Pumping station

“ The cost of the operation, I think, will be almost negligible. We had this experimental device installed in the sewage pumping station in Washington, where we had a steam pressure of about 100 pounds per square inch and boilers of about 100 horsepower. It was impossible at any time to observe any effect whatever on those boilers when this device was receiving steam at its maximum flow, and I simply mentioned that to indicate that there would be no observable, even temporary, effect upon the steam supply for the engines in the vessels. There is no such great consumption of steam. ”

“ The control can be arranged so that the pump is operated only at full load and high efficiency, and when not operating no power is being consumed, as is not the case with a steam pump where steam pressure must be maintained at all times. The electric driven pump is thrown into operation by a float controlled switch which is closed when the reservoir fills, and opens when the pump has emptied the reservoir. The choice between steam and electric power for large pumping stations is a matter of relative reliability and economy. ”

“ When designing central stations the aim should be to employ pumping engines of such capacity that they can be worked as nearly as possible continuously at about their maximum output; the same consideration should, in the main, determine the size of the pumping units in a station where more than a single unit is employed. With a. number of units, each can be worked, when in use, at or near the most economical speed. Moreover, reserve plant is necessary if the supply of power is to be constant, and where the units are many the actual reserve required is less than where the units are few. ”

“ The use of reciprocating pumps for sewage pumping is practically restricted to very large pumping stations with capacities in the neighborhood of 50,000,000 gallons per day or more. Steam-driven pumps are the most common of the reciprocating type, but power pumps are sometimes used in special cases for small installations and may be driven by either a steam or gas engine or an electric motor. ”

“ The cost of this service to 1881, with [79] forty miles of pipe, two pumping engines of six million capacity, tanks, etc., was nearly half a million dollars.
No. 2, high service, was started in June, 1881. About 15,000 gallons are pumped daily into an iron tank, thirty feet in diameter by sixteen feet high, temporarily erected on wooden supports sixteen feet high. The elevation of flow line of tank is 354 feet above the pump station. ”

“ In any large system where a number of pumping units are required they also allow a sufficient interval of time to start any additional units. Accumulators connected to the mains at a considerable distance from the central station reduce the variations of pressure, and the size of mains required for a given supply of power, and therefore have a most important influence on the economy of distribution. The mechanical efficiency of hydraulic accumulators is very high, being from 95% to 98 %, and they are practically indestructible. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Power pumps can be used only where the character of the sewage will not clog the valves nor corrode the pump. A direct-acting steam pump is one in which the steam and water cylinders are in the same straight line and the steam is used at full boiler pressure throughout the full length of the stroke. The crank-and-fly-wheel type of pumping engine permits the use of steam expansively during a part of the stroke, the energy stored in the flywheel carrying the machine through the remainder of the stroke. Reciprocating pumps are sometimes classified as plunger pumps and piston pumps. ”

“ Fig. 161 represents a double acting force pump used extensively on ship-board, wharves, around factories, mills, etc., and in residences, for tank pumping. On ships these pumps perform the three-fold purpose of filling boilers when cold, washing down decks and to satisfy government inspection as to fire protection; in service in mines they are unaffected by mine water, the working parts being made non-corrosive. It is claimed that a three-inch diameter cylinder with a stroke of four and a half inches with a 11⁄4-inch suction pipe and 1-inch discharge pipe will lift and force water 150 ft. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In many places the pressure on the mains is insufficient to raise the water to the upper floors or through improperly designed systems of piping the pressure may be so diminished as to make the flow extremely weak or the difficulty in securing proper water supply may be due to inconvenient location with reference to water mains. The automatic electric house tank pumping plant has been designed and perfected to meet these conditions ”

“ On the 12th, the pumps, still working steadily, held the water at 132 feet from the surface.
A council of war was held, and it being the opinion of all that the inburst of the water might be from a subterranean reservoir, which would shortly exhaust itself, and that we should only have the same quantity of water ultimately to pump that we had before the inburst occurred, it was decided to continue the pumping for two or three weeks longer. ”

“ Air-Cushions.—To prevent water-hammer on the pumping main, all pumps are provided with large air-chambers. In addition, and as the special feature for absorbing the shock of pumping under high pressure through a pipe 21 miles long, a large air-chamber in the form of a closed steel cylinder, 5 ft. in diameter and 15 ft. long, is mounted on the pumping main outside of the pump-house. This cylinder is set on its side, in concrete collars, directly over the pipe beneath, to which it is connected by a 12-in. ”

