Roger Parsons Groundwater Consultant
Windpump Photo Gallery
Windpumps have always been iconic symbols of our industry, so included here are a set of photographs from my travels.
Windpump Photo Gallery
Windpumps have always been iconic symbols of our industry, so included here are a set of photographs from my travels. Two slogans have remained with me throughout my career. The first from Andrew Stone during one of my first hydrogeology lectures “windpumps pump and windmills mill”, highlighting the fact that the steel flowers that dot the landscape in our country pump water and don’t mill grain. In modern parlance we should add wind turbines that generate electricity.
The second saying that sticks with me is “wherever you go you see them, and whenever you see them they go”. This refers to their ubiquitous presence and robust character. Since the first wooden windpump was erected in 1848 on Brinks Farm, Saldanha windpumps have been used to lift water. Slowly this is changing as cheaper, more efficient submersible solar-driven pumps replace them. But they just don’t have the same romantic imagery.
