WINDMILLS AND PUMPS. 26 



them their power upon a different place, they receiv- 

 ing this power from the pressure and reaction of the 

 water. A more primitive affair having the same object 

 in view is the common water wheel often seen in the West. 

 Every one knows of the stern-wheel steamboats that 

 navigate shallow streams. These afford an instance of 

 the kind of wheel to be used, simply a large one with 

 paddles or floats on the end of the arms, by which the 

 current of the stream turns the wheel; and by means of 

 proper gearing the motion is conveyed to a pump, by 

 which the water of the stream may be raised through 

 pipes to any reasonable hight and distance. A stream 

 nine feet deep and one hundred feet wide flowing four 

 miles an hour will exert a very great power. A common 

 float or paddle wheel twenty feet in diameter working in 

 a stream of this kind will make four revolutions in a 

 minute, which by cheap gearing may operate a pump 

 with sixty strokes a minute, this being more than 

 ample to raise water sixty feet in sufficient quantity to 

 irrigate twenty to forty acres of land. The cost of such 

 a wheel would be quite small, not over $50. The wheel 

 should be submerged over eighteen inches in the water, 

 which will be the width of the floats. If more power is 

 desired, the floats may be increased in width. It will be 

 the square feet of area of each float submerged at one 

 time that will be the measure of the power in a uniform 

 current. 



The current or bucket wheel is quite an institution 

 in many large streams, and it is a good thing where the 

 current is steady and strong. By attaching buckets to 

 its arms or sweeps, sufficient water can be raised to irri- 

 gate small tracts close to the stream. The turning of 

 the wheel by the current at the same time fills the 

 buckets, which are emptied at a certain hight into a 

 trough or flume, and in this way the water is carried to 

 the land. 



