Old Timey Water Supply

In the pre-industrial US, most people in my area got water from wells that they dug by hand. Around here, it's trivial to do. Dig a hole. Once it starts to fill up with water by itself, you have a well. Line the well with bricks, or rocks and mortar, or concrete and it's a legit source of water. I saw two such wells in my lifetime. One was in the backyard of my old house. One was about a mile from my parents house when I was in middle school.

The well at my old house was the original water supply for the place. (The house was built in the 1830s.) The handpump for the well was no longer operational when I owned it, but it was pretty obvious how it had been used and built. Someone used some steel tool to dig a hole into the sandstone bedrock beneath the property--probably just a heavy steel rod with a pointy end. The hole was maybe 8 feet deep and maybe the diameter of a dinner plate. Then they formed a concrete pad to seal the hole closed but left an opening for a hand pump. At one point, the pump was in a shed, but I tore the shed down because it had rotted away over the years, and demolished the pump pad and filled the hole up with concrete.

Back in the old days, when they needed water, somebody would have gone into the shed and filled a bucket with the pump. It was probably a chore that took less than a minute per bucket, but to get lots of water for a bath or something would have been a pretty major hassle.

When I was a kid, those kinds of hand pumps were pretty common ine local parks. Some of them were in disrepair and some worked. I remember drinking from those in the summers when I was out running around with my friends.

The development of plumbing systems shows how "the matrix" really works. Back in the early 1900s at my old house, maybe 30 minutes a day would be spent on water related chores. The upgrades for that scenario are really obvious--move the pump into the center of the house, like in the kitchen. That saves time, but then it needs a drain and probably a more elaborate setup because the pump and the hole in the ground are probably pretty far apart. Once there's electric motors, it's possible to hide the pump away and run a pipe to it, then you can run the pipes all over the house, then you need drains, etc... Every step makes life easier (less labor) for the home owner.

However, every step grows the plumbing in the house and the associated industries. The original 30 minutes a day people worked to get water turns into no time at all for the homeowner, but into 40 hour work weeks for countless people grinding away forever in the matrix. The homeowner grinds away too so they can pay for the plumbing. How much does it cost to install all new plumbing in a new construction house these days? It's probably close to $50,000 for every plumbing system. Water and sewer line hookup fees in a city, or a well and septic tank in a more rural area, plus all the plumbing in the house, hot water, etc... Add in financing on that $50,000 plus $50 per year for maintenance and the total cost of ownership for pipes and faucets is pretty steep. In the city, add in the monthly water and sewer bills. In a rural area, there's regular maintenance on a septic tank and well pump replacements, etc...