The water suckers
About the work
This painting is an impression of the enormous suction dredgers of the De Cruquius pumping station. The De Cruquius pumping station dates from 1849 and is one of the three pumping stations used to drain the Haarlemmermeer between 1849 and 1852. The pistons are powered by the largest steam engine in the world, which has been decommissioned. The pumping station belongs to the Top 100 of Dutch national monuments. It is named after the Dutch hydraulic engineer Nicolaus Samuelis Cruquius, born in 1678 as Nicolaas Kruik.
The eight balance arms, each weighing 10,000 kilos, are hung with the pistons shown here, which act as a water pump. Together they raised 64,000 liters of water with each stroke of the steam engine. That came in the more than five meters higher wooden pouring floor around the engine room. The water then flowed through locks on both sides of the boiler house into the ring canal.
