Mysterious antique pump in residential garage

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Hello all,

I've got a circa 1900 property with a pump in the garage, and there's no record at city hall of what it is for or when it was installed. There's a small padlock lock at the end of that chain on the right that must have hooked to the loop on the bottom of the handle primer. Can anyone identify it and what it was used for? My plumber suggests that because it has a pump primer it was for fluid - either water or gasoline.

A friend who was in the construction business his whole life said this: "Back in the days people gathered rain water from the roof and had cisterns (sp) in the house to collect the water and hold it so it could be used to wash cloths, dishes, etc. I guess just that and the pipe was went into the cistern and in the garage they had a compressor to pump the water into the house when needed. 99% certain if this was a game of chance."

Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

RB in Massachusetts

[Roy N.]

Back when I was a young'n pumps quite similar to that were used on board the older boats in the fishing fleet as both bilge pumps (on smaller vessels) and to draw water from holding tanks.