Bucket

“ Instinctively the desire seized him to lower the bucket, pulling out the ratchet that held it, the old oaken bucket began [6] its unimpeded descent. Slowly at first, gaining momentum with each revolution of the windlass, down it fell, bumping against the sides of the well, chain clanging and windlass whirring. ”

“ And Captain Solomon told two of the sailors to come and to bring a big bucket. The bucket had a long rope fastened across, and the end was long enough to [Pg 70] reach from the water up to the deck of the Industry. They use buckets like that to dip up the salt water; and, when the ship is going the sailors have to be very careful and very quick or they will lose the bucket, it pulls so hard. ”

“ The dangling bucket was gently lifted from its hook, was nimbly clapped upon the sleeping serpent, and kept in position with one foot; striding with the other to within reach of the heap of wash-dirt, the steward filled his hat with this, and then reversing the bucket with equal courage and dexterity, had the snake buried in the stuff in an instant, and the bucket back on its hook in another. A quick swing over the side of the shaft, and down went the bucket of its own weight, with the snake already hanging over one edge. ”

“ The American—with which Americans are comparatively familiar—has a single bucket; it is larger than the French buckets, and is worked at the end of a lever. The French buckets, though smaller, revolve rapidly; their number and constant motion compensate perhaps for their size. Cuts of each system are annexed. It may be remarked as to French excavators, that sometimes the buckets ascend filled with earth below the bucket-ladder, as in the cut, and sometimes, the motion of the chain and position of the buckets being reversed, above it. ”

“ A lump of mud on one end of the pole balances the weight of the bucket on the other, and enables the man who operates it to lift his burden with ease. The bucket is made of rushes woven so tightly as to hold water, and at the same time be as light as possible, and it is dipped and raised with great rapidity. Water is lifted from six to eight feet by the shadoof. If a higher elevation is needed, a second and even a third or a fourth may be used; on the upper part of the Nile I have seen half a dozen of them in operation on a series of steps, one above the other. ”

“ These buckets being too heavy for a man to overturn to pour out the water, he bored a hole in each, and contrived to plug the holes so that the weight of the bucket as it bumped upon the trough prepared for it at the well's edge jogged out the plug and sent the water running down the trough into whatever pail or vessel stood ready to catch it. ”

“ Their ropes are of twisted hair, and are made to run over a smoothed stone, or a log of wood.
A pole and bucket is a very convenient way of raising water from 4 to 12 feet. The bucket may be made of canvas, basket-work, leather, wood, or almost any other material; leakage, though considerable, is of little consequence, because the action of the apparatus is so quick, that there is not time for much water to be lost. This contrivance is used over almost the whole globe--less in England than elsewhere; it is very common where long poles can easily be obtained, as in fir forests. ”

“ In Āgra, Chandwār, Bīāna and those parts, again, people water with a bucket; this is a laborious and filthy way. At the well-edge they set up a fork of wood, having a roller adjusted between the forks, tie a rope to a large bucket, put the rope over the roller, and tie its other end to the bullock. One person must drive the bullock, another empty the bucket. Every time the bullock turns after having drawn the bucket out of the well, that rope lies on the bullock-track, in pollution of urine and dung, before it descends again into the well. ”

“ Without a word the miner placed himself facing Dick, and the moment the bucket was again down the three grasped the handles. But quickly as they worked, the edge of the water was within a few inches of the shaft when the next man reached the surface; but again the bucket descended before the rope tightened. However, the water had began to run over the lip—at first in a mere trickle, and then, almost instantaneously, in a cascade, which grew larger and larger. ”

“ This is a simple and facile operation; there is no need of plumping the bucket up and down in order to fill it, the swift current has already done that for you, and has at once drawn out the whole length of the rope, while the bucket, with open mouth, seems ready to burst, like the frog in the fable, in the vain attempt to swallow the whole ocean. But to regain possession, or as Dan Carpenter, one of our Vermonters, had it, "revocare bucketum, hoc labor, hoc opus est." ”

