THE NATIONAL SHEET METAL ROOFING CO.,
510 to 520 East 20th Street, New York City.
THE CISTERN.
Three things are all that are necessary to supply any family with the purest and best water in the world for drinking, cooking and washing purposes: a well-constructed cistern, a clean roof and a rain-fall.
CUT-OFF ATTACHMENT.
- A. To connect with down pipe.
- B. Outlet for waste water.
- C. Leads to filter or cistern.
- D. Is adjustable to fit box C.
- E. Fastenings to wall of house.
- F. Side view of D.
- G. Handle to adjust D.
(Not patented; can be made by any tinsmith.)
These are within the reach of every one able to own a home. By a cistern we mean an excavation in the earth from twelve to twenty-five feet deep. Dig deep if you want cold water all the year round. From eighteen to twenty-five feet will produce it. If your cistern is dug in a clayey soil, there is no use of brick lining; but if in gravel, sandy or rocky soil, line the inside with hard, well burnt brick, and do the work well; using for mortar equal parts of hydraulic lime and clean, sharp sand. When completed, plaster the inside carefully with the same mortar. If the walls are clay plaster immediately on the sides and bottom, without lining with brick.
No roofing material is better for collecting chemically pure water than tin, and none so bad as wood shingles. They hold dirt which no ordinary shower will wash off, and furnish organic matter which is disagreeable to the taste and smell; the porous nature of wood makes it the home of myriads of insects, the remains of which are eventually deposited in the cistern and poison its waters.