Main Street, Prickwillow, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4UN
To lift large quantities of water to a higher level, you will need a pump.
There are several different types, a few examples of which are described here.
The earliest example of a mechanical water-lifting device was the bucket-wheel, which has been in use in Egypt for thousands of years, usually powered by an ass. In the third century BC, the Archimedian screw was invented, in Greece, by Archimedes. This consists of a tube containing a rotating 'cork screw' type spiral core.
Neither of these early devices has been employed to drain the fens.
In the fens, the earliest recorded devices were scoop wheels, driven by wind. An early example of this type appeared at Over in 1604, before the widespread drainage scheme of 1630 had been devised.
Windmills driving scoop wheels drained the fens for the next 200 years.
The maximum diameter of scoop wheel which could be driven by wind was 25 feet and, since a scoop wheel can only raise water to one-fifth of its diameter, as the land level sank it became necessary for water to be lifted in stages by a succession of windmills to raise it to ever-greater heights.
The first steam engine for fen drainage was built at Sutton St. Edmunds in 1817. With the introduction of steam engines, it became possible to employ larger wheels. The largest scoop wheel built was 50 feet in diameter and, weighing 75 tons, was installed at the Hundred Foot Engine (near Pymoor) in 1881.
It was at the Great Exhibition of 1851 that the first Appold centrifugal pump appeared and by 1852 it was draining Whittlesea Mere. An impeller from this pump is on display at the Science Museum, South Kensington.
A centrifugal pump casing is rather like a giant snail shell and inside is a rotating disc containing curved vanes. The rotation draws in water at the centre of the disc and centrifugal force pushes it out around the periphery, the pressure created causing water to discharge from the outlet in the circumference of the casing.
This type of pump was widespread in the fens, being produced, principally, by W H Allen of Bedford and by Gwynnes. These pumps had to be 'primed' (filled with water prior to starting) and this was achieved by a vacuum pump.
The centrifugal pump could lift water to much greater heights and at a faster rate than the scoop wheel.
Oil engines (diesel) appeared on the fenland scene in 1913, the first being at Methwold Fen and driving a centrifugal pump.
Axial-flow pumps (also known as 'propeller' pumps) have now been in service for more than 50 years and consist of a large diameter vertical (or inclined) pipe with a large rotating fan, or propeller, at the bottom. These pumps were mainly built by Vickers Gill of Barrow-in-Furness.
Today, modern electrically powered pumps of the 'propeller' type are employed
and, being controlled automatically, can run unattended as they do not require
priming.
Diesel generators and diesel pumps are retained on standby at many pumping
stations in case there should be a 'mains' power failure. Additionally, some electric pumps are fitted with a gearbox, to enable them to be powered by a farm tractor in extreme emergency.
