Birkinbine, The Farmer's Cabinet 11 9 April 15, Rice questioning accuracy of September 25th article. Rice letter. Strode, West Chester, Pennsylvania, August 19, The undersigned calls the attentions of citizens of towns, railroad companies, farmers, plumbers, and the public in general to his improved patent improved hydraulic rams.
Haupt, October 10, , reduced and compared by Henry Cartwright, Esq. Hett, from Scientific American Supplement 5 February 16, Hett, Engineering News May 10, includes details on hydraulic ram calculations.
Pages Hydraulic Rams. Page Red Lion, Pennsylvania. Red Lion Water Co. Supply, mill-race, pumping by means of hydraulic ram to tank. Page Algonquin, Illinois, built in '89 by city. Pumping by hydraulic ram Page Dundee, Illinois, built in '95 by village, 90, 8-in hydraulic ram Page West Dundee, Illinois, built in '95 by village, a hydraulic ram is used for domestic purposes Page Hokah, Minnesota, Built in '95 by village for fire protection, supplied by 7, gall.
A 24,gall. Mead, Rockford, Ill. Dickinson, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 17 1 Page [Description of invention and partial translation, included above with French patent] Brevet d'invention de 15 ans pris le 13 brumaire An VI 3 Nov.
IV, ; incidentally it constitutes really a memoir on the subject. Page We have an interesting sidelight upon what was taking place, confirmatory of Montgolfier's claim to the invention, in a letter dated London, Sept. Gilpin's reply of Jan. The reference to Fulton is highly interesting but as far as the writer is aware he never did anything with the ram in America. The flappers on similar PVC valves weigh very little and close under lower flow conditions, preventing development of a higher-pressure shock wave.
This valve cannot be a spring-loaded type of check valve but must have a free-swinging flapper as shown in figure The second check valve in figure 11 5 should be a standard, spring-loaded poppet-style check valve. This valve may be made of PVC or brass. Valve 1 in figure 11 is used to stop or allow flow to the pump and can be used to turn off water flow if the pump needs to be removed or serviced.
Valve 7 is turned off while the pump is started, then gradually opened to allow water to flow after the pump is operating. The pump will operate for thirty seconds or more with this valve completely closed, and if the valve is left in the closed position the pump will reach some maximum pressure and stop operating. The ram pump requires approximately 10 psi of back pressure to operate, so if the delivery pipe outlet is not at least twenty-three feet above the ram pump, valve 7 can be used to throttle the flow and maintain the required back pressure.
The pressure gauge 11 is used to determine when valve 7 may be opened during pump start-up and can be used to determine how much valve 7 should be closed during normal operation if throttling is needed. The pipe cock 10 is optional but can be turned off to protect the gauge from failure over time due to repeated pulses. The air chamber size is dictated by the expected flow rate of the hydraulic ram pump.
University or Warwick documentation suggests the optimum pressure chamber volume is twenty to fifty times the expected volume of water delivery per cycle of the pump. The table is based on a hydraulic ram that will operate sixty pulses or cycles per minute. The second design presented in figure 13 is one commonly found on the internet in YouTube videos. A schematic diagram for homemade hydraulic ram pump Design 2 with air snifter.
Tables 4 and 6 contain item descriptions. The item descriptions in table 4 also apply to this design. Three additional items needed for this design are listed in table 6.
Table 6. Additional materials descriptions for hydraulic ram pump Design 2 presented in figure The difference in the two designs is the vertical placement of the spring-loaded poppet check valve 5 just below the air chamber, and the addition of a small hole in the vertically-oriented coupling 20 just below that check valve some designs suggest drilling the hole in the lower part of the check valve instead, below the flapper.
A cotter pin 21 is placed in the hole to reduce water loss and pressure loss to some degree when a pressure cycle occurs, but still allow air to be drawn into the pipe to be pushed into the air chamber in the next cycle.
Fitting size and material information are the same as for Design 1 except for the following: pipe coupling or nipple 20 used for the snifter hole should be galvanized steel to prevent wear by the cotter pin over time, and galvanized steel is a better material choice for elbow 19 for structural strength.
The size of the snifter hole is critical to pump operation. The University of Warwick has an extensive discussion concerning this property in their hydraulic ram pump documentation. If the hydraulic ram should become waterlogged, a slightly larger snifter hole may be needed. The advantage of this design is that if the snifter hole is sized correctly, the pump should never become waterlogged due to a leaking inner tube in the air chamber.
The image was taken just at waste valve closure. The concrete block is in place to support the air chamber. Both pump designs are started using the same steps. Attach the assembled ram pump to the drive pipe, close valve 7, then open valve 1 to allow water flow. The waste valve 4 will almost immediately forcefully close. The flapper in the waste valve must be pushed down manually a number of times to initially start automatic pump operation.
This process purges air from the system and builds up the pressure in the air chamber required for the pump to operate. Pressing the flapper down twenty to thirty times is expected to start a ram pump. If the pump does not start operating after pressing the flapper down more than seventy times, there is an issue somewhere in the system. After the pump has started operating figure 14 , gradually open valve 7 to allow water to flow uphill to the water trough.
The pump must have 10 psi or more back pressure to operate, so gradually open valve 7 while watching the gauge to maintain 10 psi of back pressure. Pressure will build as the water fills the delivery pipe as it is pumped uphill. The pump will operate continuously after starting as long as water flows freely to the pump and is flowing out of the delivery pipe.
