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

The Sanitary Engineer (Vol. v, No. 5) refers to a proposed well for Lincoln, Nebraska, a town of 15,000 inhabitants, that the contractor proposed to dig for the sum of $10,000. The estimated capacity will be ten million gallons a day, and the editor of the paper observes:

“If a large well is sunk in a very saturated and porous soil, it will probably furnish the amount required for the city (one million gallons) at first, possibly a great deal more. But in five years’ time it is not hazardous to predict that such a well will not yield enough water for Lincoln. As for furnishing ten million gallons a day for any length of time, there is no well in the world, which we know of, of such a capacity, and all experience is against the probability of such an one being discovered.”

GRAVITATION

is that system of supply where the rain-water drainage of elevated water-sheds is gathered in natural or artificial storage basins, and conveyed through conduits by gravitation to the point of supply. The important points entering into the consideration of this method are:

1. Character of water; present and future contamination.

2. Water-shed; present and future requirements for quantity and availability, with proper knowledge of the geology of the surrounding country.

3. Rain-fall, absorption and evaporation.

4. Elevation and distance of source.

5. Route of conduit.

6. Cost of construction.