Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Anna Joy, one of our Artifact Cataloguers, has been busy cleaning and documenting the artifacts in the Gold Mine Ball Mill and oh boy, what a job. Some of the older equipment needed a bit of a tune up, including this water pump.
The majority of hard-rock mines in Nova Scotia require de-watering to prevent flooding. In this video she describes a bit of the mechanical workings of an engine designed to run a double-piston pump. The engine and pump would be at the surface of the mine; a long (usually rubberized) pipe would extend from the pump down into the mine shaft. The water would travel up the pipe, through the pump, and out the other side. The rotation of the flywheel driven by the motor (or by hand, as Anna Joy shows) operates the lever on the pump which drives the two pistons. As the shaft rotates, one piston presses water out as the other sucks water in.
You can see the pistons rising and falling at the end of the long shaft as she explains the shaft connection and amount of "travel" in the engine side vs the piston side.
"Travel" refers to the distance that the shaft moves from the central rotation point, and the distance that the piston moves up and down in the shaft during a single rotation.
Anna Joy, one of our Artifact Cataloguers, has been busy cleaning and documenting the artifacts in the Gold Mine Ball Mill and oh boy, what a job. Some of the older equipment needed a bit of a tune up, including this water pump.
The majority of hard-rock mines in Nova Scotia require de-watering to prevent flooding. In this video she describes a bit of the mechanical workings of an engine designed to run a double-piston pump. The engine and pump would be at the surface of the mine; a long (usually rubberized) pipe would extend from the pump down into the mine shaft. The water would travel up the pipe, through the pump, and out the other side. The rotation of the flywheel driven by the motor (or by hand, as Anna Joy shows) operates the lever on the pump which drives the two pistons. As the shaft rotates, one piston presses water out as the other sucks water in.
You can see the pistons rising and falling at the end of the long shaft as she explains the shaft connection and amount of "travel" in the engine side vs the piston side.
"Travel" refers to the distance that the shaft moves from the central rotation point, and the distance that the piston moves up and down in the shaft during a single rotation.
