Mystery object?

[Tim+]

? of the Victorian plumbing variety.

I was walking down a small country lane today and espied this object in the field next to the road.

It?s a cast iron tube about 12? in diameter at the top but appears to taper slightly towards the bottom and it?s about 5 foot long, or I should say ?high? as it?s lying on its side.

You can see the feet at the bottom of the tube and the plinth on which it once stood.

At the top there is a geared hand crank that turn a cogwheel centred down the long axis of the tube.

There is a 3 or 4? cast iron inlet/outlet pipe that enters/exits about

4/5ths of the way up and leads to a rough stone built structure where the pipe evidentLy turns skywards and now terminates.

There also a cast iron funnel like thing lying on the ground near the ?cylinder head?.

The only other clue to its function is that just outside the field in the road verge is a manhole cover where running water can be heard.

I did wonder if it might be some sort of hydraulic ram for pumping water uphill but I can?t find any similar photos. It it was a ram I would expect it to be firmly bolted down. The feet and the plinth don?t show any evidence of having been bolted down.

The only other thing that comes to mind is perhaps some sort of water filtration column but it doesn?t look designed for easy access for cleaning out.

Any thoughts?

Tim

[Andy Burns]

What's the manufacturer name cast into that valve say?

WAYNE ABBOT LTD or something ....

[newshound]

It looks as though it might have been moved from its original position or at least orientation. Could the crank and gears have been to rotate an auto-cleaning filter element (like drum screens on power station coolant inlets)? I thought ram too, but it does not look quite right to me.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Hand cranked toilet flusher?

There are some very odd bits of plumbing about that used to be in public toilets which as we all know used to exist but now are long gone. Brian

[Dave W]

The "cast iron funnel like thing" might be a pressure or temperature gauge face down, broken off the cylinder head? If so, if you can nick it the dial might give a clue to the function.

[Tim+]

This is what it turned out to be (probably).

Not sure I?m convinced by it being a filter rather than a pressure regulator say.

Tim

[AJH]

Well discovered

[Tim+]

?Twas not me who found the link. ?Twas a sheddie.

Tim

[Chris Hogg]

Is it your regulator in earlier times, before it became redundant, or was yours hundreds of miles away? I see a tree and a wall in about the same places in both images.

[Chris Bacon]

I think it work(s|ed) by being fed from a higher resevoir (head of water, hence the pressure) which flowed through the device, wherein little bits of stuff were trapped by screens, filtered water passing through. When the screens became too bunged up, valves would be turned off, the winding handle twiddled to dislodge the stones and bits of suuff from the screens, an "dump" valve would be opened to let incoming water flush out the muck, then the thing being restored to its original state, it would continue to filter until next maintenance.

[Tim+]

Certainly plausible except that it didn?t appear to have enough inlets/outlets to do all that. Problem is, it?s about 40 miles from me in a direction I have little call to travel to so it?s not easy to just nip back and have a closer look.

Maybe next time I fancy a trip to Millport. ;-)

Tim

[Chris Bacon]

It's got plates that can be undone. If it's of any help, it's also got "PRESSURE FILTER" cast into the iron plate bolted to its side. Similar things continue today with pond filters, for ponds.

[newshound]

Well done! Mather and Platt, a fine old firm.

[newshound]

And my original guess was pretty close too!