Regular readers know my recent columns have focused on fishing tools. However, each month our editor gives a choice of topics so this month I let the fictional stuck tools be and write about a great advancement from many years ago: the pump hoist.
Pump hoists, at least in our region, were unknown when as a young boy I went with my father on jobs, at first as a companion and later as a helper. My dad did a lot of pump work, mostly on smaller 2-, 3- and 4-inch wells. We serviced many homes and dairy farms. How did we pull up the pipe that went down the casing? Or, perhaps, the pump rod on a stroke-type pump? Well, sometimes my dad and the farmer just used their backs and hands to do the lifting. For heavier jobs, he used a tripod with a block-and-tackle assembly.