Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/578

 468 The Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal. [Jan., neous influences, an hydraulic ram is a nuisance. When scientifically placed, (there is science in this.) and properly protected, it is the very best, and from first to last, the cheapest of all other modes of forcing water. When not so placed, it is the most bothersome. In 1859, an hydraulic ram was placed by me, under the direction of Mr. Joseph Strode, of West Chester, for the supply of my house, now the property of Willis P. Hazzard, Esq., of Sansom street, which, with a fall of about eleven feet, drives more than one gallon per minute, night and day, to the reservoir and seventy feet high. This little ma- chine might be called a perpetual mo- tion, with a cost of not ten dollars for a period of nine years. Mr. Strode is a mathematician, and a man of science. He has made hydraulics his study for many years, and is the inventor and patentee, of a method of placing the driving-pipe of the hydraulic ram. The cycloid curve, it is well known, is the line of quickest descent, for a body traveling by its own gravity, between two points, one above the other, which are not in ,_a_ vertical line. Mr. Strode places the driving pipe, from the spring to the ram, on this curve, laid with mathematical precision. It is with pleas- ure I refer to Mr. Strode, whose patent is based, not upon quackery, but upon science. But use what pipe you will, and lay your driving pipe on the cycloid curve, too, your ram will not answer expecta- tions, or promises, unless, at the same time, proper care is used to confine the supply of water so securely, that it can only escape from the spring-head through the driving pipe. How is this to be clone ? I answer, first, dig out around the spring-head all the mud, until you can see from whence the water issues. Having done-this, inclose it with a tight wall of stone. Around the exterior of this wall dig a trench, about three feet wide, and down to the very bottom of the well, which has been dug around the spring. Fill this trench with clean, heavy sand, free from stones and sticks. As the sand is placed, it must be rammed well, so as to be perfectly solid. The bank of earth, on the outside of the sand trench, must be packed well up against it, so as to keep the sand solidly together. This thoroughly done, the well will be found perfectly and permanent- ly water tight, and impervious to crabs, water rats, and every other living creature. Care must be taken, that the driving-pipe, in its passage through the wall, is well cemented, so as to be water tight, and that the sand is well packed around this pipe also. In building the wall around the well, bear in mind, that it will be necessary to have a pipe of large calibre, built in the wall, also water tight, at the bottom of the well, so that it can be emptied out, to be cleaned. This can be best stopped with a plug. The driving pipe must be provided with a strainer, to exclude motes of every kind, as well as frogs, &c. These points having been attended to, it will be necessary to cover the well with a roof, and a door, which should be fastened with a proper lock. Let us now go down to the ram, which should also be provided with a house, to protect it from all extraneous influences. Necessarily, these little ma- chines are to be placed in wells, in wet and springy places ; they should, there- fore, be constructed so as to be water proof. Nothing should have either en- trance or exit from a ram-house, but what is necessary for its proper^ play. It should be built with a brick floor, laid in hydraulic cement, and built up of brick and cement, from the foundation to a point, two feet at least, above the surface of the ground. The driving pipe, and the supply pipe, should be cemented in the wall. The waste water should be carried out at the bottom, through large pipe, of about four inches diameter, laid so that the lower end, or exit, shall be twelve or twenty-four inches above the