OF
A MECHANICAL SYPHON:
Which expels Part of it’s Water at the upper Level.
An ordinary Syphon acts by the pressure of the air on the upper water, which drives it into the ascending pipe, because there is a (partial) vacuum made there by the weight of the falling water in the descending pipe; this being always longer than the first. Thus, in [Plate 29], [fig. 5], A B shews the rising pipe of a Syphon, and C D the falling pipe, which is longer, and sinks to a lower level D, than that A of the water, which feeds the machine. E, in this figure, represents the vessel containing the mechanism on which the new effect depends: and which I shall now describe.
B and C, [fig. 4], are, one the ascending pipe A B of [fig. 5], and the other the descending pipe C D. They are surmounted by two cylinders, of unequal capacities—this inequality bearing a given proportion to the difference in the heights of the rising and falling branches of the Syphon. In each of the cylinders works a piston a, b, which, I think, need not be stuffed, but well fitted. The large piston has proper valves in it, to let the water pass upwards, at all times; and the small piston has a valve i, opening upwards, by means of the mechanism we are now describing; and closing itself merely by the arrival of the piston into it’s present position; for the screw c prevents the valve from rising higher: e, f, are two arcs belonging to the lever E, and being circles round it’s centre of motion. They are cut into teeth, on my Patent principle, and work in the racks similarly toothed, which give motion to the pistons a b, or receive it from them. Further, behind the stand F, common to both levers, vibrates, on a pin, another lever g h, the use of which is to work the aforesaid valve i in the small piston; and this it does, by means of the weight h, in the following manner:—The machine being supposed in the present state, the Syphon will act, as usual, through the valves of the large piston; and the water pressing on the small one, with a power proportionate to the excess of it’s column over that of the other piston (a), will raise the latter as fast as the piston b descends; but the area of the piston a being larger than that of the piston b, there will be a pressure within the vessel b c d a, that must expel (through any prepared aperture at the top) a quantity of water equal to the difference of area between the two pistons, multiplied by the stroke of both: the real quantity of which will ultimately depend on the difference of level between the higher and lower water; or between the lengths of the rising and falling branches of the Syphon, B and C. When, therefore, this stroke is made, the end h of the lever g h, which carries the ball, will touch the screw d, and stop the descent of the valve i, which will thus be opened; when the water will have free egress through the descending pipe C, and the piston b will then rise through that water by the weight of the piston a, the valve i being kept open by the action of the weight h, until the piston b has risen to it’s present position, when a new stroke is prepared, for the same reason as before: and thus may water be carried over a hill of (about) 30 feet above the level of any stream or pond, and dropped into a lower canal on the other side, with the condition of leaving a part of that water upon the hill, proportionate to the difference between the level from which the water is brought, and that to which it is carried.
OF
A FORCING MACHINE,
For taking on and off the Cylinders of Calico Printers.
The two figures, [1 and 2], of [Plate 30], are intended to make this Machine known, assisted by the following description:—The first is a front view of it, and the other a partial view from above. In the former, A B is the frame formed of, and firmly connected with the two columns C D, which are fixed strongly to the ground, at such a distance below the ends C D, as to place the aforesaid frame at the height of about two feet, or higher, if convenient.