The historical Fairburn bailing scoop is a low-lift tilting water scoop. It revolves about a fixed fulcrum, fills through opening valves at the low end of the stroke and can be connected to a walking beam or directly to a vertical engine.
Fairburn Bailing Scoop Interactive Calculator
Compare volume per cycle and average flow as a tilting scoop, connecting rod and walking beam move through the fill, lift and discharge sequence.
Equation Used
- Entered fill efficiency represents all incomplete filling and retained-water effects.
- Every counted cycle reaches the low fill position and upper discharge position.
- The historical walking-beam linkage is shown schematically with fixed pin distances.
- No head loss, leakage, valve dynamics, force, power, stress or structural sizing is calculated.
Average flow is calculated from entered scoop volume, filled fraction and cycle rate. The animation uses illustrative timing and proportions; it does not determine filling time, lift power or the loads on the beam and structure.
Tilting scoop on a fixed fulcrum
The 1840 description identifies a large scoop A revolving on fulcrum C. A reciprocating engine beam raises a counterweight on its opposite end so the scoop descends to the lower level and fills through opening valves D, D. Reversing the beam raises the scoop and discharges it at the upper level.
Hiscox later summarized the same topology as a tilting scoop for low-lift drainage or irrigation, connected either to a walking beam or directly to a vertical engine.
Low-lift water transfer
The tilting scoop raises water from a lower level to an upper discharge for drainage or irrigation. Its delivered volume depends on filling and retaining water through each cycle. The volume calculation does not determine the maximum lift or an achievable cycle rate.
Volume per cycle and average flow
If V is scoop volume, eta is the entered filled fraction and N is completed cycles per minute, the ideal average delivered flow is Q=V eta N. Water per cycle is V eta, and hourly volume is 60Q.
This is not a hydraulic or power model. It does not establish lift height, filling time, valve loss, leakage, required engine work or safe mechanism dimensions.
Reading the calculator
A 15 L scoop entered at 75% fill and 12 completed cycles per minute gives 11.25 L per cycle and an ideal average 135 L/min. That result is arithmetic, not evidence that a particular historical scoop or drive can sustain those inputs.
Scope and limitations
The illustration shows fixed scoop fulcrum, rigid tilting body, flap-valve locations, connecting rod and walking beam. Phase timing and proportions are illustrative. A real installation requires head, valve area, fill time, water inertia, leakage, counterweight, beam and pin loads, foundation reactions and structural checks.
Questions
Is this a freely swinging hand bucket?
No. The historical figures show a large scoop revolving on a fixed fulcrum and driven by reciprocating machinery.
Does the calculated flow include the effect of lift height?
No. Lift height affects required work and feasible cycling, but it is not part of this ideal volume-per-cycle calculation.
Why are valves shown in the scoop?
The 1840 description states that the scoop fills through opening valves at the lower level.
Primary references
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