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

COMPRESSED AIR IN GENERAL PUMPING OPERATIONS. In the foregoing pages applications of the Air Lift pump have been discussed and the limitations of its field of usefulness outlined. But there are other problems in the lifting and handling of water and other liquids, for which the Air Lift does not offer the best solution. Yet, though the method of its application is different, compressed air is still ci most useful and economical agent in meeting tlie peculiar require- ments of these situations. The machinery employed in these other operations may be broadly classified under three heads, which will be discussed in order,—displacement pumps, direct-acting piston or plunger pumps, and power-driven pumps. Displacement Pumps. 1 he displacement pump is almost the essence of pumping simplic- ity , and, if its first promise were borne out, it would be a most pow- erful factor in pumping problems. As it is, within its recognized field, it has shown a fitness which qualifies it peculiarly for the work. In its essentials it consists of two barrels, or cylinders, which are filled and discharged alternately, the charge in each cylinder being directly discharged or displaced by the admission of the required volume of compressed air through a valve automatically controlled. The fundamental requirement is a complete submergence of 3 to 6 feet. 1 he cylinders are filled at no expenditure of power, discharged with tlie minimum of friction loss. The pump operates independently of dirt or grit. There is no packing, no leakage. It starts and stops automatically and uses air exactly in proportion to the volume of water discharged. It will run for weeks without attention and requires prac- tically no repairs. Standard sizes have capacities up to 1,500 gallons per minute. The height to which these pumps will lift water is limited only by the air pressure used, and, by an arrangement of several in series, almost any height can be attained with ordinary moderate air pressures. Used alone or in connection with an Air Lift pump, the displace- ment system is a neat solution of the problem of small municipal water supply. I lie pump itself is submerged in a pond or reservoir supplied from a natural source, or from artesian wells pumped with the Air Lift. In the latter case, one air plant will supply both Air Lift find pump. No stand-pipe is required, the elastic air pressure in the pump forcing the water directly into the service mains in a con- tinuous stream. Only the simplest machinery is required ; attendance becomes a minimum, and the entire system is simple, efficient, almost automatic, and very economical in both first cost and operation. <x> '“t"