Posted on 05/25/2011 6:35:53 PM PDT by dynachrome
Spring Pole and Other Hand-Powered Drilling Rigs (Part 1)
Maybe they realized that the desperately-needed water was too far down to dig by hand, or maybe they got tired of burying friends and family killed digging deep wells. Whatever their motivation might have been, someone long ago began developing the means for drilling wells rather than digging them. Until the mid 19th century, the primary means of powering drilling machinery was by hand. The drilling rigs themselves were typically hand built from local materials and ranged from very simplistic rigs used to drill shallow wells to fairly complex systems capable of drilling over a thousand feet through hard rock. The work was steady, hard, and slow, but given enough time and effort this simple equipment could yield impressive results.
The spring-pole method of well drilling was widely utilized in the United States and Canada during the 19th century. Many “poor” oil men got their start by hammering out shallow oil wells with a simple hand-built, hand-powered, spring pole rig. Whether they were searching for oil, brine, or drinking water the simplicity of the spring-pole design allowed almost anyone with strong muscles to drill a well. Edgar Tuttle’s 1894 treatise on spring-pole drilling is considered to be the definitive work on the subject. Here it is presented in its entirety. The work has been reformatted and some editorial notes and additional illustrations added, but nothing has been taken away from Mr. Tuttle’s original work
(Excerpt) Read more at thejackline.blogspot.com ...
Interesting stuff for a shtf scenario
Of interest to your lists?
I used to work with a guy who had a hand operated water well drill tho I never saw it.
This was in Tidewater, Virginia so the water table might have been fairly high and he only used it to drill a well for watering his yard and garden.
He did use it successfully tho.
I sure wouldn't have wanted to drill wells by hand power it was hard enough with modren equipment.
I went to an old steam and/or diesel powered engine show a few years ago and they had a belt driven , steam powered drill set up. pretty cool.
I drilled a well in my backyard with PVC pipe and a water hose down to 50’. Water table is at 21’. Google “drill your own water well” and there is a website that explains everything. My pump won’t lift from that deep so I need to start again and use bigger pipe so I can use a jet pump. Of course, it would be useless without electricity so I am thinking about just putting a hand pump on it.
Bookmark
I teach water well drilling to villagers in the developing world using a hand powered auger. The first young man I taught in Kenya had done 260 wells between 1987 and 1996. He would charge about $120 to $150 to drill the well and install a home made PVC hand pump. These wells were usually 25 to 45 feet deep, occasionally going to 65 feet. Usually 3 to 10 families would use the well to get “Cleaner water, Closer water, More water”.
Some of my early students here in the US, Steve & Jennifer Lorch have really “taken the ball & run with it”. They have started HydroMissions, http://www.hydromissions.com/ to make & market well drilling kits.
If you need to hand drill through harder formations, see http://www.wellspringafrica.org/ for instruction on hand powered percussion drilling.
EMAS in Bolivia http://www.emas-international.de/index.php?id=32&L=3
have an excellent series of videos on how to make the PVC pumps. http://vimeo.com/8365884
The mission I belong to teaches well drilling, pump repair, BioSand water filters and many other things at our training center in Marion, NC. http://www.equipinternational.com/training-courses/ati-water-well-drilling.htm
This shameless plug has been brought to you by BwanaNdege.
Here’s a brief video of the young man showing a well he made near Kitale, Kenya.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4629383911705480631#
Helping people in poor countries obtain better water supplies and learn to apply basic engineering skills is a truly noble use of your time. I don't need to tell you that though, I'm sure you can see the gratitude on the faces of the new well owners.
Bttt
IIRC, the first thing new settlers would do was drill a well for brine because salt was such an important commodity. Finding oil was a nuisance.
“I’m sure you can see the gratitude on the faces of the new well owners.”
W.E. Deming is fond of quoting Ecclesiastes 3:22 “Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works”.
That is good, but I prefer 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
It is a lot of fun and very rewarding. In 1996 I went back to the first well we had done, taking along some of the African pastors who were students in my General Science class at a local seminary. As we walked down the path to the homestead all the children were calling “Mzungu, mzungu” (”Whiteman, whiteman”) thereby setting the bush telegraph in motion.
When we were about 100 yards from the home with the well, the mother-in-law of Christopher (the well owner) came out of her hut saying, “We praise God for this well!”
Another 50 yards and the next door neighbor lady came out of her hut saying, “We praise God for this well!”
Finally we came to Christopher’s hut where, (you guessed it) his wife came out of her hut saying, “We praise God for this well!”
“GOOD” I thought, “This is why we do this!”
1 Cor 10:31b “...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”
Christopher said that between 3 and 10 families used the well at various times, pumping up to 1000 liters per day. He had to replace the “cup leather” every 6 to 12 months, but that was about it. “No more stomach worms!” was his grinning comment.
Simple things often can be a great blessing to the people we meet in life. God delights in putting smiles on our faces via the gifts He gifts us to pass along to others.
“teach a man to fish...” I taught an Indian pastor in Tamil Nadu state to drill wells & make pumps. A month after I returned home, I received a letter from him saying, We’ve completed four more wells!”
Lots of fun!
Use a submersible pump—cost about 70 bucks.
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