How did the people dig out deep wells in Georgian times?

Mar 06, 2006 19 Replies

I have a well in the basement of my home 35 feet deep with about 30 feet of water in it most times. Anyone know what tricks they used to dig these deep wells out without too much risk?



Its just about what a man could turn in, all the way down and there are three or four timber props half way down like spokes in a wheel. its reckoned to be more than 200 years old.



lol - Raden was right

'itinerant breed of men' 'liberal supply of drink'

There was a prog on tv about this.

They build/add to the brick lining at ground level. Meanwhile, someone digs away in the hole, undercutting the brick tube, which sinks under its own weight.

|I have a well in the basement of my home 35 feet deep with about 30 |feet of water in it most times. |Anyone know what tricks they used to dig these deep wells out without |too much risk?

They were dug by hand, with spade, and bucket. life was cheap in those days. If the job was risky, the rate for the job was only slightly higher. They had to stop when they could not empty it fast enough to keep on digging. In dry years when the water table was low they dug wells a bit deeper to get down to ground water again, so your well may not have had 30 ft of water in it when dug.

Tony, it was Fred Dibnah's programme that dealt with the Victorians building a well.

What a loss Fred was. His programmes did make a change from the plethora of Domestic DRIVEL we have. He was actually born 100 years too late.

Chris.

I doubt it. More likely they dug under the brick tube, and infilled with brick later.

very true but I thought he was born at the right time: when TV could allow us mere mortals the benefit of his wisdom. the Fred Dibnah season on UK TV History made for decent viewing over xmas.

maybe there ought to be an X Factor type competition to find young people who can be nurtured into people likeTrevor Bayliss and Fred Dibnah ?

hmm. < phones endemol >

Why Trevor Bayliss?

slaved away in a shed, against all the odds, got knocked back dozens of times, persevered and eventually produced an inexpensive radio which has brought radio based music, news and communication to millions of people who couldn't afford batteries ?

Can i suggest you go to a "patent", libary and look up the dozens of patents that have never been updated ie monies to keep the original from the hands off the money maker.

Trevor Bayliss was one of these, he looked up the said paents library and came across this invention and put it into the reality. Poor bugger who never kept the patent alive probably died or just forgot about it?

gloss over the net result, why don't you ? try pressing your pessimistic viewpoint to a family in Africa who benefit greatly from the technology.

see if they agree with you that it's all about money. I'll eat /your/ hat if they do or are agree that a lapsed patent must not be used except by the origiator and solely for profit. if that's what you are alleging bayliss did, of course.

They did, it was all explained in Fred's "DIY mineshaft in your own back yard" episode.

|Tony, | it was Fred Dibnah's programme that dealt with the Victorians |building a well. | | What a loss Fred was. His programmes did make a change from the |plethora of Domestic DRIVEL we have. | He was actually born 100 years too late.

Fred's programs are repeated Ad Infinitum on Digital TV :-) But I watched then all first time they were shown :-(

Trevor Bayliss was in tears when he visited the factory in S.Africa, saw the radios being built and realised that his ideas had really come to fruition.

The way I heard it was that the radio never really took off in the third world because it was too expensive compared with an ordinary radio, and because batteries are actually dirt cheap to buy out there.

David

He wasn't the first,

I built a wind up radio when I was at school in 1961 aged 14 out of a high quality "Distler" permanent magnet motor bought from a surplus store, plus a motor from a clockwork train. and a transistor radio printed circuit board. My biggest problem was getting sharsh from the motor/generator (which used brushes) appearing on the audio output. The commutation seemed to introduce discontinuities in the supply.

When he made his effort I wondered why he didn't go for solar cells and cad-nics. Being Africa and all that.

DG

This goes back earlier than 61 I would hazzard a guess between 1920/40? The wind up generator was evident in the trenches ie the 1st world war field telephone which charged a (Capacitor/Coil) this was the basis of the wind up power,couple that with a wind up mechanism and presto! Mr Bayliss was a millionair. ;-)

-- Sir Benjamin Midllethwaite

That link posted by Lobster was interesting and answered much of the question.

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must have been a very risky job because if you think how can you build a wall from the top down? That takes some doing. My well seems to be lined with rough stones all the way down and they are packed into the mud or clay sides with occasional timbers like the one in the pic on that web site. Also once you get down to about ten feet you would be digging a wet bottom with water seeping in on you and the risk of the wall without a foundation falling down on you. The walls must have been tightly packed together like an arch in order to remain in place. I guess they may have worked in the period when the water table is lowest. seems to be October and March are the lowest times for some reason. They must have had a man pulling water out by the bucket all the time it was being worked and passing down the stones to a place only one man could work. Not an easy way to make a living and a definite skilled trade almost forgotten about.

They used risk. Well digging was a skillled trade, well paid, and they got killed doing it.

There are descriptions of it in many of the usual medieval-plus engineering history books.

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