The cut on page 72.5 represents a machine for raising water, the invention of Mr. Rudolph Cabanal, engineer, of Melina-place, Westminster-road. It con sists of a series of troughs fixed one above another in a frame-work, and so inclined in contrary directions that each trough is united at one of its ends with the trough next below it, and at the other end with the trough next above it. The lower part of this frame-work forms the segment of a circle, and reds upon a horizontal plane ; so that with a very slight impulse the whole machine is put into a rocking motion ; the lowest trough is thereby made to at each oscillation into a reservoir of water, which enters the trough through valves at the bottom; these opening only upwards, the water cannot return. As the next oscillation raises the end that was before depressed, the water runs along the trough to the opposite side of the machine, where it is discharged into the depressed end of the trough above it ; from this second trough it is at the next oscillation thrown into the third trough ; then from the third to the fourth at the following oscillation : in like manner it ascends each trough suc cessively by the alternate rocking of the machine, until the water is raised and discharged at the required height. As the number of troughs, and the height of the machine, will depend upon the altitude to which it is required to raise the water, and as three troughs will show the arrangement and the action of the machine, as well as a greater number, we have, accordingly, reduced our diagrams to the exhibition of only three ; these are shown at a b c, Fag. 1, attached to the framing e e e e e, with its curved segment d resting upon it" horizontal plane p. It is necessary here to notice that the frame-work is double, that is, there are the same parts on this side the trough as are shows in Fig. 1 on the opposite side, which will be better understood on reference to the plan Fig. 2, where one side of the parallelogram marked e (as in Fig. 1), corresponds with the opposite side marked f. Now it will be evident that when the lowest end marked 1 of the trough a is depressed, it will dip into the reser voir g, and, by the opening of the valves, receive the water as shown; the reverse motion of the machine, by which the end m is depressed, then causes the water to run along a into b, and, at the next oscillation, from b to c, and so on into any number of troughs in succession. In the plan, Fig. 2, but two troughs could be shown ; these are the lowest, all the others being of the same shape : II is the depressed end of a, showing its long flap-valves, and that the water runs from one to the other under the partition that seems to divide them. The end m being depressed, the water flows in like manner into the double chamber of b, and from b it is discharged into c, which, being above 3, cannot be shown in this plan. To the ends of each trough an inclined plane or board is fixed to prevent the water from splashing over it ; these are shown at h h under the troughs a b. Contrivances of this kind are described in most of the old writers upon hydraulics ; and in France, where they are known as the " water balance," several curious constructions have been invented.
A patent was taken by Mr. A. Bernhard for a novel mode of raising water by the joint action of exhaustion, atmospheric pressure, heat, and condensation, to a height exceeding fitly feet, with the view of applying the fall from that height as a motive power for impelling machinery. The water to be raised rims from its level into a cistern contiguous to the foundation of a large boiler; and from the latter proceeds downwards a curved pipe dipping into the cistern. At the top of the boiler there is another pipe, which leads shortly into a vertical pipe, upward of eighty feet in height, which the patentee terms the hot water ascending pipe. To preserve the temperature of the fluid in this pipe, the lower most portion of it, to the extent of 30 feet, is inclosed in the brick flue of the furnace chimney ; hence it is inclosed in an iron funnel pipe, which forms the remainder of the flue to the top of the building, which is a pyramidal tower 100 feet high. Near the top of the tower is a refrigeratory, formed judi cious arrangement of two tiers of pipes placed horizontally in a case ; into these pipes the hot water in the ascending pipe (which here terminates by branching off from the flue) is discharged. Throughout the refrigeratory box,
and surrounding the pipes, a current of cold air is continually passing; this is brought from the lowest part of the building through a large tube, and is dis charged through another proceeding from the top of the refrigeratory, and extending to 25 feet above the altitude of the tower, to cause a strong draught The effect of this current of air is to cool the hot water distributed in its pipes, from the lower tier of which it rune out and descends a vertical pipe 36 feet in length, whose lower extremity is turned up and immersed in a cistern of water to seal it from the air ; this pipe the patentee calls the cold water descending pipe ; the upper end of it communicates with the exhausting pipe of an air pump, which is used in the first place to obtain a partial vacuum in the pipes described, and afterwards to abstract the air disengaged from the hot water, during the progress of the operation. The reader will now perceive, that when the exhausting process is nearly completed by the working of the air-pump, the pressure of the atmosphere will force the water out of the cistern on the lowest level up the curved pipes mentioned, into the boiler, and filling the same, the water will rise up the vertical (hot water ascending) pipe, proceeding from the top of the boiler to the height of about 30 feet. This being effected, the patentee says that if heat be now applied to the boiler, the water will thereby be made to rise 50 feet higher into the refrigeratory. Here, being distributed in the small pipes, it is cooled, and descends to the cold water pipe, wherein the pressure of the column of water being greater than that of the atmosphere, the water will run out over the cistern, and will continue to do so until the equi librium is restored, which it is the object of the patentee to prevent, and thus obtain a constant power by the fall of the water from the cistern. Having as far explained the object of the patentee, and the principle upon which he intends to operate, we shall now describe the apparatus more particularly with reference to the engraving on the next page, which is merely a diagram of the apparatus, as complete drawings of it would require several figures. a a represent the walls of the building; bcde four floors in the same ; f the refrigeratory, which communicates with the hot water ascending-pipe g; h ls is the air-tube, which receives its supply at i, and after blowing through the refrigeratory, escapes by the tube j, which extends 25 feet above the tower (but is shown, for want of room, as broken off); the water in the refrigeratory is prevented from returning by the intervention of a valve, and after being cooled in passing through the series of pipes, rune down thepipe k; atl is the air-pump with the pipe n, which connects it with the top of the pipe k, through the medium of which the other pipes are exhausted ; q is the reservoir which receives the water upon the natural level by a channel as at r; the operation of the air-pitmp causes to rise up the pipe s into the boiler t, thence up the pipe g as high as the dotted line u, after which, heat being applied to the boiler by the furnace e, the hot water rises to the refrigeratory. About midway of the pipe g there is a stuffing-box at one of the junctures to allow of the expansion and contraction of the metal by changes of temperature. The pipe g is shown as extending vertically through the brick chimney up to se, thence through the flue x to the box y ; hence it proceeds to the refrigeratory, and the flue-pipe takes a bend as at r, and proceeds to the top of the building. To prove the truth of the principle, the patentee erected an apparatus on a considerable scale in the Kent Road, near Peckham, but the result was a complete failure; and even had it been practicable, we doubt much whether it would have been an economical mode of raising water to that height, when we consider the fuel that must be expended to raise the temperature of the water, and the power required to work the air-pump.