cucumber pump

cucumber pump n Also cucumber wood pump esp C Atl hist

A type of simple well-pump, factory-made of the wood of the cucumber tree n 1.

1861 IL State Jrl. (Springfield) 1 July [2]/5, [Advt:] D. J. Boynton is General Agent for the sale of the celebrated Cucumber Wood Pump, and has a large lot on hand. 1863 Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington IL) 11 July 1/6, [Advt:] Notice.—The war in Pennsylvania has not, as [m]any suppose, prevented us from getting our usual supply of the celebrated Cucumber Pump! from that State. 1869 Daily State Gaz. (Trenton NJ) [27 Apr 4]/5, [Advt:] The Celebrated Cucumber Pump! Made of Wild Cucumber Wood, entirely tasteless and durable. No Yankee Patent, but a Good Old Fashioned Wooden Pump, costing less than half the price of the ordinary Log Pump, and warranted fully equal. 1876 Kendall & Whitney Annual Cat. 73, [Advt:] Laferty’s Patent Flexible Metal Lined Cucumber Wood Pump. Kendall & Whitney, Portland, Agents for the State of Maine. . . The Wild Cucumber Wood is peculiarly adapted for the purpose of a water drawer, it being very light and fine grained, yet the fibre is so tenacious that it will not check or crack from exposure to the summer heat or winter cold. 1889 Hotchkin Ancient & Modern Germantown 168 sePA, A modern cucumber pump, painted green, in the yard, . . in its fine bravery of bright color, and its ornamentation of yellow paint to enliven the green, contrasts strongly with the old wall of the house. 1894 Kinsley Graphic (KS) 10 Aug [5]/3, The latest thing we have seen in the way of a pump is made by M. Schou, . . to attach to his “Irrigator” windmill. It is made on the theory of the old cucumber pumps, with the exceptions that it is square, is made entirely of wood and is larger. 1926 Bucks Co. Hist. Soc. Papers 5.459 sePA, The “Cucumber” pump, while machine-made, was practically the same as the hand-made pump. It was lighter, however, and easily installed. 1939 Sun (Baltimore MD) 4 Oct 10/5 cnMD, [Letter:] A cucumber pump is usually square, made of four boards, 6 to 8 inches wide, and about four feet high. 1946 Gould Yankee Storekeeper 151 ME (as of 1880s), Some people had a new-fangled cucumber pump, but father stuck to the old chain pump. [1968 DARE FW Addit csDE, Cucumber-top pump: A wooden water pump with an oval protector fitted on top of the [pump] rod to keep birds from perching there and fouling the water. [DARE Ed: The reference is probably to the decorative finial on many such pumps, but there is no other evidence for this form of the name.]] 1988 Intelligencer Jrl. (Lancaster PA) 9 Mar 26/6, [Advt:] Public Sale Household Items Coins & Antiques. . . cucumber pump. 2006 News Jrl. (Wilmington DE) 14 June sec D 8/10, [Advt:] Public Auction. . . Many Old And Antiques Out Of The Barn. . . wooden barrels, snatch rope, wooden cucumber pump.