the ejector is only two and a half inches in diameter, the steam pipe one inch in diameter.  To fully charge the pumps at this point required filling the pump casing and the suction pipe containing about 2,000 gallons; this was accomplished in four minutes, and when the gauge glass was full the pump operated instantly and with certainty, discharging its full volume of water.

“I went on several occasions down in the valve pits on the ladder of the casing, and to all accessible parts while in motion at its highest speed, and there was no undue vibration, only a uniform murmur of well-balanced parts, and the peculiar clash of water against the sides of the casing as its velocity was checked by the blank spaces in the runner.

“The pumps are noisy while at work, due to the clashing of the water just mentioned, but it affords a means of detecting any faulty arrangements of the runner or unequal discharge from any of its openings.  While moving at a uniform speed, this clashing has a tone whose pitch corresponds with that velocity of discharge, and if this tone is lacking in quality, or at all confused, there is want of equality of discharge through the various openings of the runner.  To this part I gave close attention, and there was nothing that the ear could detect to indicate aught but the nicest adjustment.  The bearings of the runners worked with great smoothness, and did not become at all heated.  Through a simple, novel arrangement, these bearings are lubricated and kept cool.  There is a constant circulation of water from the pumps by means of a small pipe, which completes a circuit to an annular in the bearings back to the discharge pipe while the pump is in motion, requiring no oil and making it seemingly impossible to heat these bearings.

“The large cast steel valves placed in the embouchement of the casing, it was thought, might act to check the free discharge, and arrangements were provided for raising and keeping them open by a long lever key attached to their axes of revolution, but, to our great surprise, at the first gush from the pumps these valves, weighing nearly 1,500 pounds, were lifted into their recessed chambers, giving an unobstructed opening to the flow, and they floated on its surface unsupported, save by the swiftly flowing water, without a movement, while the pump was in operation.

     “The steam-actuated valves in the suction and discharge pipes
     worked very well, and the water cushion gave a slow, uniform
     motion, and without shock, either in opening or closing them.

     “The engines worked noiselessly, without shock or labor.  At
     no time during the trial was the throttle valve open more
     than three-eighths of an inch.