Pump Builders

What would we do today if it were not for the people who made it their business to plan and work until they were satisfied with the design of the first crude pumps? It's possible that we might not have the assortment of pumps we have today if these inventors had not decided to be pump builders.

Around 3000 B.C., the very first water pump design was invented by the people of Mesopotamia. It was a crude pump, constructed of a wooden lever which turned on two wooden poles. A bucket, attached to yet another pole, would have a weight placed on the other end. When the pole was pushed into the river to fill the bucket with water, the weight on the end made it easier to pull the bucket back up. The water was poured from the bucket into a wooden trough which funneled to the irrigation ditch. No other type of pump was built for the next 2000 years, as this one was quite popular.

Somewhere around 250 B.C., a man by the name of Archimedes invented a screw pump made of a metal pipe in the shape of a corkscrew that pulled water up through it as it turned. Today's water pump design is still based on this design.

The type of pump that is related to our river pumping equipment in use today was designed by someone named Ctesibus around the first century, B.C. He was from Alexandria, Egypt.

It is rumored that the very first immersion pumps were invented in the late 1600s by a talented inventor named Dennis Papin, who was from France. He continued to tweak his designs until he got them just the way he wanted them, and his finickiness paid off, for this type of pump is still very much in use today.

As for the lagoon pump, seven brothers who invented the hot tub/Jacuzzi came from Italy and settled in California in the early 1900s. They made many advancements in the filed of agricultural or lagoon pumps. What a change in their thinking – from hot tubs to lagoon pumps. These seven siblings had to be above average in intelligence to be able to come up with such innovative and wonderful inventions that people are still using and enjoying today for both work and play.

The Jacuzzi brothers made much more headway as lagoon pump builders that did the original lagoon pump system designer, and their work caused the lagoon pump to began to be used to turn livestock manure into a useful fertilizer. It is rumored that it was their idea to allow the sludge to gather at the bottom of the lagoons as the biological process goes on. As several years went by, the sludge continued to be transformed as the solid matter mixed in with the liquid was digested by undergoing anaerobic and aerobic processes. Once the sludge has reached the proper depth, it was pumped out of the lagoons and allowed to dry on a specially prepared drying bed of sand.

We should be thankful for our modern pumps. Without the foresight of these inventors, we might not have the kind of pumps we have today.

About the Author

Almost 15 years ago, Canfield Custom pumps designed and built the first dedicated floating pump system, Turbi-Float. Turbi-Float custom pump system answers your requests for a high pressure pump where ease of installation, reliability, and low maintenance are required. Turbi-Float, was designed and developed around the proven turbine bowl pump concept, which incorporates self-priming submerged impellers and multi-stage capability, making it one of the best self-priming pumps on the market.