The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-01-26
CHAPTER VIII. ,
The Laborino Pumps.

80 800 daS dItcI 1 uuu titca
70 Drain myself liz the old boiler / was
pretty nearly as good as ever, and my
two Good SaInaritans reluctantly con-
sented to my going back to work,
Jeanie renewing the ~bandage on my
broken head, and laying many lnjunc-
ti"ns upon Daddy Hiram to send me
right back to the cabin If | didn't be-
have; behaving in her use of the
word, meaning that l was to take 1t
easNeon the job.
That sounded mighty good to me,
the waysshe said it. Most men. l fam
cy. are enly oyergrown children In the
sense that they like to be fused over
by their womankind. Don't mistake
me, please; wasn't in love with her
then. Candidiy, l don't think l knew
what a real love was. But it was
mighty pleasant to live In the same
house with her, and to eat her deli
cious cooking to be with her every
day, and TO have those undisturbed
evening ~half-hours with her in front
Of the fire. fl had had to get out !;
Or If there had been another man -. .
but / won't anticipate.
In due time and after we had COM
pletely overhauled the rusted and
gummed-up machinery, Daddy and l
happened upon a day when we were
ready to put fire under the boilers anu
we did 1t. H I should live to be a
hundred years old. I shall never forget
the tense, suppressed excitement that
gripped me as we brought the wood for
the furnaces that bright, hot, July
morning. BY eight o'clock we had
ninety pounds of steam pressure on
the boilers, but we held off until 1t
had climbed to the regular working
pressure OF one hundred and twenty.
Then I started the pumps; two big
centrifugal suctions, mounted on a
platform in the shaft mouth and SO
arranged that they could be lowered
to follow the water level down-if 1t
should 60 down; pumps that each
threw a stream six inches in diameter.
After the pumps were started and
the indicators showed, or seemed to
show, that they were working up to
full capacity, l rugged up a measuring
gauge; a bit of wood for a float, with
a string tied to it, and the string pass
ing owe a pulley in the Shafthouse
roof-beaming with q weight on the end
OF It. If the water level should go down,
the float would sink with 1t, pulling
the weight up. A smooth board, with
feet, inches and fractions penciled on
1t, was stood up beside the weight to
answer for a measuring scale.
AT the end of the hour the float
hadn't moved a hairs breadth; not a
hundredth part Of an inch, sc far as we
could see.
II don't believe the pumps are work
Ing ~ I exploded. Surely they'd make
some little difference In the level un-
less that shafts got all the under
ground water in the world to back 1t
un. Those indicators must be out of
whack. in some way. Where does the
discharge water empty itself?"
Daddy knew this, too.
"Over in the left-hand gulch-into
the creek @
aShow me-" I directed. s..%-
We found the discharge from the
pumps a little way below the end OF
the path; a ten-inch pipe which had
been laid underground from the shaft
house, presumably to keep 1T from
freezing In winter. The end of the
pipe stuck out i've the stream and 1t
was projecting pretty nearly a solid
ten-inch Jet of water. The pumps were
working all right there vas no doubt
about that. I dug up enough of my
college math to figure that two six.
inch streams would just about fill a
ten-inch pipe, and here IT was. running
full and pouring like another torrent
into the gulch. So back we went to
the mine buildings to- pile more wood
into the furnaces and to resume on,
watching OF the indicator and Its pen.
cii-marked scale.
Noon caught up with us after g
while-with nothing doing save that
we were rapidly Diminishing our wood
pie. For a solid week we chopped
down trees and split them up. Daddy
and /, and kept the fires roaring under
the boilers and kept those monster
pumps whfrrirg and grinding away al
the shaft mouth-night anc day. mind
Byou; watch on and watch of. And
right straight through II all. that little
Indicator weight ! had rigged up stood
stock still; never. moved the width OF
one OF the pencil marks + had drawn
On its gauge board.
BY this time my stubb0rnness was
yielding something t0 the still NOR
stubborn fact. II aIi this pumping
hadn't even starte | me flood toward
tits diminution, truly aIl he waters un.
der the earth must Be hacking the un.
failing well a. that drowned shaft.
Toward the last Z think We kepl
on nor from force of tlabIt than any.
thing else, but at the mud of tile weel
gaye iii md consented Id lei tn
fires die down, though n was like puIl
Inn teeth III DO II. SoIDetling, indeed
EI brought out OF the overtime work
disappointing ~ II had BEEN iii iii
major ense WINS nusejed ID 4,
|hard . kee of nails - strong I,
mnls, and the nsres toii N wood
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