posted 5 years ago
If you're in a situation where your siphon hose is flexible enough to pinch closed with your fingers, you can drop one end into the quantity of liquid to be siphoned, form a pinch seal with your fingers above the fluid level, and slide the pinch towards the "out" end of the siphon hose. If necessary, the end of the tube can be blocked after the pinch seal gets to the end, so that you can start again from the same point, but it really shouldn't take more than one go if you have enough drop on the "out" end of the hose.
I saw a bicycle-powered water pump operating in exactly the same way, except with a moving triangle inside a circular track containing a section of hose forming consecutive seals, moving the water in increments the size of the length of tube between pinch points.
-CK
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein