Long before pumping devices were conceived, wells existed as the
invention of prehistoric man. Herewith is a sectional view of _Joseph’s
Well_ to be seen at the present time at Cairo, Egypt. Scientists think
it the production of the same people that built the pyramids and the
unrivaled monuments of Thebes, Dendaroh and Ebsambone. The magnitude
of the well and the skill displayed in its construction is perfectly
unique.
[Illustration: JOSEPH’S WELL.]
This stupendous well is an oblong square, twenty four feet by eighteen,
being sufficiently capacious to admit within its mouth a moderate
sized house. It is excavated (of these dimensions) through solid rock
to the depth of one hundred and sixty-five feet, where it is enlarged
into a capacious chamber, in the bottom of which is formed a basin or
reservoir, to receive the water raised from below (for this chamber is
not the bottom of the well). On one side of the reservoir another shaft
is continued, one hundred and thirty feet lower, where it emerges
through the rock into a bed of gravel, in which the water is found, the
whole depth being two hundred and ninety-seven feet; the lower shaft is
not in the same vertical line with the upper one, nor is it so large,
being fifteen feet by nine.
[Illustration: TWELFTH CENTURY.]
[Illustration: ASIATIC PULLEY AND BUCKET.]
As the water is first raised into the basin, by means of machinery
propelled by horses or oxen within the chamber, it may be asked, how
are these animals conveyed to that depth in this tremendous pit, and
by what means do they ascend? A spiral passage-way is cut through
the rock, from the surface of the ground to the chamber, independent
of the well, round which it winds with so gentle a descent, that
persons sometimes ride up or down upon asses or mules. It is six feet
four inches wide, and seven feet two inches high. Between it and the
interior of the well, a wall of rock is left, to prevent persons
falling into, or even looking down it (which in some cases would be
equally fatal), except through certain openings or windows, by means of
which it is faintly lighted from the interior of the well. The animals
descend by this passage to drive the machinery that raises the water
from the lower shaft into the reservoir or basin, from which it is
again elevated by similar machinery and other oxen on the surface of
the ground. In the lower shaft a path is also cut down to the water,
but as no partition is left between it and the well, it is extremely
perilous for strangers to descend.
NOTE.—However old and numerous wells with stairs in them may be,
most of the ancient ones were constructed without them; hence the
necessity of some mode of raising the water. From the earliest ages,
a _vessel suspended by a cord_, has been used by all nations—a device
more simple and more extensively employed than any other, and one
which was undoubtedly the germ of the most useful hydraulic machine
of the ancients. The figures shown on this and a few succeeding pages
are from the collection made by Ewbank—to whom reference has been
made in another portion of this work.
[Illustration: PULLEY AND TWO BUCKETS. (ANCIENT.)]
The square openings represented on each side of the upper shaft are
sections of the spiral passage, and the zig-zag lines indicate its
direction. The wheels at the top carry endless ropes, the lower parts
of which reach down into the water; to these, earthenware vases are
secured by ligatures (see A A) at equal distances through the whole of
their length, so that when the machinery moves these vessels ascend
full of water on one side of the wheels, discharge it into troughs as
they pass over them and descend in an inverted position on the other
side.
[Illustration: CHINESE WINDLASS.]
This celebrated production of former times, as will be perceived,
resembles an enormous hollow screw, the center of which forms the well
and the threads a winding stair-case around it. To erect of granite,
a flight of “geometrical” or “well stairs,” two or three hundred
feet high, on the surface of the ground, would require extraordinary
skill, although in its execution every aid from rules, measures, and
the light of day, would guide the workmen at every step; but to begin
such a work at the top, and construct it _downwards_ by excavation
alone, in the dark bowels of the earth, is a more arduous undertaking,
especially as deviations from the correct lines could not be remedied;
yet in Joseph’s well, the partition of rock between the pit and the
passage-way, and the uniform inclination of the latter, seem to have
been ascertained with equal precision, as if the whole had been
constructed of cut stone on the surface. Was the pit, or the passage,
formed first; or were they simultaneously carried on, and the excavated
masses from both borne up the passage, are unanswered questions.
[Illustration: ANGLO-SAXON CRANE.]
The extreme thinness of the partition wall, excited the astonishment of
M. Jomard, whose account of the well is inserted in the second volume
of Memoirs in Napoleon’s great work on Egypt. It is, according to him,
but sixteen centimetres thick, [about six inches!] He justly remarks
that it must have required singular care to leave and preserve so small
a portion while excavating the rock from both sides of it. It would
seem no stronger in proportion, than sheets of paste-board placed on
edge, to support one end of the stairs of a modern built house, for it
should be borne in mind, that the massive roof of the spiral passage
_next the well_, has nothing but this film of rock to support it, or
to prevent from falling, such portions as are loosened by fissures, or
such, as from changes in the direction of the strata, are not firmly
united to the general mass. But this is not all: thin and insufficient
as it may seem, the bold designer has pierced it through its whole
extent with semi-circular openings, to admit light from the well: those
on one side are shown in the engraving.
[Illustration: SWAPE OR SWEEP, A. D. 1493.]
