Uphill River Siphoning Array Apparatus

Abstract

Two or more siphon pipes positioned in successively-higher containers of water to raise water or other liquids up higher than the maximum 10-meter rise for a single siphon by means of the successively-higher containers each holding a bell-shaped, open-bottom structure which will capture a bubble of air and prevent the air bubble from rising to the top of the water surface, and each of which is about ten meters higher than the previous container, without pumping the water or other liquid with a water pump.

Claims

1: An open-bottom underwater air bubble structure that will hold a bubble of air so that it cannot escape and rise to the surface of the body of water in which it is sunk and which is open to the water below it so that water can flow from a pipe output into the air bubble, and so that when that water exits the pipe, it will encounter only the lesser pressure of the air bubble, and then drop to the open-water floor of the air bubble where it will be absorbed by the water held down by the air bubble, and raise the level of water up above the top of the bell so that another siphon or several more siphons can, after being primed by an external pump, raise the water level above the level in the water in the container by about ten meters for each further siphon.

2: Two or more siphon pipes positioned to raise water or other liquids up higher than the 10-meter rise for a single siphon by means of successive containers each of which is about ten meters higher than the previous container without pumping the water or other liquid with a water pump.

Description

VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] FIG. 1 is a side view of the three siphons raising water by raising the water from container 1 to container 2 to container 3 to container 4.

[0050] FIG. 2 is a Wikipedia view of an upper beaker with a siphon tube capable of raising water up and out of the upper beaker and siphoning that water to the lower beaker.

[0051] FIG. 3 is a Wikipedia view of the false chain analogy of the siphon action.

[0052] FIG. 4 is a Wikipedia view of an upper beaker with a wide siphon tube capable of raising water up and out of the upper beaker and siphoning that water to the lower beaker via a thinner tube.

[0053] FIG. 5 is a side view of the mechanism by which the water that has been raised by a siphon action can also flow horizontally-perhaps for kilometersbefore it arrives at the next water-raising siphon.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0054] 1. It has never been obvious to anyone to link many siphons together to raise water higher than the 10-meter capability of only one siphon. [0055] 2. It has never been obvious to anyone to build structures to create air bubbles in the water in a container so that water can freely flow out of the lower end of any siphon.

[0056] The Wikipedia explanation, above, discloses the unpatented common knowledge, state of the prior art on siphons. Although water is capable of flowing out of the output opening of the pipe directly into the lower level beaker, it is conceivable that some embodiments of the pipe would encounter water pressure at the lower beaker level that is greater than the pressure of air in a bubble. To avoid that pressure, Inventor Stauffer claims an open-bottom underwater air bubble structure (X, Y and Z in FIG. 1) that is open to the water below it so that the water flowing from the pipeline output (D, I and N in FIG. 1) can encounter only the lesser pressure of the air bubble, and then drop to the open-water floor of the air bubble where it will be absorbed by the water held down by the air bubble. Although the water could simply flow directly into the water, it is a more practical model to have an air bubble which will allow the unimpeded (by the surrounding water pressure) flow of the pipeline's water out of the output. The speed of the underwater flow that is created by the gravity-driven waterfall from the siphon input (A, E, J and O in FIG. 1) to points C, I and N in FIG. 1 will not be impeded if there is an air bubble output port that allows the water to flow into a bubble of air created by a bell under the water, rather than directly into the higher pressure of the water surrounding each bell.

Inventor Stauffer claims the following utility, as per 35 U.S.C. 101:

[0057] Inventor Stauffer's most innovative and revolutionary part of his invention is his submerged bell-shaped enclosure that holds a bubble of air so that it cannot escape and rise to the surface of the body of water in which it is sunk. The Examiner will be unable to find any prior art or any prior apparatuses that are constructed with an oxygen-containing, bell-shaped-open-at-the-bottom structure. The Examiner may be able to find submarine-like apparatuses that hold air inside a fully-enclosed structure, but he won't find any submarines with their floor cut off so that, if human beings were inside that cut-off submarine, they would be standing on, or sinking into, the ocean water below the cut-off submarine. Inventor Stauffer's open-bottom bell differs from a submarine in that Stauffer's bell is not designed to hold human beings that breathe the air in the bell. Inventor Stauffer's bell is merely a structure to capture the relatively low pressure (14.5 lbs. per square inch) of the air inside Inventor Stauffer's bell so that the water that is at the top of Inventor Stauffer's tubes will flow, after being primed, into the lower pressure of the bells and then, because water is heavier than air, fall to the bottom of the bell and mix with the other water at the bottom of the bell. Inventor Stauffer's invention works because of gravity and the water pressure difference between the top and the bottom of his underwater tube.

[0058] No other person has ever thought of a need to sink an open-bottom bell structure down into a body of water. People have fashioned diving suits with hoods that hold air so that humans can swim at lower water depths. They have invented submarines so that humans can travel under water to conduct warfare. However, no person other than Inventor Stauffer has ever thought to trap a big bubble of air that is not intended to be breathed by human beings, but rather, is intended to provide a low-pressure chamber into which water can splash and then, fall to the water at the bottom of the bell.

[0059] Like those huge elevated water tanks that cities use to elevate water so the water can run, by the force of gravity, down to all the house garden hoses in the city, Inventor Stauffer's tube, once the tube flow has been primed, will send its water down the tube and into the large bell holding the air bubble, and will flow, by the force of gravity, continuously down the tube, and into the bell of air and then fall to the water belowand the air in the bell will never be totally displaced.

[0060] Remarkably, nobody has ever thought of this serial arrangement of siphons and containers that gradually raise the level of the water-ten meters at a time. Nevertheless, it is an easily-observable scientific certainty. It will work and have the utility that Inventor Stauffer has claimed for his invention. The Examiner will engage in a futile effort if he tries to find some other example of where the invention has worked. Nobody has ever thought of it nor invented it before Inventor Stauffer. So the Examiner will not find any previous examples or patents on the invention and therefore, Inventor Stauffer is entitled to a patent on his novel and useful invention.

[0061] It is also obvious that the pressure on the top of anything standing inside the bell is only the force of gravity (14.5 lbs. per square inch). This is easily observable by looking at sailors in submarines. The only pressure the sailors feelregardless of how deep the submarine may gois the force of gravity or 14.5 lbs. per square inch. The sailors are protected from feeling the tremendous weight of the water above them by the roof of the submarine over their headjust like the top of Inventor Stauffer's bell protects the bubble of air from the weight of the water above it. Hence, the weight of the water above Inventor Stauffer's bell does not stop the flow of water from Stauffer's tube. Just as in the elevated tanks that city water supplies use to distribute water to city houses, water will waterfall down from the top of Stauffer's tube and then go underneath Inventor Stauffer's bell and splash into the air pocket and then fall down to be absorbed by the water at the bottom of the bell.

[0062] Inventor Stauffer knew that if he created a difference of pressure from the high pressure at the top end of his tube to the lower pressure at the bottom end of his tube, then, like a mountain river, water would flow from the top to the bottom of his tube. Inventor Stauffer conceived of the idea of using an open-bottom-end bell to create a lower-pressure chamber for the lower end of his tube and, at the same time, he used gravity and the weight of water to create the higher pressure at the top of his tube to push the water down his tube, starting at the higher end of the tube. When constructed and primed to start the flow of water, the water will continually flow from the higher pressure area to the lower pressure area. Inventor Stauffer is entitled to a patent on this novel invention.