Ships' Bilge Pumps

Book excerpt: Beginning with early sixteenth-century documents that recorded bilge pump design and installation and ending at about 1900, when bilge pumps were being mass-produced, Oertling covers a period of radical technological change. He describes the process of making long wooden pump tubes by hand, as well as the assembly of the machine-crafted pumps that helped revolutionize ship construction and design. Also given in detail are the creation, function, and development of the three types of pumps used from about 1500 to well into the nineteenth century: the burr pump, the "suction" or common pump, and the chain pump. Of further interest is Oertling's overall examination of the nature and management of leaks in ships' hulls.