The following information is from Geoff Egel's site Energy 21

The Humphrey Pump

Here below are the details of a very interesting water pump used in the earlier history of and a part of Riverland irrigatrion area. The pump no longer provides this service as modern electrical equipment performs this. However the operation is interesting and may give some an insight in to making something better. The pump can be still seen in operation on Sundays most South Australia Public long weekend holidays.

The Humphrey Pump, was invented by Mr. H.A. Humphrey, eminent Gas Engineer and Chemist. Born in London in 1868 and educated at Finsbury Technical College and the Central Institution of the City Guilds, Kensington, England, he died in 1951 at Cape Province, South Africa.

His pump is an internal combustion pump in which the force exerted by the explosion of a mixture of flammable gas and air acts directly on the surface of the water, forcing it to an elevated position.

The aim of Mr. Humphrey was "to produce a pump of great simplicity and strength of construction in which the explosive force is exerted directly on the water and in which no rotating flywheel, solid piston, rotating crank, connecting rod, bearings or glands of any sort are required".

The diagram in Figure 1 shows the essential components of the pump, and is similar to an experimental pump designed by Humphrey, which worked satisfactorily from the first occasion on which is was started.

The pump was composed of 3 main parts, viz:-
1. The combustion chamber C, fitted with an exhaust valve, gas and air mixture valve, scavenge air valve and spark plug.
2. The water suction chamber, and valves.
3. The playpipe, connecting to an elevated tank and outlet pipe.

It will be noted that the form of the pump, is that of a large U-pipe closed at one end and without any obstruction to the free flow and oscillation of the water column within the pipe. The only moving fittings in the pump are the various valves and an interlocking mechanism to automatically lock or unlock them according to their requirements in the cycle of operating events. The interlocking and ignition apparatus are operated by the pressures within the combustion head, to which they are connected. It was from this basic design that subsequent models were developed for the London Water Supply Authority at Chingford, installed in 1913 and the Cobdogla Pumps which are practically replicas of these pumps, apart from their output capacities.

OPERATION OF THE PUMP CYCLE

Imagine all valves closed and the pump standing full of water to the water tower outlet, which would be the condition before starting.A charge of combustible gas and air is pumped in the combustion head by a suitable compressor and is fired by closing the ignition circuit manually. The spark plugs ignite the gas mixture and initiate the four strokes comprising the complete cycle of operation in the following manner.

FIRST OUTWARD STROKE The pressure on the water exerted by the force of the explosion and expansion of heated gasses, sets the water column in motion with increasing velocity. The Kinetic Energy acquired by the rapidly moving column of water, causes it to flow outwards until a partial vacuum is formed at the combustion end of the playpipe. When the pressure falls to nearly that of the atmosphere the exhaust valves open inwardly with the assistance of springs. The lightly spring loaded water inlet valves open inwards admitting a large quantity of new water into the playpipe, partly to follow the column of outgoing moving water and partly to endeavour to fill the pipe to the same level as the water in the suction sump. With a further fall in pressure, the scavenge air valves, also lightly spring loaded, open, allowing pure air to be admitted to occupy the space above the exhaust valve level, a retentive valve in the exhaust valve casing preventing the return of burnt gases from the exhaust pipe. By means of an interlocking apparatus operated by pressures within the combustion head, the exhaust and scavenge air valves were released when the explosion occurred and the gas mixture valves were locked in the closed position. A portion of the outgoing water column spills out into the receiving basin, starting a syphoning action in the outlet discharge pipe.

FIRST RETURN STROKE The momentum of the water column expends itself at the end of the first outward stroke, allowing the water column to flow back by gravitational force towards the combustion head. This in turn drives the burnt products of 'combustion through the open exhaust valves, ultimately closing them by impact of the water. The spring loaded water inlet and scavenge air valves were closed when the pressure again rose to approximately that of the atmosphere. The returning water column, having gained considerable velocity, now compresses the scavenge air (mixed with a percentage of spent gasses) in the top of the combustion chamber, forming a compressed elastic cushion. The energy thus stored in this cushion is then equal to the energy given out by the rapidly moving water column, urged on by the static head behind it, so that the cushion pressure is considerably in excess of that due to the static head. The interlocking mechanism, now operated by the cushion pressure, automatically releases the catch from the mixture valves and locks the exhaust and scavenge air valves.

SECOND OUTWARD STROKE The expansion of the compressed air cushion now drives the water column outward again, the pressure becoming atmospheric as the surface reaches the exhaust valve level, and if it were not for the friction losses in the playpipe it would ultimately be driven out to the same position that it occupied prior to the commencement of the first return stroke. The outward movement of the water column continues until a partial vacuum is again formed and the water inlet valves open, admitting a large quantity of water into the playpipe.A portion of the water column at the outward end again overflows into the receiving basin. The gas mixture valves alone being free to operate, a new charge of inflammable gas and a small amount of air is admitted into the combustion chamber, which mingling with the scavenge air taken in on the previous stroke, forms a fresh combustion mix.

THE GAS GENERATING PLANT
The gas for the Cobdogla Pumps was originally supplied by two updraft producers with scrubbing and tar extracting plant and the fuel used being mallee, box and redgum wood, which was supplied from the extensive wood stacks situated to the North.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Much of the information is taken from a paper by Mr. J.1. McLauchlan, an associate member of the Institute of Engineers, and presented to the Adelaide Division in Adelaide, March 1932. and taken from a booklet from The Cobdogla Steam Friends Society Inc.

