Posted by Tom Napier on August 10, 2013 at 12:00:21 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Re: Plumbing posted by Peter Ceresole on August 10, 2013 at 11:06:16:
For the benefit of any electronics buffs around, the hydraulic ram is the exact equivalent of the common fly-back DC-DC converter. In that device a current passes to ground through an inductor. When the current is switched off, a high-voltage pulse appears across the inductor. (The current in an inductor, like the flow of water through a pipe, can't change suddenly.) Depending on the load, this can produce either a high-voltage output at a low current or a low-voltage output at a high current. The ram's valves act as the switching transistor and output diode while the air reservoir behaves as the output smoothing capacitor.
Just thought I'd mention it.