The socket, a lightweight chunk of carbon fibre or plastic, must be moulded so flawlessly to the athlete as to create a vacuum around the stump.

Slowly push the plunger down to create a vacuum over the hole.

This would create a vacuum that would pull more of the steam into the cylinder, and so on until the steam was mostly condensed.

After the cylinder was cooled to create the vacuum, the cylinder walls were cold enough to condense some of the steam as it was admitted.

In this design, the suction of the pump motor lifts the diaphragm to create a vacuum within the collection system to extract milk.