Making the Old Pump New
By L. B. ROBBINS
When a pump commences to gurgle, suck and whistle at each stroke of the handle you may feel assured that some thing is wrong. Either the leathers are worn out or some air leak has developed, in the pump castings or in the pipe line above or below ground. In the majority of cases this will be found to be due to worn leathers.
For maximum efficiency, a pump depends upon a vacuum being created in the cylinder at each upstroke of the plunger. If air leaks past, this vacuum is destroyed and water will refuse to rise in the pipe. It is then that pumping water becomes a soul-searing and back-breaking job.
Now, it doesn't take a great deal of work to transform a leaky pump that requires 75 strokes to the bucket to one that will lift the same amount of water in 25 strokes or less. In the majority of cases the trouble will be located in defective leathers. Nowadays it is a comparatively simple matter to change leathers, because so many pumps can be fitted with standard-size factory-cut leathers. It is simply a matter of taking the pump apart, inserting the new leathers and then reassembling as before.
Above, the Plunger Spider: Upper Right, Form of Deck Leather and Weight: Center. Removing the Cylinder
There are essentially two types of dwelling-house pumps; the pitcher pump and the force pump. The former is found everywhere, and consists simply of an open-ended metal cylinder in which works a plunger with a lifting valve in the center. Between the bottom end of the cylinder and the pipe there is another valve, or deck leather. As the plunger is pushed down, the deck-leather valve closes and the plunger valve opens, thus allowing any water above the deck leather to pass through the plunger instead of being forced down into the well. When the plunger rises, the water thus brought over
