hogger pump

A hogger pump is the uppermost pump station installed in a mine pit or shaft, positioned to receive water from the lower pumps and lift it toward the surface or to a higher intermediate stage. In deep mines where a single pump cannot overcome the total head of water, multiple pumps work in series, each raising the water incrementally; the hogger pump is the final stage in this vertical relay, handling the final lift with water already partially raised by the pumps below it.

The term reflects the practical hierarchy of mine dewatering. Water seeping into a pit collects at the lowest point; smaller pumps stage it upward through successive chambers or sumps, each with its own pump, until the hogger pump receives the partially lifted column and drives it the remaining distance to surface or adit. This arrangement reduces the load on any single pump and avoids cavitation issues that arise when a pump must create too much head at once.

Hogger pumps were typically centrifugal or reciprocating units sized to match the flow rate from lower stages. Because it handles comparatively cleaner water (having already passed through lower sumps where grit and debris settle), the hogger pump could be smaller and more efficient than the lower stages, which often contended with muddy or sandy influent. In some mines, the hogger pump drove an air pump or other auxiliary equipment at the same time.

The term is now archaic, largely replaced by modern integrated pumping systems that use single deep-well turbine pumps or progressive cavity pumps capable of handling total head in one stage. However, in old mine records, maintenance logs, and heritage mining documentation, the hogger pump remains a marker of Victorian and early twentieth-century mine engineering practice. Understanding its role helps explain why abandoned mines often show multiple pump house foundations at different elevations along the shaft.