Trompe. A Catalan forge trompe A trompe is a water-powered gas compressor, commonly used before the advent of the electric-powered compressor.
A trompe is somewhat like an airlift pump working in reverse. Trompes were used to provide compressed air for bloomery furnaces in Catalonia[1] and the USA.[2] The presence of a trompe is a signature attribute of a Catalan forge, a type of bloomery furnace. In Paris they were used for a time to compress air to drive the city's first electricity generation scheme, and in the Alps they were used in France and Switzerland to provide compressed air for early alpine tunnels.[3] Trompes can be enormous.
Operation[edit] Trompes are very simple devices. Water rushing down the vertical pipe falls through a constriction. The Trompe - An Almost Forgotten Air Compression System. The simple, yet brilliant, Trompe A Trompe (also spelled Trombe) is a water powered air compressor system.
This simple device was used for hundreds of years to produce compressed air for furnaces, mining equipment, ventilation systems, and even for air conditioning and ice production. Trompes were almost entirely replaced when fossil fuels, with their high energy potential, came into more general use at the beginning of the twentieth century (I believe the only large scale Trompe still in use is at the Ragged Chute plant on the Montreal River in Ontario, Canada). Unfortunately, the knowledge of these systems has been almost completely forgotten. At this time of increasing energy prices and likely post-peak oil, this is the type of information that needs to be shared and implemented. The Trompe - An Almost Forgotten Air Compression System. TROMPE - Powered Passive Aeration of Mine Water. Thursday December 12, 2013 (Revision of video posted Tuesday, June 18, 2013) PITTSBURGH, PA — In the 1600s, Italian engineers discovered a way to compress air using only gravity and water.
Later on, Spanish engineers working on ways to improve iron production, realized this technique could be used to drive their tools. In the 20th century, modern engineers realized the advantages of using the same device to drive tools used in underground mining while also supplying fresh air to miners. However, the device called a "trompe," which had remained in use for hundreds of years, faded from use because of the advent of internal combustion power and the ready availability of electricity. Until now. On June 18, 2013, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's Applied Sciences and Technology Transfer Program introduced a new project that uses a modern version of the ancient technology to clean up pollution from 20th-century mining. Both trompe sites are showing promising results. Patent US950082 - Utilizing heat energy. - Google Patents. Patented Feb. 22, 1910.
M Xx .m u n asses.- w. H. Patented Feb. 191 5 BHEETS-fiHEET 3. in van or.- ovvwmg fi. wifz wsaes: APPLIUATION FILED mac. 11,1902. Patented Feb.22,1910. In Illi- Q), lI-I. a l: I - invenfir: wifnesses: l j l t 1 u. 1. a-.. Speeificati-Jn'ot Letters Patent. Harness Hydro Power with a Trompe - Renewable Energy. The trompe.
Its use dates back to the beginning of the Iron Age, and yet — like many good ideas involving the manufacture of power — the trompe concept has been all but forgotten in the recent stampede to mine, refine, and consume readily exploitable supplies of fossil fuels. For the homesteader or farmer with a small waterfall or a good-sized stream on his property, the trompe is a natural. It offers a virtually inexhaustible supply of free compressed air ... cool, dry air that can be used to operate a forge, drive machinery, or aircondition a house or barn in hot weather. What exactly is a trompe?
Very simply, a trompe (sometimes spelled trombe) is a device that uses the energy of falling water to pressurize air. Many large-scale trompes — or hydraulic air compression plants — were built at the turn of the century to supply mines with fresh air. At Ragged Chutes, water falls down a shaft 351 feet deep and nine feet across to generate the compressed air that supplies the area's mines. Pulser pump. I give permission to reuse and adapt any and all pictures and animated gifs that I have produced in the past for this project.
Brian White, 3rd May 2010 Diagram of a Pulser Pump The pulser pump is a simple, water powered mechanical device, also known as a bubble pump. Components of this pump have been used for various purposes, including the extraction of oil or in refrigeration cycles. Heat driven bubble pumps are most common, but this particular design of a pulser pump using the turbulent flow in a stream to trap air has yet to become common. [edit] Background Information [edit] Overview.