ourpump.com blog

One of two cast bronze bearings from the bilge pump of a Roman ship which caught fire and sank in St Peter Port harbour around AD280. Of surprisingly modern appearance, such bearings are known from Roman shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Pitch being carried in the aft hold of the ship melted during the fire, sealing the bearings and many other objects, effectively preserving them. The ship is the largest and most intact Roman vessel surviving from Britain and is one of the oldest sea-going ships found in northern Europe. It appears to have been a merchant vessel engaged in coastal trade, with objects from as far apart as Algeria and Germany on board. It is constructed in a Gallic or Celtic manner using heavy oak timbers fastened by massive iron nails. Gallic vessels which sound remarkably similar were described by Julius Caesar almost four centuries earlier.

Work on restoring an historic water pump near the remains of a canal in Cardiff is due to start within weeks.

Historic monuments body Cadw and Cardiff Council have agreed to fund the project involving Melingriffith water pump and wheel in Whitchurch.

The 200-year-old pump stands on what is left of a tinplate works and near the Glamorgan canal, which brought iron and coal from the valleys to Cardiff docks.

The pump supplied water to the canal but has been disused for 67 years.

The £100,000 restoration project has been delayed, after bats were found roosting at the site, off Ty Mawr Road.

A bat expert will be on site to make sure the pipistrelle bats, a protected species, have all moved to their winter roosts.

Excited

The pump was first restored in the 1980s in an award-winning £300,000 project by industrial archaeologists and the Inland Waterways Association, but it needs work again.

The Friends of Melingriffith Water Pump are supporting the latest restoration, which is expected to start in February with the dismantling of the pump.

Much of the work is to take place in workshops throughout the rest of winter and spring, including refurbishment of the timber and treatment of the metalwork.

After this, the restored pump will be reassembled in the summer.

Stephanie Wilkins, chair of Friends of Melingriffith Water Pump, said they were excited about the project starting.

The group hopes to hold an event at the site.

“The structure and site is of importance to local people and those with special engineering and historical interests,” she said.

“As a group we will be working hard to make this project an ongoing success and urge people to get involved in safeguarding this unique structure for future generations.”

The Glamorgan canal once ran 25 miles from Merthyr to Cardiff’s docklands. The tinplate works is thought to have originated from the middle of the 18th Century.

Councillor Nigel Howells, executive member for sport leisure and culture, said: “This pump is not only a landmark for the area but an important symbol and reminder of this region’s industrial past.”

Heritage minister Alun Ffred Jones, who has responsibility for Cadw, said: “I am pleased that this collaboration with the City and Council of Cardiff will be giving people the opportunity to see the pump as it was and to provide information about its purpose and role in the tin plate works and the area as a whole.”

This month’s freeze underscores why Florida needs to better balance the interests of farmers and their suburban neighbors. Farmers struggling to save their crops in the freezing conditions pumped so much water from the aquifer that dozens of sinkholes opened up in eastern Hills- borough County, drying up residential water wells, threatening homes and roads and shutting down traffic and small businesses. Agriculture plays a major role in Florida’s economy, and farmers need some latitude to deal with severe weather. But the health, order and livelihood of suburban communities also must be a concern.

The extreme weather was unusual in both its low temperatures and duration. Gov. Charlie Crist has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare all of the state’s 67 counties a disaster area, which would give growers access to federal aid. His request came after a preliminary finding by state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson that about 30 percent of Florida’s crop had been damaged by sustained hours of subfreezing weather over a 13-day period. The full extent of the damage should be clear in the coming week. But Bronson said no sector of the state’s agriculture industry was spared, from strawberries and citrus to corn and tropical fish.

In eastern Hillsborough, where strawberries are a $300 million annual crop, farmers pumped millions of gallons of water from the aquifer to spray on their plants; the coating of ice forms a protective layer on the fruit. The pumping caused the aquifer to drop 60 feet in Dover (a sudden drop of just 10 feet in the water level can destabilize the limestone enough to cause a sinkhole), resulting in at least 22 sinkholes in the eastern part of the county. Depressions and cracks in the highways caused a partial closing of Interstate 4 and U.S. 92 near Plant City, along with parts of 15 other roads. The county also distributed bottled water to homeowners whose wells had gone dry. Some 600 people have called regional water managers to report their wells had malfunctioned or dried up completely. The freeze clearly impacted more than farmers.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District plans to establish a work group at its Jan. 26 board meeting to study what happened and to explore how to lessen the impact on the aquifer during any similar freeze. Swiftmud should take that job seriously. The panel also should include a cross-section of those who have a stake in the outcome: the agriculture industry, water managers, environmentalists and area property owners.

Growers are already looking at alternatives to watering crops for freeze protection. Fabric crop covers and chemical foams are still in the test stages and raise practical problems of their own. There are also hundreds of old, shallow wells throughout the 110-square-mile area in eastern Hillsborough that were allowed to remain after the state imposed new well depth requirements in 2002.

