Originally Posted by
danensis
I'm just skimming through some of the older threads, and found this one, and couldn't see that anyone had answered the question.
I read up quite a lot about hydraulic power when we were looking to use some of the ducts of the London Hydraulic Company to run fibre optics cables along.
Many buildings used hydraulic power for hoists, lifts and loading ramps. In the docks it was used for lock gates, sluices and pumps. Water was pumped around the system at around 100 p.s.i, and if a pipe ruptured you got a very impressive fountain, and a big hole in the road!
The accumulators were basically water towers, the water was pumped up to the top by steam pumps, and the height gave it the pressure. If the pumps stopped for any reason, there was enough water in the accumulator to keep things running for a while until another pump was brought online.
John