After seeing additional pics here's what I'm guessing they did when they
realized that they would have a hard time cleaning the salt cakes out of wire
wheels in their pit with a limited water supply and no easy way to pump it in
any volume even if they had the water available:
They found someone with a tank truck and a PTO driven centrifugal pump that
could maintain a constant head of water in the pipe. They got a bunch of 10
foot lengths of 1" pipe each with a tee and a hose bib on the end and
preassembled them. They parked the truck on a roadway next to one of the
commonplace brine ponds. These long lengths of pipe would put each cleaning
station far enough away from its neighbor to keep splashes localized.
Then they connected a hose from the truck to the first pipe, put a wheel in
place over the end of the pipe and connected the second pipe with the tee and
hose bib next to the wheel where a short length of hose could be directed on
the tire for the washing process. Note the wood blocks to hold the wheel and
tire above the pile of salt that collected there. And the pipe running
through the wheel hub hole would keep it from tipping over.
They would add pipes and wheels across the pond until all wheels were set up
to clean, then they would cap the end and turn on the pump at the truck. To
conserve water they probably used the brine and brushes and scrapers to rough
the bulk of the salt off, finish with fresh water and then when everything was
done dismantle the whole thing and carry the wheels to the truck for transport
back to the pits.
Ed Weldon
----- Original Message -----
From: BWANA343@aol.com
To: 23.weldon@comcast.net ; land-speed@autox.team.net
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Fw: Good detail Rollie Free photo in Life photo
archives
In a message dated 3/5/2010 11:21:57 AM Eastern Standard Time,
23.weldon@comcast.net writes:
> Aron -- Looks to me like an early and no doubt unsuccessful effort to
> level or more likely mark a course of some kind or maybe just an access
> road. Another possibility is a somewhat portable or at least moveable
> scheme to bring either a water pipeline or an electric conduit across an
> area of briny salt.
> Ed Weldon
I agree, seems similar to the wheeled irrigation devices common to the
western area of the US. Only in this app it removes water? IMHO FWIW
Bob W
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