Do you think this is an oil well, water well or what? (Tintype)

[DDTJRAC]

TL;DR Summary

Old west tintype...looking for info on subject matter.

Maybe 1860s - 1870s tintype. Post processed heavily to reveal the image.

What do you think they are building?

I'm not student or engineer. I'm an archivist. (non-professional) I get lots of old photos and films that need some deciphering, so hope this group can help out.

 

[Baluncore]

Welcome to PF.

I think they are digging a square section, vertical shaft, for use mining heavy metals.

The shaft headgear being constructed, with the rocking arm, is being used to lift the spoil from the shaft, maybe in the barrel now near the top. Judging by the spoil heap behind the headgear, they have dug down quite some way.

In the foreground of the headgear, there is a man leaning on a stack of planks, that are probably being used to shore up the walls of the shaft. Their length indicates the dimension of the shaft, while an estimate of the volume of spoil, could reveal the depth reached at the time. Spare planks indicate they are not yet at depth, or that they are now following a seam horizontally.

In the foreground of the picture, there are some sloped boxes (or baulks of timber?) with a man standing behind them. They look a bit like wash boxes, used for separating out heavy metals/minerals.

The building has an unusually tall chimney. My guess is that there is a furnace used for processing the ore, a stationary steam engine being used for pumping or crushing, or maybe a blacksmiths forge being used to sharpen and harden the tools being used to dig the shaft.

 

[berkeman]

I did a Google Images search on that image (via Lens) and got a number of similar looking images. Perhaps you can do that search to help your research into what kind of operations are depicted in the related images.

 

[DDTJRAC]

Thanks for the help!