I cleared about three meter archive. Most of it was old administrational stuff and copies of reports that needed not to be kept. They are back in the paper recycling, giving our office some welcome extra space.
However I also came across many items that I very much liked to see again. One of these items was the front page (sadly only the frontpage!) of a construction manual of the rope pump, such as Valentine Julien and I made, when we still in Ambon after a project on the constructing of wells in Waipia at Ceram/Indonesia. That was back in 1986. Also photographs made in that project of work done on the well cover ring. Pictures from that manual frontpage now help explain how a rope pump can be mounted on the wll cover ring.

Right now old news is news again. The picture shown here was taken in 1976, showing farmers lifting water from a well with a rope and bucket. Jos Besseling at that time was working on the rope pump in Burkina Faso. He also worked on the manufacring of pulleys to ease the watering of cattle. His approach was different from what we try out now on behalf of the project in Senegal.
He used a front wheel hub mounted in a disk of hard wood cut to size on a wood lathe. Much water could be lifted from a well using two rubber bags at each end of the rope running over this pulley. His findings in that experiment are very inspiring: the pulley with dubble bag system lift about as much water as the rope pump. Precondition is a good working position for the person pulling the rope.
A good workng position, that is still lacking for the Senegal project. But not for long! Rogier and I made the first crude version of a support for our version of a pulley. Next week I should be able to report on it with some images.