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Home Made Bilge/Boat Pump from PVC Pipe

Not sure if I ever showed this before, we've had some rain over the last month and its been getting a work out emptying our two moored boats. It's quite relaxing being out of bed in one of the boats at 2.00am working this pump in the pitch black

I've been meaning to make a steam accessory pump on the same principle, but still haven't gotten around to it yet -

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It’s amazing how well that works! You need to make a toy version identical to it 

Its a really simple flapper valve mechanism Nick.

Though not quite the same, I have several "gravel suckers" that I use for prospecting, panning and sluicing, that work on pretty much the same principle, though they don't possess a flapper valve to exchange water from the lower to the upper chambers. On my suckers, it is just a partial vacuum pump that pulls in and holds momentarily, then expels out the same way it came in, whether through simple gravity, or with quite a bit of force by plunging, if desired. Works very well once you get the hang of it and the timing of the "pause" at the top of the stroke, before the contents of the sucker start falling out. Quite impressive the amount of material one of these is capable of moving, and yes, I have often found gold using them!

I have also used a very similar device to "pump" sand from the bottom of a shallow well, which does make use of a flapper "foot" valve to allow disturbed material from the bottom of the well to get trapped above the "valve" and thus is able to be extracted from the well.

As Jan says ... the basic principles behind this form of pump have been known and used for Millennia, both on land and at sea!

Yes, would be stupid wouldn´t it?   

That gave me a good laugh Jürgen, thanks 

A beautiful example of how one used to achieve one's goal with the simplest of means. Today, expensive technology is often used for this.