Early history of the undertaking—1879. way a mile west of Portskewett Station at Caldicot Pyll. The engines at the main shaft stood idle, the boilers were out of steam, most of the men who had been employed had left in search of other work, and the water in the shaft was standing up to the level of high water in the Severn.
The pumping-engines at Sea-Wall, Marsh, and Hill Pits were still at work, as the working of those pits had been in the hands of Mr. Norris and Mr. Brotherhood; but no work was being done below, orders having been given to these gentlemen to suspend their operations.
The pumps were able to keep the Hill Pit dry, but were not sufficiently powerful to drain either of the dipping headings from the Marsh or Sea-Wall Shafts while the main shaft and heading were full of water.
Immediately after the irruption of the Great Spring, and before the contract was let to me, the Great Western Railway Company, under Sir John Hawkshaw’s advice, had ordered two additional pumping-engines with large pumps to contend with the extra volume of water. The one was a Cornish beam-engine with a 75-inch cylinder, intended to work either a 38-inch bucket-pump or a 37-inch plunger-pump. The other was a 70-inch cylinder beam-engine, to work two 28-inch bucket-pumps.
It may be as well here, as this is intended to be a popular account, and not written for professional readers, to state the difference between bucket and plunger pumps.
