A machine for raising water by means of an endless chain; most commonly the chain passes in its upward course through a tube, and raises the water by means of disks or valves which fit the tube; sometimes the chain has simply a number of buckets or cups, by which the water is lifted to the top and there emptied out.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Inv. Shipping, 16. The Chaine pumpe, which takes up twice as much water as the ordinary did.
1781. Archer, in Naval Chron., XI. 288. The chain pump was choaked.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xix. He requires the chain-pumps to be manned.
