This is high TEC

[daedong]

This is high TEC

Bear with me on this,
Today i visited a nearby museum. This museum is on the site of a irrigation pump owned and operated by the South Australian Government up until 1960.
One of its main features is a Humfrey pump cast in England and installed here in the 1920? This pump I was told today is the only one believed to be still in working order in the world. It is also one of about 10 that was ever built I am lead to believe.
Now for the tricky part. It will be best if you study the link
This pump has no pistons or turbines its mode of action is this.
It is powered by producer gas that was harnessed on site in a continuous process of burning wood and harnessing its gas as the wood turned to charcoal. If you picture a j shaped pipe about 6ft in dia and the bottom part of the J is submerged in water with hundreds of one way flap valves at this point just above this point on the short side of the j is a chamber where gas from the producer enters, this gas is exploded just the same as an ordinary combustion engine with an electrical spark. This explosion pushes the water up the long side of the j , at the top "bingo" a percentage of water spills out. and the water i understand rocks through the next three stages just like a 4 stroke engine.

web page

 

[MossRoad]

Re: This is high TEC

Very cool! Did you get any numbers on how much water it pumps and how much wood it consumes?

 

[daedong]

Re: This is high TEC

David
It used about 65 tons of wood per day. I can't remember the figure of what it pumped but it was certainly was in the millions of gallons a day. This thing is massive, i mentioned earlier it was 6ft in dia. I probably should correct that, it was 6 ft at the chamber end at the top of the j it is more like 12ft.

attached is the top of the j and on the RH side is the outlet.