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The cistern is the storage header tank for supplying the wheel with water. The water was channeled in lades for many miles around the surrounding hills and eventually brought to the upper part of the Laxey mine site to feed other machines. After the water was discharged from these machines it was fed to the cistern and in turn down through a cast iron pipe to rise again inside the stone tower of the wheel. The cistern is two feet higher than the wheel and so the water ran freely by gravity alone.
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