Pumps History

Learn about the distinguished history of Flowserve pumps which spans more than two centuries.

Flowserve pumps has a distinguished history spanning more than two centuries. Its 19 heritage names of distinction have established an unequaled record of hydraulic engineering, mechanical design and materials science within the worldwide pumping industry. No other pump company can offer its breadth of product or services portfolio nor match its applications expertise.

In many cases, the Flowserve pump heritage companies grew and developed along with emerging industries. Oil and gas production, pipeline, refining, chemical and petrochemical processing, power generation (fossil and nuclear fueled), cryogenics – all required special purpose engineered pumping innovations. Entrepreneurial engineers with limited resources found niche markets and exploited them. As a result, their product lines grew and they expanded into other markets, including pulp and paper, mining and mineral processing, primary metals, desalination, food and beverage, and other industrial segments. Yet, the earliest of the Flowserve heritage brands addressed the more routine needs of their day: potable water treatment and transmission; dewatering; and maritime applications.

The first of the Flowserve pump lines was established in the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Based upon the work of Thomas Newcommen and John Cawley, James Watt perfected the steam engine in 1769.Two decades later, fellow Briton Thomas Simpson harnessed steam power to pumping engines for municipal water applications. Thus, in 1790, Simpson and Thompson Co. (predecessor to Worthington Simpson) was founded in London.

The next significant event in Flowserve pump history also revolved around the advance of the steam engine when Henry R. Worthington of New York invented the world’s first direct-acting steam pumping engine. Incorporated in 1845, Worthington Pump designed its first products to power canal boats and U.S. naval vessels. Soon, however, Worthington was pioneering pump designs for boiler feed, oil pipeline and hydro-electric applications.

Adam Cameron of New York, who founded the Cameron Steam Pump Works in 1860, was another pioneer in reciprocating steam pump engines. Like Worthington, Cameron’s first products were used to power merchant marine and U.S. naval vessels. Before long, Cameron pumps were being applied in water resources, oil pipeline and refining, and boiler feed.

In 1872 the world’s largest gold nugget, a 215 kg giant, was found in New South Wales, Australia. Another legendary gem, The Byron Jackson Company of Woodland, California, was also founded that year. The list of Byron Jackson “firsts” and “largests” in industrial pumping history is too long to enumerate in a short history, but it covers centrifugal pumps of almost every design and application.

Several other Flowserve pump lines trace their legacies to the 19th and early 20th centuries. Stork Pompen founded in 1868 in Hengelo, Netherlands, pioneered the concrete volute pump for water drainage. Founded in 1874 in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Wilson-Snyder grew into the premier line of slurry, pipeline and refinery pumps. In 1875 Thompsons (predecessor to TKL) was incorporated in Castlemaine (Victoria), Australia, to provide pumps for mineral mining and processing. ACEC (1881) of Charleroi,
Belgium, designed pumps for mining services, eventually extending its product lines into nuclear power and petroleum. In 1886 United Centrifugal Pumps of Oakland, California, was incorporated. It would grow into the world’s most respected supplier of high-pressure crude oil and refined product pipeline pumps. In 1902 Aldrich Pump Company of Allentown, Pennsylvania, began manufacturing the world’s first line of reciprocating positive displacement pumps for steel mills and mine dewatering applications. And in 1908 Western Land Roller of Hastings, Nebraska, took its first steps toward leadership in the design and manufacture of irrigation pumps.

The year 1912 will forever be associated with the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England. But it is also associated with the invention of a universally corrosion resistant-material called Duriron. Soon, The Duriron Castings Company began applying this material to process equipment. In 1924 Durco Pump, the world’s first pump specifically designed for chemical processing, was introduced to this nascent industry. It would go on to establish undisputed global leadership in ANSI pump design.
Several more important Flowserve heritage pump lines were established in the 1920s. Jeumont-Schneider began manufacturing water and slurry pumps in Jeumont, France, in 1921. Its later development of solids-handling pumps and segmental ring section multistage pumps remain important contributions. Originally founded in 1923 to provide irrigation pumps, Pacific Pumps of Huntington Park, California, quickly focused on the petroleum refining industry. Its leadership in heavy-duty double casing pumps has made it the preferred choice globally for high-pressure decoking systems. 1929 saw the incorporation of Pleuger in Berlin, Germany. Its first offerings were submersible motor pumps for dewatering in construction of underground railways and subways. Among its many achievements is the first successful application of submersible motor pumps in off shore service.

Two of the younger members of the Flowserve pump family are Sier-Bath (1945) and Scienco Pumps (1970). Founded in North Bergen, New Jersey, Sier-Bath has developed widely respected products in the pumping of high viscosity, high temperature and non-Newtonian fluids. More recently, it has been involved in leading technologies for surface and subsea handling of multiphase flow (oil-gas-water). Scienco of Memphis, Tennessee, has focused on agricultural chemical distribution pumping systems. It has pioneered closed transfer systems with “smart box” technology.

Each of the Flowserve heritage names of distinction has a remarkably rich history. Nearly all have played a leading role in the formation of the major industrial trade associations and in the formulation of these organizations’ standards. These include: ANSI, API, ASME, ASTM, DIN, ISO, JIS and other national and global standards.

The enclosed timeline will give you a more comprehensive understanding of Flowserve pump’s lineage than is possible in this narrative. Similarly, the enclosed appendix will impart some sense of the impact Flowserve has had on the global industrial pump marketplace.