Illustrated Catalogue of Pumps and Pumping Machinery, 1897

This is the Section 1 catalogue and covers hand pumps and smaller pumps generally.  "For steam pumps and heavier pumping machinery, please apply for Section 2 catalogue".  The title page of the catalogue shows the lion trademark but also shows the words Evans, Reliable, Cornish, Ram and Premier as if they were trade marks.  It is doubtful, in the case of some of those words, whether they could have been a true trade mark.  In the illustrations in the catalogue nearly every one of the pumps has the lion trade mark clearly on it.  The indication is that when trying to identify an old pump the presence of the lion is a sure fire identifier but its absence is not conclusive proof that the pump is not by Evans.  

The catalogue illustrates at least 300 pumps and nearly every one of them is available in various conformations.  Although some of these pumps were certainly standards, and could be sent out to retailers such as agricultural suppliers and chandlers, most must have been assembled against an order.  Indeed, the catalogue provides a detailed questionnaire which should be completed and sent with each order, presumably so that the company could check each order for its suitability for its intended use, advise accordingly and assemble accordingly.

Here are just a few examples of the pumps in the catalogue.

On the left is the Colonial or Cistern lift pump.  It came in nine sizes of working barrel, with (as here) or without fixing lugs, "screwed for tube or, if desired, arranged for lead pipes" and the handle could be on either side.  These possible variations are typical of all the pumps in the catalogue. On the right is a Colonial or Cottage pump.

The catalogue contains many pumps which would have been suitable for supplying water to courtyard or terrace houses. The variant (left) is for "fixing in party walls where there is only one well to supply two or more houses". On the right is a pump "specially suited to village use".  The brick like thing is a "bucket" to let into the ground below the spout.

There is a wide variety of deck pumps - this one (left) is flush fitting with a hinged deck cover. On the right is a "strong standard lift and force pump for yards or public streets".

This is an Improved Colonial Lift and Force Pump "mounted on a wood wheelbarrow, which is a very handy portable arrangement".

There is also a good selection of semi-rotary pumps.  This one has a special tapered screw to fit in to barrels.  What the barrel might contain the catalogue does not say - but surely it would not be beer.

The semi-rotary pump on a tripod stand also has a foot valve.  A certain degree of co-ordination would be required to pump with one foot and the opposite hand and to direct the spray with the other hand, all at the same time.