Everything should be on the table. This month’s freeze may have been a freak of nature. But the state needs a plan for protecting agriculture that does not put the homes or livelihoods of suburban residents at risk.

The town of Bartlett is almost running on empty when it comes to its water supply.
Bartlett resident and hair stylist Phyllis Williams said without water, there’s a lot of work she couldn’t get done.
I can’t do my perms, and can’t do my colors and shampoo and sets,” Williams said.
Luckily she did have water at her salon Wednesday.
“When I got up at my home I didn’t have any water,” she said.

Mayor Arthur White suggests the problem is with the city’s main well water pump. The City of Bartlett does have a backup pump in use to retrieve water, but a boil water notice in effect as an added precaution.

“It’s not pumping full force, as what is required for it to do. We’re not getting the amount of water to the surface that we really need,” White said.
Water levels in water storage tanks decreased quickly, leading to restrictions on non-essential water usage for Bartlett residents.
“Try to hold back on, you know, washing dishes, to conserve the water showers, bathing,” White said.
White said the water shortage affects about 800 families.
“There are also about 1,000 to 1,100 inmates down the far end of town we serve with water also,” White said, referring to the Bartlett State Jail.
The jail has taken to conserving water by limiting inmate showers and serving food that don’t require water.

Monosyllabic text messages saying on or off might become a rural trend thanks to a new technology that allows farmers to remotely control their
motor pumps using SMS. The Micro Jai-Kisan is targeted at farmers who want to cut costs, save water and decrease their carbon footprint in the process. After the SIM card is installed between the switch and electrical water pump, the farmer gets remote access to its controls. This means, instead of walking over half a kilometre, just to switch the pump on or off, the farmer can use his cellphone to switch the pump on or off and check its status.

The device was launched on Friday by the Union Minister for Rural Development CP Joshi. Priced between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000, its USP is to reduce water leakage, pilferage and wastage that amounts to 50 % of the estimated 213 billion cubic meters of surface water wasted every month in India. And with an increasing number of farmers depending on motor pumps for irrigation, soaring energy costs and erratic power supply have made efficient water use an imperative. “We need to use water and energy judiciously. Its a priority in the rural sector,” says Union Minister for Rural Development CP Joshi. “We will leave it to the company to promote the product but are looking for more innovations in the rural sector.”

The product will be marketed in villages across Maharashtra where the manufacturer, Micro Technologies, plans to set up kiosks that give technical information about the product and savings.

Often farmers end up making multiple long-distance trips to the pump, sometimes just to check if there is adequate electricity to switch it on. “Sending an SMS is easy, saves time and can let them focus crop production,” says Joshi. Farmers without cellphones, have the option of making a call from a landline phone or PCO.

India has over 109.7 million rural mobile subscribers and key mobile telephony players are increasingly investing in Value Added Service (VAS) innovations. Other innovations include SMS-based information for farmers about weather and temperature alerts, fertilizer prices and the latest agricultural technology.

Holiday travelers can expect gasoline prices to remain steady into the New Year even though energy futures spiked Wednesday on a big draw down of crude and gasoline supplies.

Energy experts were expecting the amount of crude in storage to fall, mostly because refiners empty their tanks at this time of year for tax purposes.

But crude fell by 5 million barrels last week, more than twice what was expected. Gasoline stores fell more than expected and demand figures are rising somewhat.

On top of that, the amount of crude being imported into the country fell to the lowest level since 2003, news that gave energy markets a jolt.

That could play out in several weeks at the pump, but only if those futures prices can be sustained. Many energy experts do not believe that will happen with the winter travel likely to slow after the holidays.

The amount of crude, gasoline and distallates on hand are still above normal levels.

There was a surprisingly healthy gasoline demand number released this week by MasterCard SpendingPulse, but analysts with the group pointed out that a lot of people filled up their cars for holiday travel before last week’s winter storms pounded the East Coast.

And the car is the transportation of choice for the vast majority of people traveling during the holidays, about 89 percent.

Gasoline prices have been hovering around $2.60 per gallon for weeks now as oil has traded close to $75 a barrel.

Prices at the pump were essentially flat overnight at $2.584 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That puts pump prices in the middle of their five-year average, even accounting for the giant swings in 2008 when prices were as high as $4.11 a gallon and as low as $1.61, according to government data.

How much people travel can be more about confidence in the economy than pump prices and last year at this time the economic crises was in full swing.

AAA says the number of people traveling is on the rise, a sign that consumers are growing more confident, even if slowly, about the economy.

“There is some evidence that demand has picked up,” said Andrew Lebow of MF Global.

Still, compared with past years demand for fuel remains very weak. Other factors, like the weak U.S. currency have kept energy prices elevated.

Because crude is priced in the U.S. currency, investors holding other currencies like the euro can buy more crude when the dollar falls.

Even before the U.S. Energy Information Administration released its weekly supply report Wednesday, crude prices were rising as the dollar fell.

