View allAll Photos Tagged pump
The pumping station Lely is an electrically driven pumping station in 1930 and is still used to keep the Wieringermeer dry. The building was designed by Dirk Roosenburg.
A rusted water pump without a handle greets occasional visitors to this multi-faceted barn that has several additions to the original structure. Few youngsters today can identify with pumps like this and an older adult has to explain to them what purpose they served years ago.
Before we got electricity on our farm in 1949, our farm place had a couple of these and one of them was a shorter version standing on the edge of a white tin sink in our kitchen and was the source for water in our home. There was no switch on our kitchen pump and if you wanted a cool drink on a hot summer day you had to grab the handle and pump up and down until the pump “caught” and started to bring up water.
I was too young at the time to understand the physics behind how a pump could bring up water by simply pumping the handle but I learned not to feel badly about my ignorance as I realized my mother who was 38 at the time didn’t understand it either. She would often have to go outside and yell for my dad to come in and she would advise him the pump was dry probably needed new rings as it would not work anymore.
Dad would snort and find some water to pour down the pump shaft and then give the handle some strong action and it wasn’t long before water would once again gush out.
Our outside pump near the hog shed was another matter. Sometime my dad would have to start a small fire in the winter time to thaw it out before it would work. My older brothers who fancied themselves aspiring Red Skeleton comedians would encourage me to lick the pump handle, telling me the sub-zero winter temperatures made it taste sweet.
(Photographed near Stark, MN)
One of the few remaining water pumps that were dotted around London in the 19th Century.
Seen whilst in a rush to get somewhere else, I took a short-cut and there it was!
The Leawood Pump House was built near Cromford, Derbyshire, England in 1849 to supply water to the Cromford Canal, built some 50 years previously. It is a Grade II* listed building
Along Nancy Rhodes Creek, which flows into the Eno River, this abandoned station, built in 1887, supplied water to Durham, NC. Information about its history can be found at www.opendurham.org/buildings/durham-water-company-eno-riv....
Though these gas pumps are no longer in use, they provide a great glimpse back into a time many of us remember, when things seemed a lot simpler.
I can still recall the first time I saw a pump your own gas station in Michigan! They had yet to hit Florida, and I was amazed that people were allowed to fill their own tanks! Now it's hard to find a station where you DON'T.
This engine is one of a pair, I'm standing on the valve gantry of the opposing engine. Located at Kempton Park Pumping Station, Hanworth, Middlesex, UK. these engines are accessed at four levels. Beneath are the two pump floors out of shot. Operating on the triple expansion principal. Triple meaning the steam is used three times entering the high pressure cylinder first (RH), then into the intermediate cylinder (middle) and finally the low pressure cylinder (LH) before returning to the boiler via the condenser. I believe these are the largest working preserved triple expansion engines in the world. These give a feel for the size of the engines fitted in ill-fated RMS Titanic. Well worth a visit on steaming days. kemptonsteam.org/collection/triple-expansion-engines/
I found this building whilst scrabbling around in Crowgutter Woods. Not sure it's even a pump house! It contains some pipes and valves. That's the best way to describe it really!
IC 3115 and GTW 6224 lead L521 past the EJ&E era water tower pumphouse which still stands in Frankfort, IL on the CN Matteson Sub. February 2026
Happy Bench Monday! And, Happy 4th to my US Flickr friends! This nice old bench (one of 2) and very cool old gas pump are on the porch of what I think is an antique auto dealer in Mount Crawford (population 433). Virginia.