“ The pump at the lower right-hand corner of the engraving takes salt water through the suction at the bottom and passes it upward through the condenser and overboard through the circulation discharge. Any steam pump having a sufficient capacity may be used as a circulating pump.
169
ATMOSPHERIC PUMPS.
The Bliss-Heath Atmospheric Pumping Engine represented by Fig. 455 is novel in its construction, consisting of a low-pressure, upright, tubular steam boiler, having a safety valve loaded to carry 11⁄2 lbs. steam pressure. The large cover lifts under 2 lbs. pressure, hence explosions cannot occur. ”

“ Five or six boilers are fired at once and two are held in reserve, in case of accident. Loops are laid around some of the stations, that a pump may send the oil two or three times the average distance and the total disability of a station not blockade the line. When lofty hills are surmounted the pressure on the pump reaches twelve to fifteen-hundred pounds. Independent telegraph-lines connect the stations with one another and the main-offices. The engineers handle the key and click messages expertly. ”

“ One feature or fact in centrifugal pumping that is overlooked or not known to many makers, is that water will not enter a pump when the impeller vanes sweep over the inlet way and are driven at high speed. To illustrate this, one can not thrust a cane or lath through the spokes of a rapidly revolving wheel. ”

“ At an interval of two miles along these banks is generally to be found a steam pumping-engine, busily and constantly occupied in raising water from the lodes and dykes in the lower levels and pouring it into the main channel. The same process is repeated in the case of raising the water from the field-drains [Pg 206] into the smaller dykes by a windmill or "skeleton-pump," as it is often called. It is a work that is never done, but goes forward, year by year, and is paid for by assessments on the value of the lands affected by these operations. ”

“ Sinking pumps, designed for use in shafts in process of sinking, are suspended by wire ropes so as to be raised before blasting and promptly lowered again to resume pumping. Electrically driven pumps, now widely used, are convenient and economical. Mine pumps of ordinary forms may be operated by compressed air, and air-lift pumps have been successfully employed. ”

“ Maybe something else." He squinted at the barely churning waters over the bore hole. "Can't say until we get a monitor on those pumps. If it's just a malfunction in one of the units, I can dump another one down there. If it's something else, we'll have to see then. One thing's sure, they aren't all pumping."
The pump section vehicles had been hauled out of the convoy and were already pulling up along the riverbank before the rest of the convoy of heavy equipment was turned around.
In the big monitor van, technicians already were running remote checks on the underwater pumps. ”

“ The air-lift is also very advantageous for pumping water which contains a large amount of sand or similar gritty material which would cut and score the walls of an ordinary piston pump. Air-lift pumping is frequently used, therefore, on new bore-holes until the sand, etc., has been eliminated, after which the final pump can be installed without fear of damage. ”

“ Oscillating pump, with two radial vanes keyed to a central rocking shaft.
1045. Hollow plug; oil or water feeder.
1046. Double ram pump.
Rising mains in mines and wells have been used as the main pump rods in some instances.
In pumping up to a tank or reservoir from which a down service pipe is taken, the pump can be arranged to deliver into this pipe at its nearest convenient point, instead of having a second pipe from the pump to the tank.
1047. Schmid’s trunk cyl. hydraulic pumping engine utilises a low-pressure supply to force from the annular side of the piston a high-pressure service. ”

“ The value of a pumping system recommends itself on the point of economy in construction, for the outlay is in proportion to the existing necessities, which can be increased as the demands require. The original water consumers are not, therefore, taxed so heavily for future exigencies of gravity works. This idea can be better illustrated by the comparative cost of construction and maintenance of gravitation and pumping works:
The reservoir system is the most preferable of the three methods, when natural elevation can be secured, for the pumping service is distinct from the distribution ”

“ Fig. 95. Improvised Trench Pump.
Pumps for dewatering trenches must be proof against injury by sand, mud, and other solids in the water. For this purpose pumps with wide passages and without valves or packed joints are desirable. The types of pumps used are: simple flap valve pumps improvised on the job, diaphragm pumps, jet pumps, steam vacuum pumps, centrifugal pumps, and reciprocating pumps. All are of the simplest of their type and little attention is paid to the economy of operation because of the temporary nature of their service. ”

“ The pump-house is built alongside this reservoir. The delivery pipe from the Nogal Reservoir runs directly to the pumps, but has a tee-branch, 50 ft. long, into the Coyote Reservoir. This branch passes through a valve chamber between the pump-house and the reservoir. In this chamber there are controlling valves and an automatic overflow. This overflow is provided against the contingency of a full reservoir and idle pumps. If the pipe line is delivering water faster than the pumps discharge it, the surplus goes into the reservoir. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”