HAPPY INDIA 171 



cable at a reasonable price when mechanical power 

 of some kind is used. It may be practicable with 

 oil-engines, and indeed in some parts of India those 

 engines are used for the purpose of irrigation wells 

 It is not always practicable to make a well from 

 which water can be pumped, because the subsoil 

 may be quick-sand, so that when you try to pump 

 the water, you pump the sand also, and the sand 

 clogs the pump, and if it didn't, there would be no 

 place in which to put the sand when it had been 

 pumped up. Therefore the problem was, how to 

 make a well from which the water in large quantities 

 could be pumped without pumping the sand. Wells 

 were sunk lined with brickwork, the bricks being 

 effectual in keeping out the sand. They were also 

 effectual in preventing the sufficiently rapid inflow 

 of water. Wells consisting of perforated iron tubes 

 were put down, but these if they admitted the water 

 sufficiently fast also admitted the sand. The credit 

 of an invention of a tube well from which water in 

 great volume could be pumped without sand belongs to 

 Major John Ashford, M.I.Mech.E., O.B.E., mechanical 

 engineer in charge of the machine-works at Amritsar. 

 He invented a tube which would be strong enough to 

 resist the pressure of sand and water at a great 

 depth and yet should allow the water to run in. It 

 was not possible to drill holes in the tube small 

 enough to exclude the sand and which would let 

 the water through in sufficient quantities, but Mr. 

 John Ashford hit on a plan of making an exceedingly 

 long spiral slit, so narrow that the sand could not 



