Hydraulic Pumps of Agricola’s De Re Metallica (1556)

Alluvial Gold Mining from Argonauts to Agricola

“…Piston pumps (Figure 4c). The bucket line pump [13] has been recorded since ancient Greek and Roman times, and was also used during the Middle Ages. Generally, wheel pumps are divided into two categories: the Egyptian wheel (noria) and the bucket chain pump, which are the most commonly used.…”

“…The pater noster pumps [13] consist of a chain with a closed loop that moves inside a tube, made of perforated wood logs. The chain slides inside the pipe by means of a pulley, which is fitted onto the shaft of the water wheel.…”

“…In this arrangement, the mechanism for converting rotary to reciprocating motion rested on a rotating shaft, which was particularly common in those days. In this way, water was drained from wells up to a depth of about 30 m (Figure 4c) [13].…”

De Re Metallica: An Early Ergonomics Lesson Applied to Machine Design in the Renaissance

“…The technological level of the machines used in these industries has reached our days, with a reasonable level of detail, through various technical treatises, such as De La Pirotechnia (Biringuccio, 1540) [10], Le Diverse Et Artificiose Machine Del Capitano Agostino Ramelli (Ramelli, 1588) [11] and De Re Metallica (Agricola, 1556) [12]. Existing originally as military engineering treatises, books on machinery began to cover almost every technical sector in the 15th and 16th centuries [13].…”

“…Hence, the sixth book (one of the most important sections in the whole work) describes various systems for raising water with a high level of detail: chain of buckets, paternoster and piston pumps. Even a new machine for water drainage is described, in which the length of the pump body is independent from the depth to be drained [13]. Most of these systems required human intervention to operate.…”