History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

AQUEDUCTS.

The plan, as adopted by Mr. Hawskley at Liverpool, and Mr. Bateman at Glasgow, of subterranean pipes, is now universally followed by engineers. And there is no longer any excuse for incurring the outlay which must attend the erection of monumental structures, such as were necessary in the times of the ancient Romans.

The engineer of Marseilles Conduit adopted the “Pont du Gard” plan for conducting the waters of the Durance, in preference to iron pipes, and constructed the splendid folly, “as Humber terms it,” of the aqueduct “Roquefavour.” The dimensions are:

Length, 1,289 feet.
Height, 266 feet.
1st tier of 12 arches each 49½ feet span.
2d tier of 15 arches each 52½ feet span.
Upper tier of 54 arches each 16½ feet span.

The cost was $750,000, while inverted syphon pipes could have been laid for one-third of this sum.

The aqueduct for Glasgow is thirteen miles in tunnels, 3¾ miles of iron-piping across valleys, and nine miles of opening cutting and bridges. There are eighty distinct tunnels, and twenty-five important iron and masonry aqueducts. On the line is the Drymen bridge on masonry piers, eighteen feet apart, with two pipes surrounded by wood lagging, a forty-eight-inch syphon at Aberfoyle Road, and a lofty bridge at Ballewan, seventy feet in height.

The Aberdeen water-works has a thirty-six-inch syphon, 1,200 feet in length, across Cullen Burn, supported by granite piers.

The Croton aqueduct is a masonry channel lined with brick. The bottom is an inverted arch with cord 6.75 feet, and versed sine 0.75 feet; side walls are 4 feet high, and battered so that at the top they are 7′ 4″ apart, and surmounted with a semi-circular arch. The interior is 8.64 feet high, and area 53.34 square feet.

The grade is 0.021 feet per 100 feet, total length 38 miles. It crosses the Manhattan Valley 2 miles in extent, with two 36-inch, one 48, and one 60-inch cast-iron pipes, and over the Harlem River by granite bridge, known as High bridge, 100 feet above high water, composed of seven 50-feet and eight 80-feet spans. The conduit over the bridge consists of two 36-inch cast-iron pipes, and a wrought pipe 7 feet 6½ inches in diameter, resting upon saddles, supported by cast-iron standards placed 12 feet apart between the 36-inch pipes.

The aqueduct over Cabin John Creek, of Washington, D. C., water supply, consists of a single arch of masonry 220 feet span, is the largest masonry arch in the world. The rise is 57 feet 7 inches, thickness of crown 4 feet 2 inches, and at spring 6 feet 2 inches. Water is conveyed in an iron pipe 9 feet in diameter, built in solid masonry.

The bridge over Georgetown Creek, on line of Washington Conduit, is 200 feet span with two cords of iron pipe 4 feet in diameter, 1½ inches thickness, used as water conductors. The pipes were first lined with staves of resinous pine 3 inches thick to prevent freezing, but have been taken out. No allowance is made for expansion or contraction. A similar plan is in use at Philadelphia, over the valley of Wissahikon, consisting of two 20 inch cast-iron flange pipes serving as top members of a series of inverted bow-string trusses. There are four spans, each 169 feet 9 inches. Center span 100 feet above ordinary level of the water.

The Boston aqueduct crosses the Charles River by syphon pipes—two, 30 inches, and the other 36 inches in diameter. Starting from a pipe chamber on the western side of the valley, the pipe descends 52.11 feet below the level of conduit, and rests on a masonry bridge of three arches.

One of the syphons for supplying Madrid, Spain, crosses a valley 4,560 feet in length, consisting of four lines of cast-iron pipes three feet in diameter.

Dublin is supplied through 30,336 yards of 33-inch and 8,272 yards of two lines of 27-inch cast-iron pipes—20,000 yards laid through private property. The average fall is 20 feet per mile. There are three relief-tanks on line of 33-inch pipe. The capacity of this pipe was calculated at sixteen millions per day, while the actual delivery exceeded twenty millions.

Toronto is supplied by a 4-foot wooden pipe, 7,000 feet in length, under pressure.

Manchester, N. H., has a wooden penstock, six feet in diameter, 600 feet in length, that conveys supply to water wheels, under a head of twelve feet at entrance and thirty-eight feet at outlet.

