Pumps and wells of one municipality
The handle is visible from the street. The two valves and the water column show only in cross-section.
This is a button on the drawing, not on a pump. Do not operate real, historic pumps. The blue water in the diagram is a model; the page does not confirm that any water is safe to drink.
Rest: handle horizontal, both valves closed
The piston stands at mid-stroke and nothing flows. Compare the two strokes of the handle from this point.
- (3) Piston valve
- closed
- (4) Foot valve
- closed
Without JavaScript the drawing shows the rest position. The table in the “Two strokes” section describes both strokes of the handle and the valve states. The page does not confirm that any water is safe to drink.
Key to the numbers in the drawing
- Handle on a two-armed lever. You lower it and the piston rod goes up.
- Piston rod connects the lever to the piston.
- Piston valve: a flap over an opening in the piston.
- Foot valve: a flap at the bottom of the cylinder, above the suction pipe.
- Spout. The drawing does not reproduce the ornamental spout described in the heritage register.
- Water table. Its depth in this drawing is conventional.
The drawing shows type A: a cylinder in a cast-iron column above ground. It is a typological diagram drawn without a photograph and without measurements; it is not an image of the pump in Nowe Warpno, and the interior of that pump has not been identified. The blue arrows show the path of the water in the model. The dashed outline in the colour of the handle is the position from the previous stage.
Two strokes, valves in alternation
The handle does not push the water; it changes the pressure on both sides of the piston. That is why a different valve opens in each stroke while the other stays closed.
| Feature | Press | Lift |
|---|---|---|
| Handle | down | up |
| Piston | up | down |
| Piston valve | closed: the weight of the water above the piston presses the flap shut. | open: water from below the piston lifts the flap and passes above the piston. |
| Foot valve | open: pressure below the piston drops and water from the pipe enters the cylinder. | closed: the water below the piston is compressed and presses the flap against its seat. |
| Spout | in the model, water flows | in the model, nothing flows |
When the handle is pressed, the piston moves up. The water above it is carried towards the spout, so its weight closes the flap in the piston. Below the piston a partial vacuum forms: the foot valve lifts and the cylinder fills with water from the pipe.
When the handle is lifted, the piston moves down and compresses the water beneath it. That water closes the foot valve but lifts the flap in the piston and passes to the upper side of the piston. Nothing flows out; the outflow comes only with the next press.
The model assumes a pump primed with water and full, alternating strokes. It ignores leaks, friction and air locks. The description concerns the diagram, not the performance of any particular pump. The page does not confirm that any water is safe to drink.
Other ways of drawing water
- Column pump, cylinder above groundType A from the drawing above.
- With a pull rod, cylinder in the wellType B: cylinder under water.
- Windlass and bucketNo pump: water raised on a rope.
- Well sweepA long pole with a bucket.
General silhouettes, drawn from scratch. They are not objects from the municipality and do not indicate which types occur there.
One place, many unknowns
There is no map here and no complete list of the municipality’s pumps. The material supplied identifies one place in Nowe Warpno, and almost nothing about its interior.
Recorded in the source material
- NID heritage register: “Studnia z pompą” [Well with pump], Nowe Warpno, object number 952762.
- Material: metal; according to an earlier version of the page, a cast-iron body.
- Location: the market square by the town hall; address given earlier: pl. Zwycięstwa 1.
- External details described: a spout in the form of a fish’s mouth, a flame-shaped finial, plaques with the town’s coat of arms.
This information was carried over from the previous version of the page together with the links. In this version it was not checked again against the source records.
Not established — this is not zero
- Type of mechanism inside: suction (A), with a pull rod (B) or another.
- Dimensions of the cylinder and piston stroke.
- Depth of the well and of the water table.
- Source of the water: a working well, a dry one, the mains supply or a dummy.
- Technical condition and working order.
- Water quality.
Resident’s account: none
The page contains no account, quotation or recording. If any appear in future, they will have an author, a recording date, consent to publication and a transcript; audio only after the visitor starts it.
Open questions: who last used the pump? Is there a technical record card for the well?
A pump’s former function and the presence of water do not prove today that it works or is safe. Do not operate the monument. The page does not confirm that any water is safe to drink.
The same well, two cylinders
The valve arrangement is the same. What differs is the position of the cylinder, and therefore what the depth of the water table does. Move the slider and compare both diagrams at once.
A: cylinder at ground level, water drawn up through a pipe. B: cylinder lowered into the well, the piston rod (pull rod) runs down. Vertical axis: depth below ground in metres, common to both diagrams; the heads at the top are symbols, not to scale.
Pump AA water table 4.5 m below ground is within the model suction range (limit 7 m). Margin: 2.5 m.
Pump BCylinder lowered approx. 5.5 m below ground, pull rod approx. 4.0 m. Depth does not cut off the outflow, but it increases the force.
| Quantity | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| Water at the spout | 0.339 l | 0.339 l |
| Force on the handle | 42 N (≈ 4.2 kg) | 42 N (≈ 4.2 kg) |
| Strokes to fill a 10 l bucket | 30 | 30 |
| Handle travel | approx. 420 mm per stroke | |
Model assumptions: volume = piston area × stroke; force = weight of a water column whose height is (depth + 0.75 m to the spout) × piston area ÷ lever ratio. The 7 m suction limit is adopted in the model with a safety margin; the theoretical maximum at sea-level atmospheric pressure is about 10.3 m. Cylinder B is assumed to sit 1 m below the water table. Friction, the mass of the pull rod, leaks and acceleration are ignored. The default values (4.5 m, 60 mm, 120 mm, 3.5 : 1) are an example, not a measurement of the pump in Nowe Warpno. “Not calculated” means that the model does not describe that state, not that the force is zero.
Without JavaScript the sliders are unavailable; the results show the default values.
All the numbers in this section are a teaching model. They do not indicate how deep any real well is, and they do not confirm that any water is safe to drink.
Limits and changes from the previous version
What this page does not do
- It does not confirm that water is safe to drink, or the quality of the water in any well.
- It does not assess the working order or safety of any pump and does not encourage anyone to operate one.
- It does not attribute the diagrams to the interior of the pump in Nowe Warpno, which has not been identified.
- It contains no map, residents’ accounts or photographs; the drawings are original diagrams.
What changed compared with V2
- Removed: the inventory form, the formal and sanitary auditor, the protocol export and saving in the browser, none of which explained how a pump works. The page saves nothing. Data once saved by V2 under the key
atlas-v2-134are neither read nor deleted by this page. - The sliders for diameter, stroke, ratio and depth were moved to an additional section; the portrait has a single action.
- The timed cycle was replaced by steps that can be stopped and compared with the previous one.
- Instead of a remotely loaded photograph of the water crane in Chojnice there is only a link.
- Beyond the suction limit the force is no longer calculated, because the model does not describe that state. 0.75 m to the spout was added to the lifting height.
Sources
- NID · Studnia z pompą [Well with pump] (Nowe Warpno) — heritage register. Link carried over from V2, not checked again in this version.
- Pomorze Zachodnie · pompa uliczna przy ratuszu [Western Pomerania · street pump by the town hall] — link from V2, not checked again.
- Wikimedia Commons · Żuraw wodny II w Chojnicach [Water crane II in Chojnice] — a link only; according to V2, a photograph by Jakub Kopiszka under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence (the licence must be checked on the file page). It is a railway water crane, not a street pump or a well in Nowe Warpno.
- Drawings and calculation model: original, a teaching illustration by the author of this version, with no external images or fonts.
![Wikimedia Commons · Żuraw wodny II w Chojnicach [Water crane II in Chojnice]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZurawWodnyChojniceII.jpg){kind=link}