Technology and the Big House in Ireland, c. 1800–c.1930 By Charl ...

by a “dowser”, a person who walked the area using a forked twig as an indicator. The covered well was its own collection reservoir, and its being enclosed helped to ensure the cleanliness of the water. A lift pump was then used to make the supply available in the yard or kitchen directly, or a force pump was employed to fill an elevated storage cistern for a supply fed by gravity. The ubiquitous Richard Lovell Edgeworth, FRS, MRIA, and CE, had an innovative means of reducing the workload of his servants. Beggars calling at Edgeworthstown House were directed to the house water pump, where they were automatically paid a halfpenny by the pump mechanism for each half hour of pumping.¹¹

A variation of the simple lift pump was sometimes employed to make the task of raising the water to the surface easier for the user. An example of one of these is shown in plate 5, which still stands in the centre of the courtyard at Tullynally Castle, County Westmeath. This pump has a rotating action with a crank handle and flywheel. The flywheel has the effect of adsorbing some of the effort expended on the easier piston downstroke and releasing it during the heavier upstroke.¹²

Where the water level in the well was a long way below ground level, it was necessary to place the pump at a depth in the well where it was within its capability to raise the water. The height to which a pump can suck water is a function of atmospheric pressure and thus depends on the ability of the pump to produce a vacuum. Limitations of the piston seal and other losses reduce the maximum theoretical lift of 34 feet (10 m) to about 20 feet (6 m).¹³ Operation from the necessary depth was achieved by extending the pump barrel and piston rod. As a result, the combined weight of the column of water above the piston plus that of the piston rod then hung on the pump handle, making the downstroke of the handle considerably heavier for the operator. This could be greatly alleviated by utilising the buoyancy of a wooden piston rod about 2 inches (5 cm) square. The wood was much lighter than iron, and the flotation of the wooden rod in the water counteracted, to some extent, the weight of the column of water above the piston. This was known as a floating pole pump. The construction of the example at Tullynally Castle farmyard,