Photo Description
This massive Cornish pump was installed at the Ontario mine starting in late 1881. It took thirty Union Pacific freight cars to transport the parts to the mine. Some of the castings weighed ten tons. Assembling the pump at the mine took nearly two years, and was completed late in 1883. A USGS report described the pump:
The flywheel was 30 feet in diameter and weighed 70 tons. The pumps were 20 inches in diameter, had a 10-foot stroke, and were capable of throwing 320 gallons of water at each stroke. The pump rod, of Oregon pine, was 1,060 feet long and 16 inches square, and its several sections were united by iron strapping plates 1 by 10 and 1 by 12 inches 30 feet long, The pump lifted 2,560 gallons a minute, 153,600 gallons an hour, or 3,686,400 gallons a day from the 1,000-foot level to the drain tunnel on the 600-foot level.
