Letters and Miscellanies

By Staff
Published on November 1, 2005
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'Left and below: John E. Killam snapped these shots of a 6 HP McCormick-Deering, no. W3668, built by International Harvester Co. Check out the log! '
'Left and below: John E. Killam snapped these shots of a 6 HP McCormick-Deering, no. W3668, built by International Harvester Co. Check out the log! '
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'Far left and left: A water pump, photographed by Martin Zirger, sitting in Hammondsport, N.Y., near Highway 54. The pump sports a 6-cylinder Hercules engine. '
'Far left and left: A water pump, photographed by Martin Zirger, sitting in Hammondsport, N.Y., near Highway 54. The pump sports a 6-cylinder Hercules engine. '

This pump sits near Highway 54, along the outskirts of
Hammondsport, N.Y. The last time I saw it while passing through the
area, it was complete and restorable. How long it’s been sitting in
its outdoor retirement home, I don’t know. It is an estimated
1930s-vintage water pump built by who knows, but one of the tags on
this rig says, “Army Corps of Engineers.”

It has a 6-cylinder Hercules engine that I believe is gasoline,
but it may be a diesel – it’s been long enough I can’t recall for
sure. It is directly coupled to the pump which has a 6-inch intake
and outlet for the water. The steel wheels are 4 feet in diameter
and the faces are about 8 inches wide. It appears that the eye hook
on the top side of the unit was possibly there for a helicopter to
place it in remote areas, but since I was told by the owner this
pump weighs in at 6 tons dry, I would question the helicopter
theory.

Martin Zirger
Tiffin, Ohio
basco@bright.net

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