Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/935

 Making Water Pump Itself

A novel water wheel obtains its motive power from the current

��CURVtD 5LADtS Of WATER. '^.■HEEL-

��A CURRENT power wheel for raising water from running streams, which is said to be both efficient and inexpensive in operation, has been in- vented by H. C. Berry, of Portland, Ore., and has been successfully tested. The wheel is primarily intended for irrigation in the arid districts along the swift-flowing streams of the West.

Water wheels of many different designs have been invented and many of them have been tested by the experts of the De- partment of Agricul- ture. Their high cost or practical defects pre- vented their coming into general use. Re- alizing that the key to the effectiveness of the power plant is in the wheel itself and depends upon the size, form, arrange- ment, number and depth of the blades, Mr. Berry made a thorough study of the subject and many experiments be- fore he decided upon the particular construction of the wheel he uses in his invention. The curved blades, which

��FORCE-PUMP DRIVEN BY WATER. WHEEL

���Power is transmitted from the water wheel to the pump by chain gearing

��are shown in the illustration, are the im- portant feature of the wheel. Each blade is removable and independent of the others, — a great advantage when repairs are necessary.

The shaft of the wheel revolves in bearings resting upon the framework of the pontoon float, which carries, besides the undershot wheel, a force pump, driven from the water wheel by a sprocket chain gearing. With a current velocity of only four miles an hour, two six-foot wheels, each forty-four inches in diameter, developed two and one-half horse- power, enough to raise two hundred gallons of water a minute to a height of twenty feet. Successful tests have been made in the shallow Clackamas River in Oregon. Tests on a larger scale are soon to be made. The cost of a plant that will de- velop about 100 to 115 horse-power in a ten-mile current, is estimated at from $2,000 to $3,000. The cost of operating the plant w^ould be almost negligible, however.

���A current flowing at but four miles an hour will raise 200 gallons of water a minute to height of twenti' feet. Two and one-half horse-power was developed in a recent test

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