Rim driven Scoop wheel of the Stretham Old Engine, Cambridgeshire Wipmolen Laaglandse Molen Hellouw scheprad

Dogdyke engine scoopwheel-Geograph-579691-by-Chris-Allen

A scoop wheel or scoopwheel is a pump, usually used for land drainage. A scoop wheel pump is similar in construction to a

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

, but works in the opposite manner: a waterwheel is water-powered and used to drive machinery, a scoop wheel is engine-driven and is used to lift water from one level to another. Principally used for land drainage, early scoop wheels were wind-driven but later steam-powered beam engines were used. It can be regarded as a form of pump. A scoop wheel produces a lot of spray. They were frequently encased in a brick building. To maintain efficiency when the river into which the water was discharged was of variable level, or tidal, a 'rising breast' was used, a sort of inclined sluice. The basic construction is, of necessity, similar to an undershot water wheel. The individual blades were frequently called ''ladles''. Scoop wheels have been used in land drainage in Northern Germany, in the Netherlands, and in the UK, and occasionally elsewhere in the world. They began to be replaced in the mid 19th century by

centrifugal pump Centrifugal pumps are used to transport fluids by the conversion of rotational kinetic energy to the hydrodynamic energy of the fluid flow. The rotational energy typically comes from an engine or electric motor. They are a sub-class of dynamic ...

s. The East and West Fens to the north of

Boston, Lincolnshire Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England. Boston is north of London, north-east of Peterborough, east of Nottingham, south-east of Lincoln, south-southeast of Hul ...

were drained by such pumps in 1867, but although they were smaller and more economical to install, a Mr. Lunn was still arguing that scoop wheels were a better solution if the initial cost did not rule them out, they were employed in situations where the water did not need to be raised by more than , and where the water levels of the input and output did not vary much. An interesting comparison between the two types of pumps is available, because a vertical spindle centrifugal pump was installed at

Prickwillow Prickwillow is a village in East Cambridgeshire with an estimated population of 440. Originally a small hamlet on the banks of the River Great Ouse, it is now on the banks of the River Lark since re-organisation of the river system. It lies in t ...

on the

River Lark The River Lark is a river in England that crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, alongside an existing scoop wheel. A series of tests were carried out in 1880, to check their efficiency. The scoop wheel lifted 71.45 tons per minute through , with the engine indicating that it was developing , while the newer installation was developing , and raised 75.93 tons per minute through . Efficiency was calculated as 46 per cent for the scoop wheel and 52.79 per cent for the centrifugal pump. The most significant difference was the coal consumption, which was reduced from per hour to per hour for the newer system.Hills (2008), pp.170-172

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Berney Arms windmill, preserved by English HeritageAn american example, sadly without pictures of the wheel
Drainage Industrial archaeology Pumps

See also

Pumping stations employing a scoop wheel

References

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