Pumping Stations. 127 



repairs. The framework of the engines only occupies a space about 

 6 feet square, and with the pump being placed under this frame, the 

 cost of foundations was reduced within a small compass. The long 

 time that the engines have run is considered to be partly due to 

 their being of the vertical type, the wear and strain on the cylmder 

 being less than in a horizontal engine, and a settlement in the 

 foundations having less effect on the working of engines arranged as 

 these are. This station is an illustration of the suitabiHty of the 

 centrifugal pump for Fen drainage, and shows that pumps, equally 

 with scoop-wheels, will run for a great number of years without 

 accident or repair. The consumption of coal for the three years 

 1881-83, averaged about 60 tons a~year, equal to 100 acres per 

 ton of coal. Taking the cost of coal at \^s. a ton, this is equal 

 to I * Zod, per acre for coal, or taking the lift at 5 feet, • 2>^d, per 

 foot of lift. 



Messingham District, Lincolnshire. — ^The description of this 

 pumping station is given as an illustration of works carried out in an 

 inexpensive manner for the drainage of a small district where it was 

 not considered desirable at the time to incur an outlay sufficient to 

 put up works of a more permanent character. Owing to the 

 difficulty in the way of obtaining a site for the buildings, the engine- 

 house and pump are erected on piles over the main drain near the 

 outfall sluice, and the discharge pipe is carried under the highway to 

 the river. The engine and pump are situated at Butterwick, in the 

 north-west part of Lincolnshire, and were erected by Mr. C. L. Hett, 

 of Brigg, under the direction of Mr. Alfred Atkinson for the Com- 

 missioners of Sewers. The extreme range of a spring-tide in the 

 Trent at this place is about 18 feet, and the consequence is that 

 the scoop wheels, which have hitherto been almost exclusively used 

 for drainage purposes in that part of the country, can only work for 

 four or five hours each tide, or in some cases for even less. It was 

 therefore determined to use a centrifugal pump. An illustration 

 of the general arrangement of the machinery will be found in 



Plate 2. 



The district drained includes 3250 acres adjoining the river Trent, 

 and comprises some very low-lying land. Previous to the erection 

 of the pumping machinery, the drainage had been by gravitation 

 througb outfall sluices, the sills of which are about level with 

 ordinary low-water in the river. This system was found to be 

 inefficient in wet seasons when good drainage was of the greatest 



