Well Boring Machine - Creston, BC
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T0SHEA
N 49° 06.371 W 116° 31.366
11U E 534831 N 5439369
Another machine that is a first in our experience is this Well Boring Machine, on Display toward the rear of the Creston Museum, beside the old narrow gauge locomotive.
Waymark Code: WMKBVY
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 03/16/2014
Views: 2
We've all seen water well drilling machines mounted on trucks and even oil derricks drilling thousands of feet into the ground. How many of us have seen a well drilling machine of this type and vintage, though? I expect not many. Until a few days ago certainly not us.
The accompanying sign tells us that it was horse drawn, but leaves to our imagination exactly how it was powered. My imagination tells me that it was entirely manually operated, as there is a hand crank which connects, first to a winch used to raise and lower the borer via a cable, and secondly to a large turntable which turned the borer. Geared at at least 10-1, it would require ten or more turns of the crank to produce one revolution of the borer.
Let's for a moment imagine drilling (boring) a three hundred foot deep well with this thing. On second thought, no, let's not. I doubt that would ever have happened. 30, maybe 60 feet seems more within the realm of possibility with this machine. Good ground, soft, moist clay, no rocks and a few hard days of cranking and we have water. No sweat!!
My imagination, however, is obviously too limited to tell us the whole story. The boring machine was actually designed to be not only horse drawn but horse
powered as well. As well as human power, the machine will accept the input of horse power. Watch the video at the link below - it's worth a thousand words. This also explains how the machine
can, indeed drill wells much deeper than 50 or 60 feet.
This is one of the many outdoor displays at the museum, for which there is no admission fee required.
Adam Scovorenski of Lister, BC brought this horse-drawn, low-derrick well-boring machine into the Creston Valley in 1948. Prior to that, it was used in Saskatchewan, where it dug wells over 120 feet deep.
Horses, hitched to the machine, walk in circles around it, turning the auger.
Watch a
video of a similar machine in action at the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion in Mt, Pleasant, Iowa.
From the Creston Museum