Devices that use repeating transient confined liquid pressures (such as water hammer pressures) to do work (as defined in physics and having the same measurement units as energy, termed herein and throughout simply as “work”) have been in existence for over two centuries. The first appear to have been water hammer type pumps, known as ram pumps, that pump a portion of the water entering the pump to a higher elevation using the liquid transient pressures created within the pump. Ram pumps operate most efficiently where conditions of water flow and upstream water fall or head and downstream water lift are in suitable proportions. Further, ram pumps operate in rather limited circumstances and typically have a substantial waste flow component typically pumping only 10 to 25 percent of the water which enters the pumps and releasing the remaining 75 to 90 percent of the water to waste. Thus, ram pumps are notoriously inefficient in terms of the volume or flow of water needed for their operation in relation to the volume or flow of water actually pumped. Therefore, ram pumps are rarely used for pumping liquids other than water.