Detail of pump. Copy of 35 mm colour transparency.

Description Detail of pump. Copy of 35 mm colour transparency.

Date 22/5/1981

Collection Papers of Professor John R Hume, economic and industrial historian, Glasgow, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 867555

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Windpump, Tankerness, Orkney This is an unusual example of the type of American-inspired windpumps which were installed in large numbers on Scottish farms in the first half of the 20th century. Most were used for pumping water for domestic supply, but some were used to supply water to watering points for cattle. This form of wind pump developed in the USA in the late 19th-century. Shown is the windpump Known as the 'Climax' windpump. It is driven from a ring of galvanised-steel aerofoil-section blades on a steel frame, on a short steel tower mounted on the roof of this pumphouse. The pump discharges into the pipe to the left, which takes the water to the steading. Windpumps were common until the 1970s. This photograph was taken by Graham Douglas in 1981 as part of a survey of wind power in Scotland. Many of the pumps he recorded have since disappeared. A Dickie pump will be erected at the National Museums Scotland Museum of Rural Life in March 2007. That can be found at Kittochside, East Kilbride. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap