RAISING WATER BY GAS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 305, 17 May 1913, Page 9

RAISING WATER BY GAS

London. March 22. The new pumps at the Chhigfonl Keservoir, which the King opened hist week have nmde their inventor (Mr. H. A. Humphrey) famous. The water is blown by gas power from the River Lea into the reservoir. The Water Board had already decided upon the usual -pumping machinery; but an engineer of the hoard was present when Mr .Humphrey, in the autumn of 1001), at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, read u paper describing hi* revolutionary invention, and this was the means of altering the decision. Mr. Humphrey was asked to tender, and, his price being £10,0(10 beneath the next lowest, he was informed that he could have the contract--if lie would consent to a fine of £20,000 should the project fail. Like many other great ideas, Mr. Humphrey's method of pumping is ?iot really complicated. A mixture of gas and air is exploded in a chamber in which the surface of Ihe river water forms the piston, and the water is thereupon blown into a lower, where it is maintained, oscillating in a scries of explosions, but always held ( above the level of the outlet upon the reservoir. There are live of these explosion chambers at Oiingford, and the sight of all the live outlets discharging over 1000 lons of water per minute is in itself a line spectacle. Tn a time of Hood the pumps could raise from the river about 200,000,000 gallons in a day. That quantity of water would more than half fill the" reservoir, which is two miles long, and has a circumference of 4 1 /; miles. The experiment has proved a complete success.