Trompe

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For the illusionary art technique, see Trompe-l'œil.

A trompe is a water-powered air compressor, commonly used before the advent of the electric-powered compressor. A trompe is like an airlift pump working in reverse.

Trompes were used to provide compressed air for blast furnaces in Spain and the USA.[1]

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.[2]

Trompes can be enormous. At Ragged Chute in Canada water falls down a shaft 351 feet (105 metres) deep and nine feet (2.7 m) across to generate compressed air for mining equipment and ventilation.[3]

[edit] Operation

Trompes are very simple devices that consist of a vertical pipe or shaft going down to a separation chamber, a pipe coming away from that chamber to allow the water to exit at a lower level, and another pipe coming from the chamber to allow the compressed air to exit as needed.

Water rushing down the vertical pipe sucks air with it, and as the air goes down the pipe it gets pressurized. The compressed air gets trapped in the separation chamber for use as a power source.

Trompes were typically situated at high waterfalls so that plenty of power was avalilable. The Ragged Chute plant on the Montreal River near the town of Cobalt, Ontario, is a trompe and tourist attraction. It is now owned by Canadian Hydro and exists beside a modern hydroelectric plant.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bond, A. Russel (1939). The Story of Mechanics. New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, 90–93. 
  2. ^ Bell, Louis (1901). Electric Power Transmission: A Practical Treatise for Practical Men. New York: Electrical World and Engineer. 
  3. ^ http://www.cobalt.ca/ragged_chutes.htm
  4. ^ http://www.cobalt.ca/ragged_chutes.htm

[edit] External links