Waterworks
a term applied to a system of pumps, tanks, and pipes designed to furnish a supply of water. By living along the shores of fresh waters a sparse population may get on very well without waterworks. Springs and surface wells furnish a supply in a farming country, but a town cannot reach any considerable size without the need of bringing water from outside, sometimes from a great distance. Drinking water may indeed be carried on donkeys, as is yet the case in many oriental cities, but some more extensive supply is required for general purposes.
How to secure an abundance of water is one of the problems of civilization. Four general methods of supply are in vogue.
1. Bringing the water in mains or aqueducts from high distant sources, usually lakes or artificial reservoirs like millponds situated on high ground. The natural weight of water running down hill gives sufficient pressure. Jerusalem obtained water in this way from "Cool Siloam's shady rill," Hebron, and Bethlehem; Athens, from Mounts Hymettus and Pentelicon. No less than nine aqueducts brought water from the spurs of the Apennines to ancient Rome. Three of these still supply the modern city. As early as 1613 London began to bring water from higher ground. Manchester brings 50,000,000 gallons a day from Lake Thirlmere, 100 miles away in Cumberland. Glasgow depends on Loch Katrine, twenty-six miles distant. New York draws its supply from the Croton River and other sources thirty odd miles up the Hudson. Boston brings in water from high land in two directions. Baltimore, San Francisco, St. Paul, Seattle, and many others may be added to the list.
2. A second method of securing pressure is that of raising water by pumps into artificial reservoirs where it may settle, and if need be, pass through sand filters. Sufficient head for domestic purposes can be secured in this way. In 1562 sixteen force pumps driven by a current wheel were set at work to pump Thames water into a reservoir 120 feet above tide. From this reservoir water was delivered through lead pipes to houses in the immediate vicinity of London Bridge. The first reservoir of this sort in the United States is said to have been built at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, about 1760. Water was driven by a five-inch force pump through pipes bored in hemlock logs up into a reservoir seventy feet above the streets. Of American cities, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, St. Louis, Louisville, Omaha, Kansas City, and Minneapolis draw water from elevated reservoirs filled by force pumps.
3. A third method is that of forcing water from the source of supply as a lake, well, or river directly into the waterpipes of the city. The pressure in a house pipe is thus derived not from gravity but from the piston of a steam pump. Waterworks of this sort force water from twenty-five deep limestone wells into the pipes of Indianapolis. Dayton and Columbus, Ohio, employ the same method of obtaining pressure.
4. The fourth method of obtaining pressure or head is like the second only on a smaller scale. Water is pumped up into standpipes or elevated tanks. This is the usual plan in level districts. Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee follow this plan, water being secured through intake pipes running far out into the lake beyond danger of shore contamination. In Syria buckets are attached to waterwheels driven by the current. They fill in passing through the water and empty into a trough as they descend. Thus the stream scoops a part of itself up into a cistern from which water is drawn for irrigation. Some of these creaking, groaning, dripping wooden wheels are eighty or ninety feet in diameter. In the smaller towns of our Western prairies, the round watertower or public tank is elevated on wooden or iron trestle work. It is the most conspicuous object in the horizon. It is higher and can be seen farther than the grain elevators. Railroads follow this method ordinarily.
Whatever the source from which water is obtained, the system of distribution is much the same, usually through underground watermains, service pipes, and house fixtures. The mains are constructed usually of cast-iron pipes made in sections, which are laid end to end in a ditch, cemented, and then covered again. Large valves at intervals enable those in charge to shut water out of any portion while repairs or alterations are being made. These mains are sometimes so large that an average person can walk through them without stooping. To prevent rusting, they are often coated outside and in with a mixture of coal tar and asphaltum. House pipes are made usually of lead. Outdoor pipes or hydrants, usually at street corners, supply water for street sprinkling and fire engines. Consumers are charged either so much a quarter, according to the size of the house, that is to say, the evident demand for water; or else the charge is fixed at a price per 1,000 gallons. In the latter case the amount used is determined by a water meter placed in a box in the pipe through which the water enters the house. The current of water turns the blades of a delicate wheel connected with wheelwork and dials. The more water used the oftener the wheel turns and the greater the advance of the indicators on the dials. Over one-half of the waterworks of the United States are owned by the public. Of 1,475 systems reported in 1900, 661 were owned and operated by private companies.
The amount of water supplied the world by waterworks is almost beyond computation, and, if expressed in figures, the number would be too large to mean much. New York consumes 245,000,000 gallons daily, or 120 gallons per person. Chicago uses 323,000,000 gallons each day, or 229 gallons per person. San Francisco gets on with 73 gallons a day for each inhabitant.
See Water; Aqueduct; Siphon; Pump; Municipal Ownership