“ Fig. 428.—The pole is planted in a tub.
The "Old Oaken, Moss-covered Bucket"
is very appropriate for woodland blossoms. Make the bucket of a strip of cardboard ten by four inches; sew the two ends together and cut a circular piece for the bottom; fit it in and fasten with long stitches. Cut the handle of cardboard one-quarter of an inch wide and sew it in place. Cover the bucket with strips of olive-green tissue-paper an inch and a half wide which have previously been crimped by being folded backward and forward. ”

“ Curb and bucket and sweep are there to-day, similar in form and appearance no doubt and equally useful for the drawing of water, as near like those of which the poet wrote as is the water of to-day like that of his time. Even at the well itself the lapse of a century has left but one thing permanent. ”

“ Besides that curious piece of still life, women frequently drew water from a well by the primitive contrivance of a beam suspended across an upright, with the bucket at one end and a stone at the other. ”

“ Two columns of mud, or brick, erected at the side of the ditch, support a beam of wood, across which is a pole with a weight at one end, and a rude wooden bowl- shaped bucket, suspended by a stick, at the other. A man stands under the bucket and pulls it down into the water. The weight helps him to push it up to the ditch above, where it is emptied. ”

“ If in port and the awnings were housed so as to shelter the crew from the falling rain, every wash deck bucket was put into use. When the awnings are housed only a few stops are in use and the remaining ones make excellent places to fasten an empty bucket. The weight [134] of it forms a ridge on the awning. In this way we could secure water at times for washing purposes.
We had a sailing launch which was seldom used. Only when all boats armed and equipped for distance service, were called away, or to abandon ship, did her keel touch the sea. ”

“ I got the bucket I used for water for the horses and stood it over the fire; I ran to the creek with the big kerosene-tin bucket and got it full of cold water and stood it handy. I got the spade (we always carried one to dig wheels out of bogs in wet weather) and turned a corner of the tarpaulin back, dug a hole, and trod the tarpaulin down into the hole, to serve for a bath, in case of the worst. I had a tin of mustard, and meant to fight a good round for Jim, if death came along. ”

“ The bucket, the loop of a strong chain connecting it with the windlass barrel, stood empty on the grass by the well rim—a great sheet-iron pail, capable of holding eight or perhaps half-a-score gallons. But the machinery by which it was manipulated was the most curious, being a nest of powerful cog-wheels and blocks, so adjusted under the butt of the windlass that, by turning a handle, a child, or little stronger, could wheel up the full bucket with perfect ease and as many pauses by the way as he chose. ”

“ A hole bored in the ear of other buckets will answer the same purpose. In all windy situations, the bucket must be near the end of the spout, or much will [Pg 405] be lost by being blown over by the wind. ”

“ Thus the group-souls gradually break up. Returning to the symbol of the bucket, as tumbler after tumbler of water is withdrawn from it, tinted with some sort of colouring matter and returned to it, the whole bucketful of water gradually becomes richer in colour. Suppose that by imperceptible degrees a kind of vertical film forms itself across the centre of the bucket, and gradually solidifies itself into a division, so that we have now a right half and a left half to the bucket, and each tumblerful of water which is taken out is returned always to the same section from which it came. ”

“ How to raise water constantly with two buckets only, day and night, without any other force than its own motion, using not so much as any force, wheel, or sucker, nor more pullies than one, on which the cord or chain rolleth, with a bucket at each end. ”

“ When this cylinder is lowered to the bottom of the bore, the bucket is lifted up by the rod and cord, and descends again by its own gravity, having a valve in the bucket, opening upwards, like other lift pumps; which, at every stroke, raises a quantity of water and sand in the cylinder equal to the stroke; the ascent and descent of the bucket being limited by a guide-piece at the top of the cylinder, and two small knobs upon the rod, which stop against the cross-guide. Fig. 42. is a tool for getting up broken rods. ”

