![Egypt](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Egypt.KomOmbo.Shaduf.01.jpg)
A shadoof or shaduf
(from the
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
word , ''šādūf'') is an
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
tool. It is highly efficient, and has been known since 3000 BCE.
Names
It is also called a lift,
well pole, well sweep, or simply a sweep in the US.
[Knight, Edward Henry. ''Knight's American mechanical dictionary''. Vol. 3. New York, Hurd and Houghton: Riverside Press, 1877. 2,468. Print.] A less common English translation is swape.
Picotah (or Picota) is a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
loan word. It is also called a ''jiégāo'' (桔槹) in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
. The
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
name is ''thulla'' (துலா) while
Telugu name is ''ethaamu'' (ఏతాము) or ''ethamu'' (ఏతము).
History
The ''shaduf'', or sweep, is an early
crane-like tool with a
lever
A lever is a simple machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or '' fulcrum''. A lever is a rigid body capable of rotating on a point on itself. On the basis of the locations of fulcrum, load and effort, the lever is d ...
mechanism, used in
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...
since around 3000 BCE by the
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
ns,
2000 BCE by the
ancient Egyptians,
and later by the
Minoans,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
(c 1600 BCE), and others.
It is generally used in a crop irrigation system using basins, dikes, ditches, walls, canals, and similar waterways. The sweep is used to lift water from a water source onto land or into another waterway or basin. The mechanism comprises a long counterbalanced pole on a pivot, with a bucket attached to the end of it.
It is still used in many areas of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
and very common in rural areas of
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
such as in the
Bhojpuri belt of the
Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
plain where it is named "''dhenki''". They remain common in Hungary's
Great Plain, where they are known as ''"gémeskút"'' (literally, "
heron
The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...
wells") and are considered a symbol of the region.
[Hortobágy National Park]
/ref> It was also known by the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
name ''kēlōn'' () or ''kēlōneion'' (); this term (קילון) is also borrowed in Mishnaic Hebrew
Mishnaic Hebrew is the Hebrew of Talmudic texts. Mishnaic Hebrew can be sub-divided into Mishnaic Hebrew proper (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which was a spoken language, and Amoraic Hebrew (also cal ...
.wiktionary.org/wiki/קילון
Construction
The sweep is easy to construct and is highly efficient in use
[
It consists of an upright frame on which is suspended a long pole or branch, at a distance of about one-fifth of its length from one end.][ At the long end of this pole hangs a ]bucket
A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical Cylinder (geometry), cylinder or Truncation (geometry), truncated Cone (geometry), cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle (grip), handle called ...
, skin
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...
bag, or bitumen
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
-coated reed
Reed or Reeds may refer to:
Science, technology, biology, and medicine
* Reed bird (disambiguation)
* Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times
* Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales
* ...
basket
A basket is a container that is traditionally constructed from stiff fibers and can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehai ...
. The bucket can be made in many different styles, sometimes having an uneven base or a part at the top of the skin that can be untied. This allows the water to be immediately distributed rather than manually emptied. The short end carries a weight (clay, stone, or similar) which serves as the counterpoise of a lever: The bucket can be lowered by the operator using their own weight to push it down; the counterweight then raises the full bucket without effort.[
With an almost effortless swinging and lifting motion, the waterproof vessel can be used to scoop up and carry water from a body of water (typically, a river or pond) onto land or to another body of water. At the end of each movement, the water is emptied out into runnels that convey the water along irrigation ditches in the required direction.][
The sweep has a lifting range of 1 to 6 meters. A study of efficiency in various sites in ]Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
has shown that one man can lift 10-34 gallons per minute over heights of 5.9-20 feet, and its efficiency has been calculated at 60%.[
]
References
External links
{{commons category, Shadoofs
The Shaduf Project: A European Commission Report on Mediterranean Shaduf Use and History
Irrigation
Water wells
Ancient Egyptian technology