What was pump priming?

1 Answer
aielliot
Nov 13, 2016

In old style hand pumps on wells it was necessary to pour a small amount of water into them to "prime the pump" so it would pump water. Otherwise the water just wouldn't flow.

Explanation:

It also became an expression to refer to anything that needed a little bit of something to get things going. An example would be to invest a little bit of money in to something to get a larger amount to come out. The investment would be needed to "prime the pump".

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