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Volume 035-4 - October 1981 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
~ Nevada County Historical Society
Bulletin
Volume 35, No. 4 October 1981
HOW THE PUMP STOPPED
AT THE MORNING WATCH
INTRODUCTION
Elsewhere in this Bulletin the reader
will find a notice of a recent book by Lee
Ann Johnson on the artwork and the
writings of Mary Hallock Foote, who
lived in Grass Valley from 1895 until
1932 and who wrote seven novels
besides several short stories during
that time.
One of her novels and one of the
short stories play in Grass Valley and,
since this short story is now almost
forgotten, I am pleased to offer it again
to our readers. How the Pump stopped at
the Morning Watch was published in the
Century Magazine, vol. 58 (July 1899),
pages 469-472.
The story is based on two events
which took place at the Morning Watch
Mine (which is actually the North Star
Mine), the fatal accident of the pump
man John T. Thomas on October 2,
1896, and the break down of the pump
on February 3, 1897.
The pump was a Cornish pump, such
as has been described by Dave Beesley
in the Bulletin for April 1979 and of
which a working model can be seen at
the Empire Mine State Park. Water is
constantly seeping into a mine and, in
order to keep the mine operable, it has
to be continuously pumped out. In a
mine of some depth, one pump is not
sufficient, there is aseries of them, each
of which pumps into the sump of the
pump, located above it. All these pumps
are operated by one engine, located at
the surface. They are linked by a
flexible beam, moved by the surface
engine, which beam follows the main
tunnel of the mine. In order to keep the
mine dry, this Cornish pump had to
operate all day, day inday out, the year
around; a failure could not be allowed.
For this reason, the job of the pump
man, whose task it was to see that the
by Mary Hallock Foote
Mary Hallock Foote as a young girl.
25