Benchmark crude for February delivery rose $2.27 to settle at $76.67 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other Nymex trading in January contracts, heating oil rose 6.32 cents to settle at $2.0118 while gasoline gained 7.78 cents to settle at $1.9666. Natural gas rose 10.6 cents to settle at $5.821 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose $1.53 to $74.99 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The pipes and pumps at left will serve Minot and the NAWS system. The tanks at right are tanks used to protect against pressure surges. Equipment vendors and engineers were going over the operation with state and city workers Wednesday.

A high-service pump station capable of distributing 26 million gallons of water a day is now serving the Northwest Area Water Supply project and City of Minot.

“This is the heart of the NAWS system,” project manager Michelle Klose said as equipment vendors, engineers and city and State Water Commission staff checked out the start-up operation Wednesday.

The station, which had been under construction for the past year and a half, went into operation Tuesday. It is in an eight-day commissioning period, during which time it is operating at a testing level.

The plant has four pumps distributing water to Minot at 3,000 to 6,000 gallons a minute. Another four pumps are serving the rest of the NAWS system at 3,000 gallons a minute. The NAWS water is going to Berthold and Kenmare.

If all goes well, the plant will be fully commissioned after the eight days to replace an interim pumping station and the pumping system at the Minot Water Treatment Plant.

So far, Klose said, “It’s actually going pretty good”

John T. Jones Construction Co., Fargo, built the $12.4 million project. Some finishing and landscaping work remains so official completion won’t happen until February, although the station will be operating.

In addition to the pumps, other features of the plant include two large tanks filled with water and air that will be used to guard against pressure surges if the flow ever needs to stop suddenly. Two 1-million gallon reservoirs of treated water also exist underground near the station.

During the commissioning period, equipment vendors will be training city and water commission staff. The city will be able to monitor the new station through its existing computer control system at the water treatment plant.

Once the new station is fully on line, an interim pump station built in the area to distribute up to an extra 3.5 million gallons a day will be dismantled. The pumps will be used elsewhere in the NAWS system. Eight aging pumps at the Minot Water Treatment Plant also will be removed.

“This is going to be a more efficient system for the city,” Klose said.

The city’s treatment plant can treat up to 18 million gallons of water a day. Alan Walter, Minot public works director, said the city will not be able to draw enough from its aquifers to keep the new pumping station at full capacity, but once water becomes available from the Missouri River, the infrastructure will be there to distribute that larger quantity.

“It’s going to be a big plus for this region,” he said.

There’s also room, if needed, to expand the station’s capacity with another pump and more water clarifiers.

Area towns have signed up for about 300,000 gallons of water a day from Minot until NAWS gets Missouri River water. That’s less than 10 percent of Minot’s winter water usage, Walter said.

The high-service pump station is the first of a three-phase NAWS project at the Minot treatment plant. The next phase would upgrade the plant to handle 18 million gallons a day of surface water. The final phase would increase the capacity to 26 million gallons of production.

The additional work is held up for now by an injunction issued by a federal judge in a lawsuit brought by Manitoba. That case continues in a Washington, D.C., court.

John T. Jones Construction also has sought to get an extra $500,000 to cover work that it claims wasn’t in the original contract. NAWS officials have denied the claim, and settlement negotiations failed to reach resolution. The company has the option to go to court.

A fire at an oil pumping station in the Khanty Mansi autonomous district of western Siberia left one firefighter dead, five people injured and two still missing.The fire was caused by a lightning strike, a spokesman for the Urals emergencies center said on August 23.

“A lightning stroke a reservoir causing an explosion,” he said adding that the fire spread to two neighboring reservoirs. The volume of each reservor is 20,000 cubic meters.

He also said 88 rescuers and 20 fire engines, who are involved in extinguishing the blaze, which currently covers some 1,800 meters.

A Commerce utility department employee was taken to an Athens hospital Monday morning after suffering burns to his face and arms while working on water system pump station near Banks Crossing.

It appears an electrical fire started when equipment at the city’s Beck Road pump station malfunctioned at about 8 a.m., according to Steve Nichols, director of Jackson County Emergency Services.

The worker received first-degree burns to his face and arms.

Paramedics treated the man at the scene and took him to Athens Regional Medical Center, where he is in stable condition, according to a news release issued by Nichols.

Beck Road runs off U.S. Highway 441 on the north side of Commerce, near Banks Crossing and Interstate 85.

Maybe you will think it is impossible, How can a skirt can be used as a seat? But I will tell you it is true. According to the inventor’ s introduction, this oddity skirt is for making the tedious walking more interesting.

This skirt is very strange. It consists of  a pair of shoes with a pump and a skirt made of seven plastic bags. when walking, it use the pressure of your feet to pump the air into the back plastic bags. When a certain air filled into the back of the bag, the user can seat on it for rest. Because of the gravity, the air inside the bags will gradually be released. At this time, the user will need to walk again to repeat the front process.