Update on an 1800's invention

About 3 years ago I was contacted by a professor in the Sudbury area who was working on a project to feed air into the mines. They were looking at adapting my great grandfathers air compressor design to reduce energy.

The other day I received the news that it is now going ahead

Hydraulic air compressor project has green light

February 23, 2016
by NORM TOLLINSKY
In: TECHNOLOGY

Forgotten technology to produce compressed air at a fraction of the cost of conventional compressor plants

A $3.5 million demonstration project aimed at reintroducing a technology used to produce compressed air in Northern Ontario’s Cobalt mining camp more than 100 years ago is scheduled to commence operation by mid-June.

A closed circuit hydraulic air compressor will be constructed in an abandoned 17-metre ventilation shaft at the former Big Nickel Mine, a tourist attraction that is now part of Dynamic Earth, a geoscience centre in Sudbury operated by Science North.

The demonstration project will be modeled on the Ragged Chutes hydraulic air compressor plant designed by Canadian engineer Charles Havelock Taylor in 1910. The Ragged Chutes plant included a dam on the Montreal River and a 9.5-foot diameter shaft blasted to a depth of 107 metres. Intake pipes at the top of the shaft introduced air into the water as it plunged down the shaft. The force of the water compressed the air, which was then piped to a dozen mines to provide pneumatic power.

Ragged Chutes required no fuel, cost almost nothing to operate and ran continuously for 70 years with two brief interludes for maintenance.

Funding for the demonstration project is being provided by the Ontario government’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, the Ontario Electricity Independent System Operator and the Ultra Deep Mining Network (UDMN), a federal government supported Business-Led Networks Centers of Excellence program managed by the Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation.

http://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/hydraulic-air-compressor-project-has-green-light.html

To say I am excited would be an understatement as I have advocated for the rejuvenation of his designs for years.....