APPENDIX B. , 175 



parties have suffered much extra expense in not attending to this 

 kind of leakage. 



A manufacturer, in starting up his well pump, may also find that 

 he has a short supply of brine, and the brine in the well tube runs 

 down as soon as the pump is stopped. In this case he may have 

 strong suspicions that his well tube is defective, or that the joints 

 are not put together tightly, causing a leakage. To ascertain where 

 this is, the tubing should be lifted out, the lower valve being allow- 

 ed to remain in. As the tubing is being drawn, the pressure of the 

 column of brine in the tube on the joints or imperfections will show 

 where the leakage is. If the tubing is imperfect, it should be taken 

 out and replaced by perfect tubing. When the leakage is at the 

 joint, a new thread should be cut upon it, or the joint should be 

 screwed together more tightly. 



It is very important that the salt manufacturer should ever be on 

 the lookout for these leakages, as they may and do often arise from 

 a jarring of the tubing in running the pump faster than the supply 

 of brine comes to the pumping chamber, causing a vacuum and 

 producing the so-called pounding of a well. The capacity of a well 

 has been very materially affected by such a leakage, increasing the 

 expense of pumping from 50 to 100 per cent. 



The supply capacity of a well is also very materially increased 

 by the position of the pumping chamber in the well. In the 

 early history of salt wells in Michigan, the pumping chamber was 

 generally placed a short distance below the offset. More recent 

 tests go to prove that the best location for the pumping chamber 

 is at or very near the point where the largest supply of brine comes 

 into the well, and that point is the lower portion of the sand rock, 

 or within a short distance of the bottom of the well. 



In pumping a well, it is also important that the weight of the 

 pumping rods should be evenly counterbalanced by a weight on the 

 other end of the walking-beam ; this relieves the engine, the only 

 weight to be lifted being the brine. 



The stroke of the piston in the pumping chamber should^ be 

 made as long as possible, and the motion of the engine should not 

 be over 32 revolutions to the minute. In this way, about the entire 

 supply of brine in the well is obtained, without forming a vacuum, 

 thus preventing the pounding of the well and the danger of parting 



