Junk or what?

[AndyPParticipant @andyp13730]

It’s a water pipe, common in some parts of the world until around 1900, still in use remarkably, see here

 

Andy

[Gordon WParticipant @gordonw]

Yeah, well ,I knew it was a pipe really. The recent burst pipe in Belfast, N. I. resulted in timber pipes being exposed, and still in use.

[MetalhackerParticipant @metalhacker]

After years in the Wheatbelt of WA, it looks to me like a segment, long rotted, of the Perth to Kalgoorlie water pipeline. A marvel of engineering but the engineer thought it had failed when first swithched on, so he committed suicide in Mundaring Dam. I think that was it anyway. Now of course it is made of steel. and has electric not steam pumps. Many years ago I was given a bit of 1″ stainless that came from it. Incredibly hard and wears out hacksaw blades like nothing else.

 

All the best

 

Andries

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

Water pipe, in OZ ! larger pipe more like.

Cheers Derek

[Tony JeffreeParticipant @tonyjeffree56510]

Posted by magpie on 05/04/2011 16:33:09:

Water pipe, in OZ ! larger pipe more like.

Cheers Derek

I guess it would definitely have been larger if it was a lager pipe…

 

Regards,

Tony

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Hey Graham

 

You say you cannot participate at work – that sounds like a cushy job ! ( Hence the dreaming about lager I suppose)

 

Norman

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I was going to say it might have been a well tube with which you could obtain water from below ground, but it looks as if Andy has it sussed with his link.

 

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 05/04/2011 20:03:39

[TerrydParticipant @terryd72465]

You Guys,

 

you’re so practical, you can’t see the truth. It’s the remains of an ultra bass digeridoo after being played by one R Harris.

 

Regards

 

T

[magpieParticipant @magpie]

Thank you Tony, It’s my age you know. At least that is my stock excuse these days, plus I never touch the stuff anyway.

Cheers Derek

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Good morning gentlemen!

Congratulations must go to Thor, Peter, Nick, Norman, Andy, Gordon, Andries, and Derek for their correct guess. AND, a big thank-you for everyone else who contributed. If you guessed that it was a section of a wooden water main, you were spot on.

 

That’s a good website Andy!

I had a good laugh at your suggestion Terry, especially since the pipe measures almost 24″ (600mm) diameter. I’d expect that it would require an oversized mouth and produce a note so low that only whales would be able to hear it.

Now here are the details to accompany my photographs in my album marked “A Load of Junk?” :-

 

About a kilometre from where my wife and I live, engineers are installing and coupling a new gas pipe into the current system in order to boost the gas pressure. During the excavation process reaching down to a depth of about 3 metres, a section of an old water main was severed to make way for the new pipe and some valve gear. It was this piece of pipe which had been torn up, and placed near the walking track which our dog and I use every morning. At first, I thought the pipe was just a bit of an old farm drain shoved under the track, but it was the construction which really caught my eye. So later in the afternoon, camera in hand, I set off.

As I was about to take photographs, one of the engineers came over to see what I was doing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a piece of a wooden water main, perhaps a hundred or more years old.” he explained.

I later checked on the Internet, and discovered that in Australia, these pipes could have been layed in the late 1800’s. We chatted a bit more about the pipe’s construction, then I took a string of pictures.

The pipe measures about 23″ inside diameter, and the inside layer is made up of 22 strips of red gum, which appear accurate enough and fit together very neatly to have been machined inside and out. (See my diagram). Besides being curved in profile, they are partially tenoned with `V’ shaped (90 degree) tenons.

Wrapped around the layer of red gum is a layer of 5/16″ diameter steel wire, which has been wound around at about 13/16″ pitch. A third layer covers the wire and appears to be felt-like. This is heavily coated in bitumen which was still sticky to the touch. Upon further examination, the inside of the pipe may have been coated with a cement-like substance, although this may be just a coating of silt. My photograph of the inside of the pipe seems to indicate that the bottom of the pipe was on the left, while on the right, there is just a small amount of surface rot.

There is clear evidence that the pipe was made in sections and spigoted one end into the next. However, it wasn’t possible to determine the length of a section of this pipe since some of the piece was still in the ground. The condition of the wood is quite remarkable, with hardly any signs of rot. Similarly, the steel wire has been well protected from rusting.

What sort of pressure must this pipe have had to endure, if the pipe were running full from a mountain water supply? The engineer said he would like to know how they arranged a bend in a pipe of this design. There can also be quite large forces in play as the water changes direction.

So far, I haven’t found details of a pipe of this type of construction, which come anywhere near 24″ diameter. That would also explain why the steel wire was wrapped around with such a close pitch.

 

As for my skeleton clock project Norman, a series of health issues have distracted my attention somewhat, as has working in an over hot garage.

 

Best regards to all,

 

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 06/04/2011 01:17:48

[TendorParticipant @tendor]

Andries account of the Western Australian Goldfields Water Supply Scheme has the basics of the history. The details were:

The Engineer, C.Y.O’Connor (Irish, via New Zealand), was very confident in the viability and engineering soundness of the scheme. However he was hounded by politicians and the print media and had to face several enquiries and Royal Commissions. Eventually, well before the scheme was completed, being totally worn out by the politics, he took his own life in the ocean near Fremantle (Perth’s port). When the scheme was commissioned, it was a complete success.

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

I would suggest that they may have used iron pipe sedtions for the bends. On the turbine that we have at our museum, the penstockis fabricated from iron sheet rivitedto fofm a pipe about 3″ dia and about 12ft longin an S shape, horizontal at the top, the vertical down to the turbine casing, then horizontal into the casing. It’s approx 3/16″ thick, and has survived since1879. I suspect that the wire on that pipe of your’s is wrought iron also, that would explain the limited rust, its also easy to wrap it round a thing like the wooden pipe. You’ll proberbly find in parts of Austrailia, as here in NZ, old non galvanised fencing wire, its some times nearly 1/4″ dia, but no rust, its main problem was that it stretched, and was heavy, so along came no 8 galvanised wire.Ian S C

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