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As a way to introduce our brass coins to the community, we will raffle off a free coin during the month of August. Follow link ABOVE for instructions for entering. |
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Hi Dave, I had some black paint I wanted to use before the expiration date.Mike: Blandford was built in 1720. At that time chain pumps would have been made of wood. Why are Blandford's chain pumps painted black? Is there any reason you know of?
Ahrrr. Eric. I new I could count on you to come up with a history lesson for us.Is it possible that perhaps the pumps were made from lead or copper? The use of lead back then was fairly common. I will leave this here as food for thought, but came across this:
There were basically only three types of ship bilge pump used from the 1400s to the 1800s:
--burr pumps: basically a cone-shaped leather bucket that drew water up a tube
--chain pumps: a continuous chain with small burrs or buckets to catch water and pull it up, running over upper and lower sprockets
--common or “suction” pump: the earliest representation is from 1431. Use on ships was probably from sometime in late 1400s to early 1500s. The first recorded use of metal parts in ship pumps was 1526. Usually they were made entirely of wood until the late 1700s because the only tools available for boring iron tubes were those to make cannon. In 1712, the first practical steam engine was invented by Newcomen. A steam engine needed the piston and cylinder in very tight tolerances. Initially made by hand, ground and filed…further developments in boring machines were needed before steam could progress, and it wasn’t until those machines were made that all-metal pumps could be manufactured.
for the rest of the article.