The new conduit for water supply of Baltimore is a continuous tunnel, seven miles long, running from the dam to the receiving reservoir—“Lake Montebello.” In its construction no open cuts were made; all work being done by drifting. Its depth below the surface of ground varies from 65 to 360 feet. The internal diameter is 12 feet; the fall is one foot per mile; capacity 170 millions daily. Fifteen shafts were sunk during the constructive work. Two miles of the tunnel were through material that required to be arched with brick; the remaining distance was through very hard rock that did not require arching. The cost of this structure was about two millions of dollars.

Chicago has two tunnels under Lake Michigan, parallel with each other, 46 feet apart, extending to a crib, located in the lake, two miles from the shore. The first one was started, in 1864, under adverse criticism, and successfully completed in 1867. The cost, with the crib, was $457,800. It is five feet horizontal diameter, and 5′ 2″ vertical diameter, and made of brick. The second one was built in 1872-’74; is five feet in diameter, lined with brick. It extends from the North Side Works, a further distance of 20,000 feet, under the city and Chicago River to West Side Works. The cost of this tunnel, under the river, was $414,000, and under the city $543,000. The nature of the excavation was generally through stiff blue clay with occasionally pockets of quicksand.

The Sudbury conduit, of Boston Water-Works, is sixteen miles long, with a grade of 1.056 feet per mile. The top is a semicircle of nine feet diameter, and the bottom is an arc of 13.22 feet radius, struck from a center 5.53 feet above the crown of the arch. The sectional area is 56.75 square feet. The foundation is of concrete; the side walls and spandrel backing of rubble stone masonry; the lining of brick, four inches thick, and the arch of brick, twelve inches thick. The Charles River is crossed by a granite bridge, 475 feet long and 75 feet high, with two segmental and five semicircle arches.

On the line of the Vanne conduit there is an aqueduct made entirely of “beton,” which spans the valleys and quicksands in the great forest of Fontainebleau, between La Vanne River and Paris.

CONDUIT DATA.—(From Fanning.)

Locality.			DEPTH OF	HYDRAULIC	SINE OF
	WIDTH	HEIGHT	WATER	MEAN	INCLINATION OF
	IN FEET.	IN FEET.	IN FEET.	RADIUS.	WATER SURFACE.
Cochituate, Boston	5.	6.333	6.333	1.417	.0000496
Croton, New York	7.47	8.458	6.083	2.341	.00021
Washington	9.	9.	3.465	1.873	.00015
Brooklyn	10.	8.667	5.	2.524	.0001
Sudbury, Boston	9.	7.667	5.3	—	.0002
Baltimore	9.	9.	—	—	—
Loch Katrine, Glasgow	8.	8.	6.85	2.525	.0001587
Canal of Isabel III, Mad.	7.052	9.184	—	—	—
Vanne, Paris	6.6	6.6	5.	—	.0001
Dhues, “	2.3	3.5	—	—	.0001
Pont du Gard, Nismes	4.	—	3.333	—	.0004
Pont Pyla, Lyons	1.833	—	1.833	—	.00166
Metz	3.167	—	2.167	—	.001

Locality.	VELOCITY	COEFFIC-	DAILY DELIVERY	TOTAL DAILY
	PER SECOND	IENT M.	AT GIVEN DEPTH,	CAPACITY,
	IN FEET.		U.S. GALLONS.	U.S. GALLONS.
Cochituate, Boston	1.	.00452	16,398,000	16,500,000
Croton, New York	2.218	.00643	59,340,000	100,000,000
Washington	1.893	.00505	27,560,000	100,000,000
Brooklyn	—	—	—	70,000,000
Sudbury, Boston	—	—	—	70,000,000
Baltimore	—	—	—	170,000,000
Loch Katrine, Glasgow	1.7126	.00876	60,000,000	60,000,000
Canal of Isabel III, Mad.	—	—	—	52,000,000
Vanne, Paris	—	—	—	23,500,000
Dhues, “	—	—	—	5,500,000
Pont du Gard, Nismes	2.	—	—	14,000,000
Pont Pyla, Lyons	2.95	—	—	—
Metz	2.738	—	—	—