FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   >>  
e the wheel revolve, but it could be thrown down at any time to stop it. THE PUMP. [Illustration: Fig. 290. Side View of the Wind Wheel, showing Brake.] Our pump was made of a galvanized leader pipe; that is, a pipe used to carry off rain water from the roof of the house. The pipe was only about 8 feet long, and so we had to piece it out with a long wooden box pipe. A block closed the lower end of this box, and the leader pipe fitted snugly into a hole in the block (Fig. 291). A spout was set into the upper end of the box pipe to carry the water to the cask, which was to serve as our water reservoir. THE PUMP VALVES. [Illustration: Fig. 291. The Box Pipe.] [Illustration: Fig. 292. The Lower Valve.] [Illustration: Fig. 293. The Piston Valve.] We plugged the bottom of the leader pipe with a block of wood, in the center of which a large hole was drilled. The hole was covered with a piece of leather nailed at one side, so that it could lift up to let water into the pipe. The piston was made of a disk of wood of slightly smaller diameter than the inside of the pipe, and over it was fastened a piece of leather just large enough to fit snugly against the walls of the pipe. This piston was fastened to a wooden rod long enough to reach from well within the pipe to the wind wheel shaft. A strip of brass was bent over the crank, or U-shaped bend in the shaft, and its ends were fastened to the rod. [Illustration: The Old Windmill at Work on a Lumberville Farm.] ACTION OF THE PUMP. [Illustration: Fig. 294. Connection of Rod and Crank.] It was rather a crude pump, but it did all the work we required of it. As the wheel went around the crank shaft would move the piston up and down. Whenever the piston went down, the air in the pipe would press up the edges of the leather disk and squeeze past (see Fig. 295). Then when the piston came up again, the leather disk, being backed by the wooden disk beneath it, was kept flat, so that no air could force its way back into the pipe. This made a partial vacuum in the pipe, and the water from the well rushed up through the valve at the bottom to fill it (see Fig. 296). When next the piston went down the bottom valve closed and more air forced its way past the piston. Then on the next upward stroke more water flowed into the pipe, until, after a number of strokes, all the air was pumped out and the water which took its place began to force its way up past the pisto
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   >>  



Top keywords:

piston

 

Illustration

 

leather

 

wooden

 

bottom

 
leader
 

fastened

 

snugly

 

closed


Connection
 

upward

 
flowed
 

stroke

 

ACTION

 

Windmill

 

strokes

 

Lumberville

 

pumped


number

 

partial

 

vacuum

 

backed

 

beneath

 

rushed

 

required

 

squeeze

 

Whenever


forced

 

fitted

 

thrown

 

revolve

 
galvanized
 

showing

 

inside

 

slightly

 
smaller

diameter

 

reservoir

 

VALVES

 

Piston

 

nailed

 

covered

 

drilled

 

plugged

 

center


shaped