Need help building a hand dug well

My friend and I were doing some thinking and we realized that we couldn't figure out how primitive people made wells.

He thought that there were basically an inverted cone, were the bottom hit the aquifer.

I thought that wells were made by digging a little bit, reinforcing the cylindar, and repeat the cycle until you hit water.

But I can not find any documentation on the web that explicitly tells you how to A) find water and B) construct a hand dug well. Does anyone know?

Good question!!

You would have to dig the hole first THEN reinforce from the bottom. If you reinforce as you go down you continually undermine your walling...

However the cone analagy would start to work with the weight of the reinforcing on the outside of the cone. .. but then are wells in cone shapes?

and anyway you can't BUILT a well.... you have to contruct or dig one....

Do you have any source for this?

there is much information on wells- a good one is the Chicago method of construction.
Click here

I remember, as a child, when we had a well drilled in Alabama. It was done by these two old, black men- and I watched them as they walked around and around for about three days- they hand drilled to eighty feet. Of course, this drilled well used an electric pump. They inserted the pipe as they drilled.

The main concern would be the level of the water table. Obviously, if you were hand constructing a well, water depth would be all important. You would not want an area that had water at 200 feet per say-

Here in Alaska many people depend on wells. Water quality varies from wells- from great Artesian water to nasty quality due to iron, sulphur, etc. in the underground geology that the well has penetrated.
So- if you are looking to build a well- plan carefully. Also, believe it or not- divining is an example of water source location. Copper works the best- I have seen this method employed numerous times prior to well drilling. A friend of mine bought a real nice lot with a view- drilled three wells at a total of 700 feet or so combined- no water. A friend of his who divines walked around for a few with his copper rods- told him where to drill...and he hit at 180 feet with great water quality.

Also- enter 'hand dug well' into google- plenty of information.