70 The Drainage of Fens and Low Lands. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE SCOOP WHEEL. 



The "scoop" or "float" wheel has been in use as a machine 

 for lifting water from very ancient times — it is mentioned by 

 Vitruvius ; and that the Romans used it for this purpose is 

 proved by the discovery at the Tharsis Mines, in the south of 

 Spain, a few years ago, of a scoop wheel which had been 

 exhumed in the excavations then being carried on. This 

 wheel was made of oak, of light scantling, put together with 

 oak pins, no nails being used in the construction; and 

 although it must have been underground for nearly two 

 thousand years, the wood was in a good state of preservation.* 

 The wheel was introduced into Holland by W. Wheler in a 

 new form in 1649. 



Mechanical power for drainage purposes in the Fen 

 country came first into use about 200 years ago, when scoop 

 wheels worked by horses were used by the Corporation of the 

 Bedford LeveL Horse-power was superseded by wind. In 

 1726 an Act was obtained for the drainage of Haddenham 

 Fen by the use of windmills working scoop wheels, after 

 which time their use became general throughout the Fen land, 

 also for the drainage of the low land along the Trent and in 

 other parts of the country. In Holland scoop wheels still 

 largely exceed all other kinds of machines for lifting water 

 from the low lands, and in Italy they are considered by some 

 of the principal engineers as more effective for this special 

 purpose than any machine yet invented. 



These wheels have done exceedingly good service in the 



* J. Lee Thomas, in Trans. Inst. C.E., vol. xxxii. 



