Henri, If you check out Humphrey's four stroke engine you will note that the see/saw action of a large column of water in the "play pipe' acts like a pendulum. Lets say the first stroke is caused by exploding a gas/air mixture over this collumn of water. Like the Mongulfier Ram this column absorbs the energy from an explosion instead of gravity and moves up hill. discharging water onto a higher level. Once this column is moving it does not stop just because the explosion has expanded down to atmospheric pressure. At this point check valves open,allowing more water to follow the collumn up hill. The first stroke is complete when the column loses momentum and returns back to the pump, this is where the exhaust gasses are expelled through the exhaust port of the engines cylinder head. The cylinder head is designed in such a way as to have a compression dome which always contains a small ammount of exhaust gas which is used as a "cushion" to absorb the weight and force of the returning water This gas gets highly compressed and acting like a spring stores the enegy imparted by the column and forces the column back up the play pipe, This being the third stroke with less power but sufficient to draw in more water behind it and more importantly a fresh charge of gas/air mixture. This 2nd returning stroke is the compression stroke. The valves on the cylinder heads of the chingford pumps had an automated toggle action.The area of the play pipes immersed in the waters of the river Lea had several hundred inward facing spring loaded Bronze mushroom valves which allowed water to follow the column up the play pipe and into the George V reseviour which formed the majority of Londons drinking water. There was never any complaint of tar contamination caused by the action of these pumps. The first pump Humphry built and tested was an 8" set up in Birmingham with water tanks to measure performance and an anthrocite gasifier to provide the gas Several test runs were made, weighing the fuel used relating to the weight of water lifted to establish efficiency This first pump had a wooden block of wood hanging on a chain inside the combustion chamber,. forming the "Exhaust valve" which automically closed on the returning column of water. Addapting Humphreys' technology to compress air does not possess insurmountable hurdles, I feel the use of a Deep Rock style well boreing kit might come in handy to limit the footprint of such an engine.The methods of compressing air are manifest all of which can be cleanely achieved with high pressure water.
GF -----Original Message----- From: Henri Naths <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, May 26, 2011 11:35 am Subject: Re: [Gasification] Underwater gasification? Hi GF and list The advantage of a constant pressure explosion would be I guess for a smoother delivery? Your air compressor idea is very intriguing..could you explain how one would expel the burnt fuel after the power stroke. H. ----- Original Message ----- From: GF To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 9:48 PM Subject: Re: [Gasification] Underwater gasification? Further to marine propulsion using the principles of a water jet. The Humphrey pump I inspected at Chingford ran on coal gas, it did not have the "high speed" suggested by Dan. It performed ten power strokes a minute lifting ten tons of water 54 feet per stroke.The delivery pipe diameters were large, suggesting high volume low velocity. This same pendulum action could be achieved with suitable water conduits designed into the construction of the vessels hull, low in the keel. the cross section of which need not necessarily be circular. Designing a propulsion system for a boat would probably require the inclusion of an accumulator to provide a fairly constant pressure to an "out put main" where jets at strategic points could be manipulated for steering and manouverability.One feature of of an engine with a fluid piston is the shape of the combustion chamber can be designed to suit a constant pressure explosion, where as the piston can be cone shaped increasing in surface area on descent. I think it would be fairly simple and low cost to build an air compressor to start with by boring a hole in the ground and install a pipe within a pipe.and get a column of water "see sawing' up and down the hole using the water as a ram to compress air, by exploding gas at one end of the column . GF -----Original Message----- From: Anand Karve <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, May 22, 2011 11:33 pm Subject: Re: [Gasification] Underwater gasification? Dear List, auling a boat through water is much easier that pushing a loaded cart ver land. That is how wind pushed large ships around the world, hereas for land transport one needed animal power. A steam jet looks ery attractive for a small boat. If one can take up the water ontinuously from the river or lake itself, a relatively small boiler ould suffice for generating the steam. ours .D.Karve On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 7:51 AM, Daniel Chisholm <[email protected]> wrote: A Humphrey-inspired water jet is an interesting idea. FWIW I don't think it would be an efficient means of low speed marine propulsion though; it would suffer from low propulsive efficiency because the jet velocity would be too high. The efficiency of a reaction engine (which is something that generates thrust by accelerating and expelling mass - a very broad category that includes not just jet and rocket engines but also propellers on aircraft and ships) depends on the speed at which the mass is expelled. Accelerating a small mass to a large speed, is not as efficient as accelerating a larger mass to a lesser speed. If you look at aircraft jet engines today (high bypass ratio turbofans) you will notice that they are much larger in diameter than the jet engines of the 1950s (turbojets) - this is why. -- - Daniel Fredericton, NB Canada _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ -- ** r. A.D. Karve resident, Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) *Please change my email address in your records to: [email protected] * _______________________________________________ asification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page ttp://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: ttp://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 6155 (20110526) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com _______________________________________________ asification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page ttp://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: ttp://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
_______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
