Hydraulic ram water pump

Also look at how jet pumps work on the venturi effect. Very simpley constructed to move a enormous amouts of water.

Also look at undershot water wheels for a huge torque gain from a small 6ft diameter wheel. That in turn could drive a air compressor that can pump water via the venturi effect.

Need more torque, look at overshot water wheels.

Ram pumps are nice but slow to produce volume or over come a large static head.

T_Bone

What you need to have is some loss in elevation on your stream, in order to give the water at your ram pump some pressure and flow. The ram pump captures some of the energy of the flowing water to compress the air in the pump air chamber and, with the action of the check valves, that air forces some of the water in the pump into the outlet of the pump. A hydraulic ram only pumps a small fraction of the water in the pump out the outlet and the rest is returned to the stream. But a ram, with its slow but steady action and no need for any energy besides the flowing water can move a bunch of water over time.

I think my brother got his information about the hydraulic ram out of an old issue of The Mother Earth News Magazine. Although Mother Earth News is not anything like it was in those days, a company still publishes a magazine of the same name and may well have the rights to the information in the old magazines. You might want to contact TMEN. Also some of the old magazines come up for sale at used book stores. Or like anything else, on eBay.

I have always found hydraulic ram pumps very interesting and a clever idea. But they only work if your site is correct for how they work. Good luck.

there are still companies that make them

john