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

CLAIMS FOR THE SAUNDERS AIR LIFT. The claims for the Air Lift, invented by Mr, W. L. Saunders, are given in the patent as follows : 1. The herein-described method of pumping, which consists in supplying directly to the open lower end of a valveless delivery pipe surrounded by an open-bottom chamber continuously supplied with a gets under pressure, of charges of the liquid and of the gas under pressure and in alternation. 2. The method of pumping, which consists in supplying to the open lower end of a valveless delivery pipe surrounded by a sub- merged pressure chamber having its ]ower end permanently open to receive the liquid and continuously supplied with a gas under pres- sure, of charges of liquid and of gas at a high velocity and in alter- nation. 3. In a pumping operation the process of raising liquid, which consists in supplying to a pressure chamber permanently open at its lowei end to leceive the liquid, and provided with a downwardly- extending delivery pipe, also open at its lower end, said lower end located near the opening of the chamber, of compressed air at a point near the upper end of the pressure chamber from a constant source of supply, admitting liquid to the open end of the chamber and of the delivery pipe under sufficient momentum to force itself into the de- livery pipe and also to cause an increase of the pressure of the com- pressed air in the upper part of the chamber, until the momentum of the water entering the chamber is overcome thereby, when the water is forced down and out of the chamber into the well, and the excess of air pressure allowed to escape up the delivery pipe, forcing the water before it, and vice versa. 4. The combination with a well to be pumped, of a delivery pipe, the lower end of which is open to receive the water and which extends below the normal water level, a pressure chamber surrounding said delivery pipe, and permanently open at its lower end to receive the water, connections between the upper part of the pressure chamber and an independent source of compressed air or other gas, whereby, under the variations of pressure in the chamber due to the momentum 42