“ There is grace in the steady throwing of the water—the brimming bucket poised for the throw, left foot cocked a few inches above the deck, the balance, and the sweeping half-circle with the limpid water pouring strongly and evenly over the planking ”

“ She had already filled the bucket three times at the spring, fortunately guided to it by the noise of the stream rippling over the stones, and three times she had fallen and spilled the cool water, but she would not relinquish her attempt. She would not despair. [57] Again she filled her bucket, and with the greatest efforts, creeping forward, feeling her way both with her hands and feet, she at last reached the cave with a sufficient supply of the precious fluid. She softly approached the old man, who was still lying in the same situation in which she had left him ”

“ Every link, or second link, carries a bucket, and the whole forms an endless chain of buckets. But these buckets, unlike elevator buckets, which are bolted on to a band or chain, are free to move on the axis on which they are suspended above their centre of gravity. When the conveyor is at work the buckets will always be in an upright position, whether the motion be vertical or horizontal. Each bucket carries its load to the point at which delivery is required, where an adjustable tippling device is ready to catch and tilt the bucket, thus emptying it. ”

“ But leather—indespensable for certain stumps which cannot stand a wooden bucket—has the advantage that it can be employed as a temporary fitting. During the first weeks, sometimes even for the first months, the shrinking of the stump can be accommodated by lacing up the bucket, and, when shrinkage is complete, the leg part of this first apparatus can be attached to a wooden bucket which the improved condition of the stump now renders possible. ”

“ Pretty maiden,
filling the bucket
with transparent water,
you, upon seeing me, don’t
bring your dark-skinned hand,
distracted,
to the black curls
of your hair,
nor do you later gaze at yourself
in the clear mirror...
You watch the air
of the beautiful afternoon,
while filling the bucket
with clear water.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content. ”

“ At the foot of the grave, in the right-hand corner, had stood a bucket, of which the hoops (in perfect preservation) occupied their position one above another as if the wood had been there to support them.
Fig. 3. This bucket (represented in fig. 3) appeared to have been about a foot high; the lower hoop was a foot in diameter, and the upper hoop exactly ten inches. A somewhat similar bucket is represented in one of the plates of Douglas's Nenia. The hooked feet appear to have been intended to support the wood, and prevent its slipping in the bucket. ”

“ When working in the hard boulder clay, for twenty-four hours with the full complement of twenty-seven men below in the air-chamber, and with four hydraulic spades going, a bucket was sent up every five minutes, or 288 buckets in the twenty-four hours, which was equal to a little over 5 cubic yards per man per twelve-hour shift. ”

“ An iron ring distends the mouth of the bucket, and when the vessel descends, the wet hide flattening down allows the water to rush in, and as the lifting commences, it falls back into its original form, filled to the brim with the dirty fluid. ”

“ In working from an open water, such as a gutter, drain, river, or pond, it is proper, in order to prevent sand or gravel being drawn into the engine, to sink an iron or wooden bucket, into which the suction-pipe of the engine should be placed. If nothing better can be had, a good wicker basket will be found useful. ”

“ The buckets have steel mouthpieces, some with quite sharp projecting lips, which cut into the sand and gravelly bottom, and scoop up what fills each bucket. At the bottom of each are cullender holes, through which the water drains off as the buckets go on and pass over the platform and empty themselves on an inclined plane, down which the contents fall into a boat, which rows away when full, and deposits the contents wherever wanted. If you ever looked at a book at Edgeworthstown called Machines Approuvés, you would have the image of this machine. ”

“ A wooden water bucket that has been soaked for a day or two so that every part of the wood is saturated with water, will, if kept closed, keep water all day in the open field practically as cool as when it left the deep well, and often cooler. ”

“ If a bucket of water be suspended by a number of threads, and these threads be twisted by turning round103 the bucket many times in the same direction, on allowing the cords to untwist, the bucket will be whirled rapidly round, and the water will be observed to rise on its sides and sink at its centre, owing to the centrifugal force with which it is driven from the centre. ”