Tools and Trade Tuesday #4

Parts for a wooden pump and an 8ft auger from the mid 19th century

Before the time of metal fabrication facilities or the readily available pipe that we use today, there was once a trade directly involved in making home plumbing using large logs. One of the tools used to create wooden pipes and pumps is our focus in today’s Tool and Trades Tuesday. There were many reasons as to why a Pipe Maker would visit your home, but most often one was called so that he could install a wooden pump into a well. The process of boring a hole through the middle of a log was a very laborious task and some recounts from the 19^th century go as such, “A man could bore a 5 cm diameter hole through 11.6 m of pipe per day, if it were alder or elm, but only 1.95 m of pipe per day if it was in oak”- Encyclopédie (1751). It was not uncommon for a man of this trade to bore through a 20 ft or 6 m log. The auger needed to be very long, thus some innovations were made to help in this process. Some Pump makers made their augers into segmented pieces that could be connected if a longer length was required, others simply used massive augers. There was a great many steps that were required when boring a log, starting with drilling the pilot hole through the center, then passing a rope from one end to the other. This rope would be held by the Pipe Makers apprentice and attached at the other end to a specially designed auger. The apprentice would pull on the rope making the boring process less labor intensive.

Some of the tools used to make wooden pipes and pumps

During the first quarter of the 20^th century, the village of Dunvegan had its very own “Pump Man”. John Norman MacLeod was a well-respected pump maker who operated a thriving business in this area. John Norman out West to apprentice with another pump maker; he stayed for many years, but soon decided to move back home. Once back in Glengarry, he began to have aspirations to start a honeybee farm but was convinced otherwise by his parents - his brother took up that dream. John Norman practiced pump making for many years and had a large amount of clients to his name. The trade continued with his son Neil D. MacLeod and they are still known as the Pump Makers of Glengarry. The Glengarry Pioneer Museum has some of the MacLeod’s equipment and even some wooden pumps in various stages of completion.