Can anyone help identify what this piece is? It is galvanized metal about 8x12 inches.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Here's my guess: soap-keeper. Some indication on the internet of manual-assist washing machines (with tubs also of galvanized metal) made by a company called GEM in South Asia, so it might make sense to include this with purchase for chunks of solid soap. The decorative bit above the punched GEM appears (to me) to perhaps have that cultural flair as well.
What a neat item - too bad it's only the top to the Gem Galvanized Chain Pump. These have been around (in one form or another) for hundreds of years but similar ones are still being made and sold today.
You can find several of the complete package/pump for sale on eBay, Etsy, etc.
Since you only have the top, perhaps you can make it into some type of 'yard art'.
gggd is absolutely right. This is the top of a "Gem" well pump. GEM was a very common pump maker.
The pump has a hand cranked sprocket that pulls a loop chain up through a pipe. The chain has round rubber suckers on the chain every few feet. The suckers are a loose fit in the pipe. The pipe has a funnel/bell on the bottom to start the suckers up through the pipe. The top of the pipe is attached to a sump/box. The spout is hooked to this box. The suckers pull water up through the pipe.
It looks just like the top of this old pump:
www.worthpoint.com/
Good luck.
It is the top to cover the hand pump; we have one on our place and use it often. In the country many people used hand pumps and hung a metal mug on an S hook to drink freely from the pump when thirsty. It's very nostalgic. You can use the top you own as a flower planter and it would look nice.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
