Pump jack Compilation - Pump Jacks in California

Oil Pump jacks are machines which is the old day use to bring oil up from deep in the earth. Some common nicknames in the oil industry are: horse heads, pumping jacks, oil horse, donkey pumper, nodding donkey, pumping unit, horsehead pump, rocking horse, beam pump, dinosaur, grasshopper pump, Big Texan, thirsty bird, or jack pump

Here is a link to one of our favorite pumpjack video shoots! https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&vide...

More information from www.sjvgeology.org/old_stuff/pumpjacks.html: The upright wooden post on the pumpjack above is called the "Sampson Post" and the rocking arm that pivots on top of the post is the "walking beam". On the back end of the walking beam is a counter weight, which is sometimes just a wooden box filled with rocks. The counterweight on the Taft pump jack above is a square block of white concrete.

Connected to the front end of the walking beam are "polish rods", or "sucker rods", that run through the "casing head" down into the well hole. These rods connect to the actual pump that sits deep in the hole immersed in oil. You can see the sucker rods on the left side of this pump jack, which sits in front of the Fellows Hotel exhibit at the Kern County Museum.

When sucker rods push down on the pump, a valve on it opens up so that as the pump moves down oil can flows into the space above the valve. When the upstroke begins, the valve closes and oil sitting above the valve now is lifted upward. At the same time, oil from the reservoir moves into the void beneath the valve, and as the downstroke begins the valve opens back up so that the cycle can begins anew. Thus, oil is lifted to the surface, one upstroke at a time.

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