If water flow is stopped at the water trough, the ram will pump up to some maximum pressure and stop, and then must be manually restarted. The pump will not restart itself. This means that if water is supplied to a single water trough, a float valve cannot be used. Some provision must be made to drain overflow away from the trough after it fills, since the water must flow continuously for the pump to remain in operation.
A simple gravel-filled trench or another method may be used to direct the excess water away from the water trough. If the pump is placed near a stream downstream of a pool or other water source, this will not be an issue.
If, however, it is placed on dry ground away from the water source, drainage must be considered. There are no restrictions on the size or type of delivery pipe used beyond normal piping design practice.
Galvanized steel pipe, PVC pipe, rubber hose, or a simple garden hose may be used to deliver water to the water trough, provided it is sized to deliver the anticipated flow rate. Some ram pump installation guidelines indicate the delivery pipe should be one half the size of the drive pipe, but this has no bearing on the pump performance.
The delivery pipe should be sized based on flow rate and friction loss. Table 7 provides some maximum recommended flow rates for various pipe sizes. These flow rates are based on a maximum flow velocity of five feet per second in the delivery pipe, which will help prevent water hammer development in the delivery pipe.
Smaller flows than those listed will allow the water to be piped longer distances or to higher elevations within reason, since less pressure will be lost to pipe friction. Pipe friction loss charts for the appropriate pipe material used may be utilized to determine the actual friction loss for a given installation. Smaller delivery pipes will cost less but can decrease the ram pump flow rate.
If friction losses are not calculated, use half the allowable flow rates or less listed in table 7 to select a delivery pipe size. Table 7. Recommended maximum flow rates for various sizes of Schedule 40 PVC piping, based on a flow velocity of 5 feet per second.
Water will run continuously through a hydraulic ram pump since the pump runs constantly. If the water source for the pump is a shallow pool in a flowing stream or creek this will not be an issue, since water flows continuously in those water bodies.
There may be a problem, though, if a small pond is used as a water source for a hydraulic ram pump. The pond history shows that it seems to stay fairly full except during times of severe drought. The ram pump requires a flow of approximately 9 gpm to produce the desired 1 gpm flow to the water trough.
The ram pump runs twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, withdrawing 9 gpm from the pond. That is the equivalent of approximately one inch of water removed from the pond each day.
If the stream or spring that fed the pond was just adequate to keep the pond full before the ram pump was installed, the pond water level will begin to fall one inch each day. There are methods described in the next section that allow the use of a hydraulic ram pump using a pond as a water source without breaching the dam. This may prevent draining a good pond to non-useable levels.
If a hydraulic ram pump is installed behind a pond dam, the farmer should also consider drainage requirements to remove the expelled drive water from behind the pond. This will prevent the development of a wet area or possible soil erosion over time. Some type of siphon assembly may be used to draw water from a pond and deliver it over the dam to a hydraulic ram pump.
However, this siphon cannot be directly connected to the drive pipe without some provision for pressure and siphon release. The siphon will interfere with the development of the pressure wave in the drive pipe. If a siphon is used, the water may be delivered by the siphon pipe to a trough or barrel open to the atmosphere behind the pond dam, with a ram drive pipe plumbed directly into the trough or barrel.
This will prevent the siphon action from affecting pressure wave development. There are only two moving parts in the home-made hydraulic ram pump — the waste valve and the spring-loaded check valve 4 and 5 in figures 11 and Over time one or both of these valves may fail simply due to wear.
The wear will be more extensive in rams utilizing sandy or silty water, and in rams that have a more rapid cycle time. Farmer reports indicate that home-made hydraulic ram check valves seem to last between three months and two years depending on these two factors.
The two unions in the figures 11 and 13 1 and 8 are there to allow pump removal for maintenance if needed. If there is detritus in the water source and an inlet screen is not used, there may be an issue with a small stick or twig becoming caught between the waste valve flapper and the valve seal, preventing proper valve closure. In some cases, this might make it miss a cycle and then the stick may be flushed away, but in other cases the stick may become lodged. The best inspection is always to visit the operating pump, but a second option is simply to visit the water trough to make sure water is flowing.
If a ram pump is used during winter months, care should be taken to insulate as much of the pump and above ground piping as possible.
The constant flow of water through the pump should help prevent freezing, but ice may still build up around the waste valve outlet in colder temperatures and might stop the pump. If Design 2 is used, inspection of the snifter hole is a must in cold weather to ensure it has not frozen closed. By a Frenchman, Joseph Michael Montgolfier, had added a valve, which made the device self-acting, making the ram pump almost a perpetual motion machine when water supplies were steady.
In , the first American patent was issued to J. Cerneau and S. Hallet in New York Strawbridge of Louisiana claimed to be the first to put an American made model into use. His first ram, built entirely of wood, exploded, prompting a later model boasting "cross-bolts and rivets of iron. Water-hungry rural Americans were intrigued by the pumps.
Benson's Patent Water Ram could pump water from the powering stream or spring up a hill or it could use that power to push another water supply Articles in magazines such as the Farmer's Cabinet and American Farmer brought further recognition and understanding of the ram and its possibilities.
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