Water Lifted By Compressed Air
For Municipal, Manufacturing, Irrigation or Other Water Supply

Ill UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JULIUS G. POHLE, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY. PROCESS OF ELEVATING LIQUIDS. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 487,639, dated Dec. 6, 1892. Application filed October 24, 1891. Serial No. 409,7«. (No model.) To all whom it may concern ; , Be it known that 1. JULIUS G. POHLE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of e Jersey City, in the county of Hudson and 5 State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Process of Elevating Liquids, of which the following is a specification. The invention relates to the art of elevat- ing water by compressed air; and it consists IO in improved processes and apparatus where- by the compressed air is delivered in bulk into the lower end of the water-eduction pipe and the water and air are caused to ascend through said pipe in distinct alternate layers 15 of definite dimensions. The object of the invention Is to success- fully and practically effect the elevation ot the water to a much greater height than has heretofore been deemed economic with com- 20 pressed air and to avoid the results due to an intimate commingling of the air and water, as well as to dispense with all valves, annu- lar spaces, and solid pistons. In accordance with my invention the air is not directed into 25 the water in the form of fine jets or bubbles, which would very readily commingle inti- mately with the water, but is delivered in mass, and the water and air ascend in well- defined alternate layers through the eduction- 30 Pipe. In the art of raising water by means of ejectors it is essential to use a continuous and rapid current of steam or air, which by its velocity and momentum forms, primarily, a 35 vacuum into which the water flows by suetion. From thence it Is secondarily drawn along by the induced velocity current of the steam or air thus used. In my process, which I term the “air-lift” process or method, it is not nec- 40 essary to create a vacuum at all, nor is it nec- essary to use a velocity current for the pur- pose of raising water, for its action depends, primarily, upon the gravity force of the liquid into which an eduction-pipe is submerged, 45 and, secondarily, it depends upon the elastic energy stored in compressed air when used in the manner to be described. I have dis- covered that when air of suitable pressure is allowed to enter in a constant stream and in CO suitable quantity into an eduction-pipe at or near its lower end when it is submerged in water, while its upper end rises above the water about the same distance that its lower end is submerged, the compressed air thus in- 55 troduced will at first expel the standing water from the pipe in an unbroken column free from air, and subsequently, by the continued inflowing of the compressed air under a press- . ure just sufficient to overcome the resistance ÖO of tne water outside of the eduction-pipe, it will arrange itself In alternate layers with the water, while the latter flows into the lower end of the eduction-pipe by force of gravity until it is discharged at the upper or exit 6c end of the pipe. This alternate interposi- J tion of determinate quantities of air between the also determinate quantities of water elon- gates the entire column of air and water, thus facilitating, without materially adding to the tø weight of the column, the discharge of the ' water at a higher level than would be the case were these air sections or layers absent. I have also discovered that under the above- mentioned conditions the compressed air will 75 not escape through the water overlying it. and also that the water overlying the com- pressed air will not fall back through the un- derlying air while both are in upward mo- 38 tion, but find that the elasticity stored in the compressed-air layer, pressing alike in all directions, forms a temporary water-tight air- piston, which lifts the water above it to its final discharge without appreciable loss by leakage or so-called “slippage,” while this com- pressed-air piston after having expended its elastic energy in work of lifting water Is dis- pelled with only a practically unimportant loss of power. To elucidate this process ct pumping more clearly, I will refer to the ac- companying drawings, in which— Figure 1 illustrates a central vertical sec- tion of an apparatus embodying the inven- tion; and Fig. 2, a like section, on an enlarged scale, of the lower ends of the air and dis- charge pipes, and in which— A B designate an Artesian well or its equiva- lent; S, the surface of the water-level; W, an eduction-pipe submerged therein (being rep- resented as three inches in diameter to corre- spond with the lengths and weights of the water and ajr layers) and having at its lower end the enlarged extension C, and a indicates the air-conveying- pipe, coining from any source of compressed air and terminating with an upturned exit end within the enlarge- ment C several inches below the mouth of the eduction-pipe proper. The exit end of the air pipe is enlarged by beveling off the inner edge thereof m order to permit the free de- livery of the air in mass or bulk, and thus to avoid the formation of air-bubbles. The en- largement C of the pipe W is of sufficient area to compensate for the space occupied bv the exit end of air-pipe a, and said end of said pipe a passes through the vertical side of the enlargement C, as shown, and derives sup- port therefrom. The drawings represent the apparatus in a state of action pumping water, the shaded sections within the eduction-pipe W repre- senting water-layers and the intervening blank spaces air layers. At and before the beginning of pumping the level of the water Is the same outside and inside of the discharge-pipe W—incidentally, also, in the air-pipe. Hence the vertical press- ures per square inch are equal at the sub- merged end of the discharge-pipe. When, therefore, compressed air is admitted into the air-pipe a, it must first expel the incidental standing water before air can enter the educ- tion-pipe W. When this has been accom- plished, the air-pressure is maintained until the water within the eduction-pipe has been forced out, which it will be In one unbroken column, free from air-bubbles. When this has occurred, the pressure of the air is low- ered or Its bulk diminished and adjusted to a pressure just sufficient to overcome the ex- ternal water-pressure. It is thus adjusted for the performance of reg-ular and uniform work, which will ensue with the inflowing air and water, which adjust themselves automatically in alternate layers or sections of definite lengths and weights. It will be seen in the drawings that the lengths of the water-col- umns (shaded) and air (blank spaces) 1 and 1 are entered at the right of the discharge- pipe W ; also, that under the pressure of two layers of water 1 and 2 the leng-th of the air column 2 is 6.71 feet long, and so on. The lengths of aggregate water columns and the air columns which they respectively compress are also entered on the right of the water- pipe. On the left of the water-pipe are en- 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 ”5 120 •25 13° '35 140 US i5° ISS