[Pil-pc-oceania] A World Powered by Trompes

[Robyn Williamson]

Tamara is right, the air pressure and horsepower created by trompes can  
be increased or decreased by altering the length and diameter of the  
intake shaft and by changing the volume of water entering.

The world's only remaining trompe, or hydraulic air compressor, was  
built in 1910 at Ragged Chutes near Ontario, Canada.  Although it has  
supplied up to a dozen mines with thousands of cubic metres of  
compressed air per month in its lifetime, it was only ever closed twice  
for major repairs.  Here is the link for more information:

http://www.cobalt.ca/ragged_chutes.htm

According to the following article published in the July/August 1977  
issue of Mother Earth News, hydro-electric engineers treat the Ragged  
Chutes trompe with disdain because - except for a simple flow valve -  
there are no moving parts.  I assume that means no jobs for  
hydro-electric engineers.  In addition, trompes do not rely on  
computers, don't make any noise and don't pollute the environment.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Alternative-Energy/1977-07-01/Harness- 
Hydro-Power-with-a-Trompe.aspx

The links and information quoted above were retrieved from Wikipedia  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe however no references or sources  
are cited and help is requested to expand it.

Robyn Williamson

> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:47:21 +0000
> From: "tamara griffiths"
> No figures, sorry, but his lecture on them was very good.
> If the fall of the water is deep enough, then the psi would be higher?
>
> T


> Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:24:50 +1000
> From: "Laurence Gaffney" <l.gaffney at bigpond.com>
>
> On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:05:07 Tamara Griffiths wrote:-
> "Biodiesel is not necessary in a world powered by trompes."
>
> As previously suggested some flesh on the bones of these claims  
> together with some supportive evidence/references would be good.
>
> Laurence Gaffney
>
> Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:44:26 +1000
> From: "Laurence Gaffney"
> Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] Bill's second and final
> installment/Compressed Air
>
> Bill Mollison said:-
> "Given a modest stream and a trompe, or successive trompes, very large  
> quantities of compressed air can be stored. In 1930, all cars, trams,  
> trains, and cool rooms in Paris and Chicago, were supplied by miners  
> with trompes, operated on compressed air. Light motor vehicles with 7  
> to 10 h.p.slide valve steam engines with a working pressure of 40  
> p.s.i., could travel 100 or more kilometres on 2 cubic feet of air at  
> 1500 p.s.i. held in a drawn-steel cylinder below the seat."
>
> These sentences are difficult (for me) to comprehend.
> My understanding is that Trompes may be able to produce significant  
> quantities of compressed air but only at low pressure. As far as I  
> know they are not capable of compressing air to 1500psi.
> Wouldn't a light motor vehicle running off compressed air require an  
> Air Motor rather than a Steam Engine?
> Alternatively wouldn't a Steam Engine probably require on board  
> storage of water rather than on board air storage?
> The vehicle range stated (100km) reminds me of the Air Car   
> (http://www.theaircar.com/) as touted by Tim Flannery in his book "The  
> Weather Makers" which has I think been a topic on this list previously  
> and is considered a scam by many.
>
> Some references/evidence for Bill's numbers would be good.
>
> confused
>
> Laurence Gaffney
>