Aqueducts, fountains, cisterns and wells, are in numerous instances
the only remains of some of the most celebrated cities of the ancient
world. Of Heliopolis, Syene and Babylon in Egypt; of Tyre, Sidon,
Palmyra, Nineveh, Carthage, Utica, Barca, and many others. “The
features of nature,” says Dr. Clarke, “continue the same, though works
of art may be done away: the ‘beautiful gate’ of the Jerusalem temple
is no more, but Siloah’s fountain still flows, and Kedron still murmurs
in the valley of Jehoshaphat.” According to Chateaubriand, the Pool of
Bethesda, a reservoir, one hundred and fifty feet by forty, constructed
of large stones cramped with iron, and lined with flints embedded in
cement, is the only specimen remaining of the ancient architecture of
that city.
NOTE.—Roman wells are found in every country which that people
conquered. Their armies had constant recourse to them when other
sources of water failed. Pompey and Cæsar often preserved their
troops from destruction by having provided them. It was Pompey’s
superior knowledge in thus obtaining water, which enabled him to
overthrow Mithridates, by retaining possession of an important post.
[Illustration: PICOTAH OF HINDOSTAN.]
NOTE.—The operation of this primitive device may be thus
described—Near the well or tank, a piece of wood is fixed, forked at
the top; in this fork another piece of wood is fixed to form a swape,
which is formed by a peg, and steps cut out at the bottom, that the
person who works the machine may easily get up and down. Commonly,
the lower part of the swape is the trunk of a tree; to the upper end
is fixed a pole, at the end of which hangs a leather bucket. A man
gets up the steps to the top of the swape, and supports himself by
a bamboo screen erected by the sides of the machine. He plunges the
bucket into the water, and draws it up by his weight; while another
person stands ready to empty it.
Ephesus, too, is no more; and the temple of Diana, that according
to Pliny was 220 years in building, and upon which was lavished the
talent and treasure of the east; the pride of all Asia, also one of the
wonders of the world, has vanished, while the fountains which furnished
the citizens with water, remain as fresh and perfect as ever. Cisterns
have been discovered in the oldest citadels in Greece. The _fountains
of Bounarbashi_ are perhaps the _only_ objects remaining that can be
relied on, in locating the palace of Priam and the site of ancient
Troy. And the well near the outer walls of the temple of the sun at
Palmyra, will, in all probability, furnish men with water, when other
relics of Tadmor in the wilderness have disappeared; a great number of
the wells of the ancient world still supply man with water, although
their history generally, is lost in the night of time.
We are now to examine the modes practised by the ancients, in obtaining
water from wells. In all cases of moderate depth, the most simple and
efficient, was to form an inclined plane or passage, from the surface
of the ground to the water; a method by which the principal advantages
of an open spring on the surface were retained, and one by which
domestic animals could procure water for themselves without the aid or
attendance of man.
But when in process of time, these became too deep for exterior
passages of this kind to be convenient or practicable, the wells
themselves were enlarged, and stairs for descending to the water,
constructed within them.
HISTORICAL NOTE.—One of the most appalling facts that is recorded
of suffering from thirst occurred in 1805. A caravan proceeding
from Timbuctoo to Talifet, was disappointed in not finding water
at the usual watering places; when, horrible to relate, all the
persons belonging to it, two thousand in number, besides eighteen
hundred camels _perished by thirst_! Occurrences like this, account
for the vast quantities of human and other bones, which are found
heaped together in various parts of the desert. While the crusaders
besieged Jerusalem, great numbers perished of thirst, for the Turks
had filled the wells in the vicinity. Memorials of their sufferings
may yet be found in the heraldic bearings of their descendants. The
charge of a foraging party “for water,” we are told, “was an office
of distinction;” hence, some of the commanders on these occasions,
subsequently adopted _water buckets_ in their coats of arms, as
emblems of their labors in Palestine.
Wells with stairs by which to descend to the water, are still common.
The inhabitants of Arkeko in Abyssinia, are supplied with water from
six wells, which are twenty feet deep and fifteen in diameter. The
water is collected and carried up a broken ascent by men, women and
children. Fryer in his Travels in India speaks of “deep wells many
fathoms underground, with stately stone stairs.” Near the village of
Futtehpore, is a large well, ninety feet in circumference, with a broad
stone staircase which is about thirty feet deep to descend to the
water. The fountain of Siloam is reached by a descent of thirty steps
cut in the solid rock, and the inhabitants of Libya, where the wells
often contain little water, “draw it out in little buckets, made of the
shank bones of camels.”
Wells with stairs are not only of very remote origin, but they appear
to have been used by all the nations of antiquity. They were common
chiefly, among the Greeks and Romans.
[Illustration: ITALIAN MODE OF RAISING WATER TO THE UPPER FLOORS OF A
HOUSE.]
As a matter of interest some six or eight representations of the early
forms of wells, have been introduced; but little need to be written
relating to them—the cuts with the titles speak for themselves and also
indicate their manner of use. (See note.)
_In Syria and Palestine_ at the present time the antique bucket and
rope, in modified form, is still used in raising water from wells for
irrigation. The buckets are attached to the ropes at regular intervals
and pass over large drums going down empty and rising full. They
discharge at the top into a large open trough, which conveys the water
to the irrigating ditches.
[Illustration: ROMAN SCREW.—FIG. 72.]
A method much used where rivers are available is the wheel and bucket,
in which the buckets are mounted on the rim of a large wheel which is
of a diameter equal to the height to which the water is to be raised.
The processes although extremely crude are well adapted to countries
where labor is inexpensive as the running expense of the devices is
very small.
NOTE.—The source from which many of these have been derived is
“_Eubank’s Hydraulics_,” to which work credit is gladly given for
nearly all the historical data so far used in this volume. The author
of the book named gave many years of research into the early records
of all relating to hydraulics and water machines and kindred subjects.