io6 71ie Drainage of Fens and Low Lanas. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PUMPING STATIONS. 



The pumping stations described in the following chapter have 

 been selected as fairly representing the various types of 

 machinery in use for draining low land, and for raising water 

 for irrigating purposes. 



It has been difficult to obtain reliable average results as to 

 working, owing, in many cases, to the want of accurate records 

 of working, and also to the fact that the work done is con- 

 stantly varying from the daily rise and fall of the water. A 

 further difficulty occurs from the different ways of expressing 

 weights and terms in this and other countries. The author 

 has endeavoured, as far as practicable, to arrive at correct 

 results. In order to facilitate comparison, the data are 

 reduced in every case to one common standard of coal con- 

 sumed per horse-power of water lifted and discharged per 

 hour, and of tons of water lifted a given height in feet per 

 minute. A standard is thus afforded for readily comparing 

 the different kinds of machinery in use, and also showing 

 whether a pumping station is being worked with a due I'egard 

 to efficiency and economy. 



PoDEHOLE, Deeping Fen, Lincolnshire. — The taxable area of 

 this drainage district is 30,000 acres, the quantity of land actually 

 draining by the wheels being 32,000 acres. The water from the fen 

 is collected into two large drains, from which it is pumped into an 

 outfall cut, called the Vernatfs drain, which discharges into the tidal 

 river Welland, about six and a-half miles distant. The machinery 

 was erected in 1824, and consisted of two scoop wheels worked by 

 two low-pressure condensing beam engines of 80 and 60 nominal 

 horse-power respectively, working at a maximum pressure of steam 



