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syphon piston
when you don't have a pump handy (and you don't want to use your mouth) | |
Syphons are a great way to empty vessels in a controlled manner.
To get a syphon working you need to partially fill the syphon.
There are several ways of doing this: sucking with your mouth, using a simple hand pump, or submersing the syphon in the liquid and blocking one end which is then removed
and placed at a lower level.
sometimes none of these options are available.
A simple method of filling the syphon would be with a piston. The piston is inserted at one end of the syphon and a string is thread through the syphon to the other end. To fill the syphon the end with the piston is placed in the vessel, the string is pulled and the piston sucks the water through the syphon.
The piston could be anything that makes a reasonable seal with the syphon but also slides easily. This could be an elastic ball with a greasy or teflon coating. This could even be something as simple as a cylindrical stack of woven fabric.
(?) Standard toilet cystern
http://www.darlingt...pairs/Overflows.htm
Scroll down. Syphon. Piston. [MaxwellBuchanan, May 12 2007]
Siphon tube starter
http://www.freepate...ne.com/4112963.html
Pretty darn close - has the piston in a separate cylinder, with a cone to seal against the siphon tube [lurch, May 13 2007]
[link]
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Baked. Widely known to exist. Widely
seen in bathrooms everywhere. |
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This is exactly how the majority of
lavatory cisterns work (at least until
recently - newer designs differ). When
you pull the chain or press the lever, a
loose-fitting disc is pushed or pulled up
the "up" leg of the siphon. It lifts a slug
of water over the top, and this is
enough to start the siphon. |
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Incidentally, this is why pulling the
chain or pressing the lever slowly on an
old-style loo won't work: the disc
doesn't seal very well, so it won't lift the
slug of water unless you do it quickly. |
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So, [m-f-d] widely known to exist. Or
at least very widely existing. |
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ah, so that's how a toilet cistern works. |
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I think the application of this idea is sufficiently novel not to warrant an mfd, but I'll let others decide. btw, if you genuinely want to mark it for deletion, you have to write it out in full. |
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I think the idea of pulling something through a long pipe on a piece of string is novel enough. I was thinking how useful this would be for syphoning petrol (gas). |
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some kind of umbrella type gizmo would improve this so that there is less resistance on the way down and a tighter fit on the way up. |
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Hmmm. I'm not sure about the mfd -
your invention is intended as a general
principal, so I think any particular
embodiment counts. So, I still suggest
[EDIT - mfd removed] but I am happy
to
leave it to a majority decision. |
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Re the umbrella gizmo, [po], some
cisterns incorporate something similar:
the piston (actually just a disc) has a
hinged portion like a trapdoor which
closes as the piston is raised, but can
open upwards to allow the following
flow of water. |
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Cunning people, sanitary engineers.
They may have been using nuclear
fusion cesspits for decades, for all I
know. |
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[MaxwellBuchanan], I fail to see how your toilet diagram mimics the form or use of the described device. Sure, it uses both the words "siphon" and "piston", and they're both attached to a tube, but there the similarity ends. I don't see the idea as a "general principle" idea at all, but a very specific product, with a specific description, which functions in a specific fashion that is different from how the diagrammed toilets work. Specifically, if nothing else, the use of a vacuum to pull the fluid through, rather than using the piston to "[lift] a slug of water over the top" (your words), i.e. positive pressure. |
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The idea is, as [Ling] described, "pulling something through a long pipe on a piece of string". Okay, it uses the siphon effect, but by your argument, we have to delete every internal combustion idea on this site, because they all use the general principle of IC, which is known to exist. |
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[5th] fair enough - like I said, I'm easy. |
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