Endorsement of a Hydraulic Ram, 27 September 1805
Endorsement of a Hydraulic Ram
LAPOYPE’S HYDRAULIC RAM.
A friend of Mr. Lapoype has requested the insertion of the following certificates—
I hereby certify, that I attended an experiment made with the Hydraulic Ram of Mr. Lapoype, that with a descending tube of 1 inch diameter and 4 feet long, it threw from 1 12th to 1 16th of the water 22 feet above the reservoir—and am satisfied, had it not been for the leaking pipes affixed to it, it would have thrown the water much higher. I am so well satisfied of the effect of this machine, and pleased with the simplicity of its construction, that I have had one made for myself to be placed under the eaves of the house, to catch the rain water from them, and throw up a sufficient portion of it into the cistern on the top of the house as a resource in case of fire.
Given under my hand at Monticello, this 27th of Sept. 1805.
Th: Jefferson.
Printed in Virginia Argus, 16 Nov. 1805.
this machine: Joseph Michel Montgolfier’s hydraulic pump was designed to raise water. An individual named La Poype, who had experimented with the machine in France and visited Monticello along with Philippe Reibelt in September, offered demonstrations of Montgolfier’s pump in Richmond and Baltimore during the fall (Montgolfier, De l’utilité du belier hydraulique [Paris, 1805; No. 1103]; Federal Gazette and Baltimore Daily Advertiser, 27 Nov.; New York Morning Chronicle, 11 Jan. 1806; TJ to Reibelt, 19 Oct.).
Probably when he met La Poype and wrote the testimonial printed above, TJ copied a set of instructions from Montgolfier to La Poype for construction of the apparatus, which was intended to draw water from a waterfall (“chute d’eau”). The innovative part of the pump, called a ram’s head, required the skills of a fountain maker. The instructions, which covered almost three pages of dense text, discussed the pump’s essential components, including the ram’s head, a copper ring, spigot, and smaller pipe connecting to or within the ram’s head, a longer pipe of copper, lead, or cast iron that was to be three times the height of the waterfall and that connected the ram’s head with a hollow copper or lead sphere, and a lead delivery pipe that connected to the air chamber of the ram’s head. Two valves in the ram’s head regulated the flow of water. Components of the ram’s head could be separated and screwed back together with an iron key. The instructions also included the calculations necessary for determining the length of the main pipe and a set of questions that a user would need to answer, such as the height of the waterfall, the capacity of the waterway, and the amount of water needed for irrigation (DLC: TJ Papers, ser. 9; in TJ’s hand, in French; at head of text: “Belier hydraulique. Notes de Mongolfier a M. Poype”; see TJ to James Oldham, 16 Nov.).