The Cornish practices of that period were to firstly install a beam engine, to serve the dual purpose of both winding and pumping until sufficient reserves were proven, which would then warrant a separate winding engine.
If a coal mine was relatively dry and shallow then the cost of Pumps, along with Pumping Rods and Rising Mains would out weigh doing the job of getting water out of the mine in another manner.
The water could be removed with a cage like structure called a kibble designed to lift water instead of men and coal. The main difference would be that the bottom of the cage would be enclosed, with a valve allowing the tank cage to fill automatically when submerged and another, which allowed for discharge of water when at pithead. In some pits men using buckets filled the tank. These jobs were mostly done at night. One of the drawbacks of this system was that due to leakages the water caused damage to the ropes and guides in the shaft and put extra strain upon the winding gear partially when the water was being initially lifted violently from the sump area at shaft bottom.