P.O box 208 Berri S.A phone 08 8582 2603 The Barmera National Trust P.O box 472 Bamera S.A. 5345 Phone 08 8588 2521

ASTRO SA TECHNICAL GROUP

A sub group of ASTRO SA is being formed here in Adelaide to cater for those of us who wish to discuss and construct projects dealing with free/alternate energy.

The first meeting will be held on Friday 23rd November at a hall on the corner of Hendrie Street and Condada Avenue at Parkholme. The hall has been booked from 8pm to 11pm at $7 per hour. It is intended to divide the cost of the hall hire by the number of attendees.

How is this meeting (and hopefully following ones) going to be different to the main monthly ASTRO SA meeting?

• Firstly the subject matter will be strictly limited to free energy/alternate energy devices, for example, fuel savers, magnet motors, Joe cells, solar, hydro, steam, etc.
  UFO's, health matters, conspiracy theories and yoga will definitely be off the list!
  
  
• Secondly, there will not be any guest speaker, just discussion amongst those attending.
  
  
• Finally, there will be an emphasis on projects, with help on a theoretical and practical level being offered. Those who bring along their experiments/projects will get priority to discuss them over those people who just come along to talk.

This is also an attempt to try and entice back all of those active free energy experimenters who have left ASTRO SA due to the change in emphasis of subject matter at the monthly meetings. It is not to be seen as a rival group to the main meetings but an addition to them, catering for a specific group.

So remember to bring along your projects, experiments or even parts that you want to assemble into something one day. There may be someone there who will help you do it!

Ken and Bruce.

The meeting started at 8.15 pm and was opened with a welcome to all by Robert.
There was apology from Percy who was away at Andamooka.
The minutes from September were read and a reminder that membership fees were due. These were moved by Nina and seconded by John.
The treasurer's report was read, moved by Rodger, seconded by Ian and carried.
The meeting closed at 8.22pm and handed over to General Business.

GENERAL BUSINESS
Robert reported that the Guest Speakers for this meeting were unable to attend, but would speak at November's meeting on the use of "Violet Rays". He said that he would start things off by discussing the ways and mechanisms of thinking that would help us to better achieve our designs and projects. He showed a short video on the "Wolf Children". They were raised as babies by the wolves and later rescued into the world as small children. They behaved like wolves. After fifteen years they still could not or would not change their wolf pre-conditioning and died still behaving like wolves.
Robert stated the two Universal Laws.
Like attracts like. (What you put out you get back.)
The relaxed state of Nature. (Anything forced will block the flow of life force energy.)
The talk was motivational, stressed the importance of positive structured thinking and was thoroughly interesting.
Ken…reported that Geoff Egel
http:www2.murray.net.au/users/egel/
had sent in two new videos. A vote was taken to send a monetary gesture of thanks to Geoff to help with the cost of tapes and postage. Many Thanks Geoff.
Ken...Displayed two gears he had made of equal diameter one with 30 teeth, the other with 32 teeth "that meshed and ran" to prove "that it could be done".
Ashley…gave a short talk and white-board diagrams on "The Structure and Property of Water" based on a book from our ASTRO Library. He discussed the different types of molecular bondings that give water different properties.
Peter…discussed some interesting Internet sites on "Water and it's 33 different Components" These sites are listed in the "Links" on the ASTRO Home Page. They are a few of the many references on water found using "GOOGLE" search engine on "water AND magnetism". He said that this highlighted the absolute and utter ignorance on the different properties of water by the vast majority of Australian academics. He also discussed a new fuel made from passing waste hydrocarbons or sewerage through a plasma cell. This can be found at http://www.santillimagnegas.com .
Ken…spoke on Second World War anthrax tests off the coast of Scotland. The island is still contaminated and uninhabitable. He also spoke on a new American product made from soy oil, a detergent and a hydrocarbon solvent that destroys anthrax spores. It is non-toxic and even edible. A full description can be found on the http://www.rense.com using word search on "anthrax".
Pero…spoke on an article from a German magazine. It was about three engineers that went to the Philippines to see Daniel Dingle and his "Water Car". They drove it and engineeringly verified that it was indeed running on water. They queried Daniel, saying that it could not(scientifically) work. Daniel replied that it was not running on Hydrogen. It was running on a form of ELF that he called cosmic energy. (Typical average academics. They can not accept the concept of anything new if they have not previously learnt about it at university.)
Dinah on the latest "Popular Mechanics" magazine. The front page depicted an "E" Bomb, with a full two page article on it inside. It was described as "the ultimate terrorist weapon". Basically, it is a coil of wire, with an explosive charge inside. The explosive is detonated simultaneously as a heavy electric charge is dumped into the coil. This produces an intense electromagnetic pulse that is virtually unshieldable because of the super high frequencies produced can penetrate anything. These EMF pulses destroy any electronics within a considerable range.
Rob…discussed negative ions and their effect on the human body. He was at the Grampian West waterfalls and described how he got very tired climbing around. He said that the negative ions created by the waterfalls charged him up and gave him a great energy boost.
Nina…discussed long Q T Syndrome and its affect on the heart by lengthening the period of the heartbeat.

Robert thanked everyone for their inputs and invited us all to supper.

Until next meeting

PeterP

DISCLAIMER:  All information given in this newsletter is for educational purposes only.  No claims are made on or for the validity or correctness of the material provided.  ASTRO S.A. Incorporated accepts no responsibility for any mishaps or accidents incurred by any persons utilising this information.