What is this artifact, long standing on River Street in
Grantsville?
Dick Morris says "Harry Holiday once told me that pump was the old Grantsville water pump that supplied water for part of town and the old mill that use to be on River Street near that location. I can vaguely remember the mill building as a young kid. I donât know when it was demolished or who owned it. Harry owned several lots and houses on Mill Street, Jenny and I rented one of his houses when we were first married before I left for the service."
Dave Brown says it's a pump and pump-jack combo.
"The right side has the opening/hookup for connection to a delivery pipe. Without closer examination I can't tell, but suspect there was leather pump mechanism in the center part of the upright."
"It looks 'sealed' at the top although I cannot quite tell from the photo. This likely is a 'pressure' pump that would push water a fair height/distance."
"Depending the depth of the well, also likely would have had a pump cylinder located down into the well with a 'sucker-rod' operating it."
James Dennison wrote:
I believe the artifact is a pumping jack for a single well that was connected to a long series of pumping jacks by means of a cable that was operated by one engine as opposed to having an engine on each well. I believe an example of this can be seen at the Cairo hardware store. You could have one engine and pump as many wells as you could connect to the cable thereby having only one engine to start and pull maintenance on. The shaft that sticks out of the side of it probably had a wheel or pulley of some sort that operated with the cable.
The pumping brought oil and water to the top and allowed the gas to flow better. When the oil and water got to the tank from the line and was allowed to set for a few days, the water went to the bottom and the oil to the top. The water could then be drained off the bottom of the tank.
Have an idea? email bob@hurherald.com
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