The recent discussion induced me to look at the only book I have on the subject - a text dated 1950 by an engineer with the Mengin pumps firm.
In France at least, the main application for ram pumps was municipal water supply in non-electrified areas. The pump would be set up below a natural spring, and would pump water up to a gravity tank - one of the "ch�teaux d'eau" that you still see all around the country. As you can imagine, some of the rams used were of very large capacity. Presumably the rams were removed after the EdF got around to electrifying an area. If it didn't happen immediately, it would certainly happen when water demand increased, because an electrically driven pump could deliver the full capacity of the spring, while the ram pump let much of it go to waste to provide the drive power. Every now and then I have fantasies of discovering, somewhere in the French countryside, a vast boneyard of disused ram pumps and an obliging caretaker who says "prenez ce que vous voulez, Monsieur - personne ne s'en sert!" Yeah, right - more likely they all went to scrap and were melted down. Marc de Piolenc ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
