Abstract: The barrel pump has at the lower end of its housing wall a sliding sleeve which--in the open position--exposes the inlet openings at the lower end of the housing wall and--in the closed position--in which it rests against a base plate, closes these inlet openings. The base plate projects in the radial direction beyond the housing wall and, consequently, closes the pump from below. Penetration by the liquid can, hence, only occur through the inlet openings provided on the periphery of the housing wall of the pump. Displacement of the sliding sleeve takes place in that at the underside of the sliding sleeve pressure pieces are provided, which in the close position project beyond the base plate downward and upon the pump being placed down due to the weight of the pump acting downward are displaced upward against the action of a spring acting on the sliding sleeve which frees the sliding sleeve from its sealing contact on the base plate and, consequently, permits entrance of the liquid through the inlet openings.

Abstract: The pump, specifically, barrel pump, can be equipped with exchangeable impellers (8, 8'), which can be screwed onto the lower end of the drive shaft (9). One impeller (8) is designed as an axial impeller, while the other impeller (8') is designed as a radial impeller. The radial impeller needs as intake orifice (37), which is easily exchangeable inside the pump foot. So that both impellers can be installed into otherwise identical pumps, it is necessary to select a larger distance between the impeller and the guide wheel in the case of the radial impeller than in the case of the axial impeller and to furnish the guide wheel with commensurately longer guide blades, which have, at the connection with the forward curved section, a long straight area parallel to the axis. Furthermore, the transportation channel inside the guide wheel is narrowed at the beginning and widens in the course of the axial flowthrough.

Abstract: A method for the manufacture of containers from glass tubes, particularly ampules, in which container blanks coming from a production machine are delivered intermittently and successively to processing stations arranged along a conveying route and reshaped and processed therein in successive operations. Each container blank is individually grasped immediately after its delivery from the production machine and is held rotatably about its lengthwise axis during processing in the processing stations. The container blanks may be transferred after being grasped to a position pointing their open ends downward, possibly in a vertical direction. The arrangement may provide for the stepwise conveyance of the container blanks, through clamping devices for holding a container blank on one end, with the blanks moving along the processing stations. These clamping units may be chucks with one or more leaf springs.