[Scpg] How to make water go uphill

[Fitzsimmons, Mark A PWR]

You can buy ram pumps that use kinetic energy off moving water to drive
a pump that will push a smaller quantity of water uphill. The farther
you want to push it uphill, the more water you have to use to push the
smaller quantity up a hill. It cycles, letting the water build up speed,
then the "water hammer" as a valve slams shut drives water uphill. 

You can't beat the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Your professor may have
had a teacher that was either trying to get others in his thrall, or
genuinely believed he could do impossible things, or never did careful
measurements of elevation to verify water was truly going uphill. He may
also have simply had a siphon and didn't really understand what it was
doing. Water will go uphill short distances through capillary action 

 http://www.clemson.edu/irrig/Equip/ram4.htm

http://www.theramcompany.com/do4u.html "Generally with a ratio of 1-foot
drop to 10-foot lift, your pump will deliver approximately 15 to 20
percent of the water that it uses."

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question318.htm


In addition to ram pumps, you can use a water turbine to run a
centrifugal pump, or a water turbine to generate electricity and use the
electricity to pump uphill. If you use a water turbine (or wind turbine)
directly connected to a smaller pump to pump water uphill, you can use
any kind of pump that will operate at the speed your turbine wants to
spin with the load on it. If I had unreliable water flow, (or almost
none at all, but some standing water available for the taking) I would
use an Archimedes screw, and maybe operate it using wind power instead
of water power.

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/W/AE_water_turbine.html 
 
http://h-hydro.com/turgo_drive.html
http://www.canyonhydro.com/Systems/Residential/Systems-Res.htm
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_hydro.html
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Hydro/hydro.htm


I think you can get water uphill a very short distance through capillary
action using wicks, but I'm not sure how far uphill you can get it to
go.

I've read that plowing straw into the ground will increase wicking
action to distribute water in soil.
Here is a science experiment that shows how water can wick uphill in
soil. I imagine that if you put down thin layers of straw then moist
soil, you might enhance this uphill wicking action.
http://nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/passeyv54p487.pdf

You can also get water to go uphill if you have a closed system where
the water can evaporate in a hotter area down low, travel through a pipe
or other air space to a higher and cooler part of the closed system and
re-condense at a higher elevation. This is how solar stills work , which
you can make from a sheet of plastic in a survival situation.



From: "eric humel" <ehumel at excite.com>

Hey everyone,
I was talking with a professor who had taught in the past with
permaculture teachers, and he thought some things sounded a little far
out.  He mentioned one teacher who said that he could make water go
uphill.  I couldn't defend this one, I thought it had to do something
with keyline and bringing water from the valleys to the ridges, but
'uphill'?  
Anyone remember the details on this one?

Thanks
Eric