- Mar 25, 2007
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Our local plumber, who works mainly on newer homes, is confounded.
Background: Our house is 300 years old. Our barn is 150 years old. Many, many things came with the house. Some were in the barn. Some were in the yard. Some are clearly identifiable, such as outdated and half-rusted-through plough attachments for a pony- or donkey-pulled plough. Some are merely random parts of something-or-other that used to be iron. One identifiable part...mostly...is a hand pump for a well. This hand pump may be missing crucial parts for all I know; I know for sure it needs de-rust-ified and new gaskets and such in order to work.
Thing is, my well looks like this:
And above that spidery, hand-dug 30' hole is a pulley for a bucket. So, clearly the hand pump does not go with this particular well.
OK, so out in the barn there is a Mystery Pipe. Top of said pipe is rusted and broken off, but was obviously threaded once upon a time. Other end of pipe goes down through manure barn and into the ground. There's a sort of wooden box around the very bottom few feet, for what purpose I know not. This pipe is right up against the northern wall of the barn, with perhaps 3" clearance between it and the wall.
How likely do you think it is that Mystery Pipe is in fact a second well? How would I find out whether or not it is a well, and if so, how do I figure out how deep it goes and whether or not it is useable? If it's useable, I could clean up and refurbish this hand pump thingy for it, get the supply line re-plumbed, construct something to sort of guide the manure away from it. From the storylines in the newspaper wrapping the supply line in the manure barn, it appears to have been originally installed in the 1920s-1930s (Prohibition notices in the newspaper police blotter). Is there such a plumbing expert as an Antique Well Specialist?
Background: Our house is 300 years old. Our barn is 150 years old. Many, many things came with the house. Some were in the barn. Some were in the yard. Some are clearly identifiable, such as outdated and half-rusted-through plough attachments for a pony- or donkey-pulled plough. Some are merely random parts of something-or-other that used to be iron. One identifiable part...mostly...is a hand pump for a well. This hand pump may be missing crucial parts for all I know; I know for sure it needs de-rust-ified and new gaskets and such in order to work.
Thing is, my well looks like this:
And above that spidery, hand-dug 30' hole is a pulley for a bucket. So, clearly the hand pump does not go with this particular well.
OK, so out in the barn there is a Mystery Pipe. Top of said pipe is rusted and broken off, but was obviously threaded once upon a time. Other end of pipe goes down through manure barn and into the ground. There's a sort of wooden box around the very bottom few feet, for what purpose I know not. This pipe is right up against the northern wall of the barn, with perhaps 3" clearance between it and the wall.
How likely do you think it is that Mystery Pipe is in fact a second well? How would I find out whether or not it is a well, and if so, how do I figure out how deep it goes and whether or not it is useable? If it's useable, I could clean up and refurbish this hand pump thingy for it, get the supply line re-plumbed, construct something to sort of guide the manure away from it. From the storylines in the newspaper wrapping the supply line in the manure barn, it appears to have been originally installed in the 1920s-1930s (Prohibition notices in the newspaper police blotter). Is there such a plumbing expert as an Antique Well Specialist?
