces bears to the other varies in the same pump, depending upon the proportion the speed bears to the height of it. ”