[amluto]

I should perhaps clarify. Filling the pipe with air is unhelpful. The pump (or at least the wet part of the pump) on the surface is actively counterproductive — pumps are much, much, much better at producing high output pressure than at producing suction, and you can’t suck very hard on water anyway until it boils.

Almost all modern “deep well” pumps are at the bottom of the well, and a 50 foot well is “deep” for this purpose.

[impossiblefork]

Ah, yes. I understand now.

So you propose basically pumping into the return pipe from some kind of membrane chamber and making it as on the surface-- just lift the pressure away.

Ah. Yes, then the air pipe I imagined serves no function, and presumably these real machines that are discussed in the article are of the sort you describe.