The water rents are assessed upon the valuation of the property, with extra rates for additional water privileges.
New works were erected in 1875-’77, with a daily maximum capacity of 12 million gallons. The source is the “Tegeler See.” The water is collected, by infiltration, in twenty-three cisterns, each having a separate connection to a suction-pipe, 36 inches diameter, 4,000 feet long, which leads to the pump wells, stationed midway on the suction line. The cisterns are circular in form, with two concentric walls, the first of stone, the second of brick, with an intervening space filled with gravel through which the water percolates. The interstices of the stone are small, to prevent the washing in of sand, in which the wells are made. The water is pumped, by six compound engines, into a reservoir of two compartments, whence it flows into a second pumping station at Charlottenburgh, where four compound engines raise the water a second time, with a lift of 125 feet, into two reservoirs of six million capacity. The water is then distributed into the city by two lines, one for the north side, the other for the south side of the city. The first pumping station is four miles from the second works, and the latter six miles from the city.
Vienna had a population, in 1875, of 1,007,365. Previous to the application of the new supply, in 1873, the city was supplied by ten thousand wells; ten gravitation works, for suburbs, public and private buildings, palaces, etc.; four pumping works—one for large abattoir, one for the parks, a special supply for the main street, called Ring Strasse, which cost $75,000, besides several small private works, and sixty-six public wells for street sprinkling, etc. The first pumping works was erected in 1843, by Emperor Ferdinand I., and given by him to the city. The total cost, to 1871, of this service, was nearly $1,200,000, consisting of three pumping engines, of Watts’ & Wolf’s designs, with a gross horse-power of 220; three reservoirs, and a suction and filter canal 27,000 feet long. The water is taken from a canal of the Danube, and raised forty-seven feet high. The daily delivery was 2,600,000 gallons. In 1864, fifteen projects for supplying the city with water were submitted, and the plan of securing the spring water from the foot of the Alps was adopted. Work was commenced in 1870, and completed in 1873. The cost was nearly $11,000,000. The mean quantity secured daily from the springs was originally 37 millions, the maximum 45 millions, and minimum 5½ millions. The water is collected in three reservoirs, located on mountain ridges, with a capacity of one million gallons. The conduit is fifty miles long, and has sixteen tunnels, 5.2 miles long, drifted through rock and cemented, and nine and one-half miles of masonry bridges. The water is delivered into a reservoir, arched and covered with ground; from this it is led into three other covered reservoirs, with a combined capacity of seven millions. The quantity realized from the springs was not as large as expected, and additional springs were added to the source at an expense of $250,000. It is now the intention to increase the main pumping works for manufacturing purposes, so as to reduce the supply of spring water for domestic use.
Hamburg had a population, in 1875, of 337,602. The water-works were erected in 1849. The water is taken from the River Elbe, through an arched canal, to four pump wells (for subsidence of the water) with a combined capacity of 53 million gallons. The water is slightly turbid, except in floods. The pumping station is two miles above the city, and contains four Cornwall and one Wolf engine, with a total horse-power of 850. The water is forced through a stand-pipe 240 feet high, under a variable pressure, according to the demand, into the pipes. There are three reservoirs for equalizing the pressure, also storage of water. Two of them are stone structures; the other is a covered iron tank on a stone foundation 39⅓ feet high. The maximum consumption was 19 millions daily; and daily average, for 1875, was 15¼ millions, or 45 gallons per inhabitant. The cost of pumping one million gallons is $20, or $8.33 for one million gallons raised 100 feet high.
Frankfort-on-the-Main was supplied by well water. In 1872, a supply was brought into the city from the Spessart Mountains, where the water from 139 springs were gathered together, and conveyed through an aqueduct 41 miles long, two miles of which is made of cement 9½ to 18 inches in diameter, 38½ miles of 14½-inch cast-iron pipe, and ½ mile of canal. The water flows through a syphon tower. There are two reservoirs—one of 3½ millions, and the other of .8 of a million capacity. The population, in 1875, was 103,136. Daily average consumption, 1¾ million gallons; miles of pipe, 64½.
Leipsic.—The water-works was built, by the city, in 1866, at a cost of $900,000. The water is taken from the Pleisse River, through an arched aqueduct, 656 feet long, to subsiding reservoirs or wells, two miles in diameter, and thirteen feet below the lowest stage in the river. The water is pumped into a reservoir, 140 feet lift, by two Wolf engines, with a power of 120 horse-power. The maximum daily consumption of water, in 1876, was 2.6 millions, and the minimum was 1.8 million gallons.
Stuttgart had a population, in 1875, of 107,575. It has two kinds of supply—one for drinking, that of spring water, and the other for manufacturing and general use. For the latter demands, the supply is taken partly from the Neckar River, and pumped through three artificial filter beds; and partly from lakes, whose water is conducted, through cast-iron pipes 15,000 feet in length, to five filter-beds, and thence into two reservoirs, 145 feet below the lake. The reservoir, for the filtered water from the river, is three miles from the pumping station, and 180 feet elevation. Seven million gallons are used daily.
The spring water is conducted through 23.6 miles of pipe, into a reservoir of 132,010 gallons capacity. The maximum daily consumption of spring water, in 1875, was 580,800 gallons, and minimum consumption 369,600 gallons.
Dresden.—The water-works were erected, in 1875, at a cost of $2,000,000. The available maximum delivery was 11.88 million gallons per day. The water is taken from the Elbe River, through two cast-iron pipes, 9.8 feet below low water, and conveyed to two wells, 23 feet in diameter, dug along-side of the river. The water is pumped, by six double engines, with 720 horse-power, through 3,608 feet of pipe, into a reservoir 197 feet above the pumping station. The maximum daily consumption of water, in 1875, was 3.7 million gallons, and minimum .7 of a million; population, 197,000. In 1876 there were 2,047 meters in use.
Marseilles obtains its water supply from the Durance River, at a point sixty-two miles from the city. The water is conveyed through an open canal (excepting the numerous tunnels) with a fall of six inches per mile. Thirty-four millions, of the 159¾ millions total daily ordinary flow of the canal, is considered sufficient for the city, the balance being available for irrigation and water-power, while the waste flows into the sea. About one-seventh of the water, as estimated, is lost by evaporation and filtration. There were five settling basins, with a water surface of 220 acres, constructed along the line of the canal, designed to increase the deposition of the heavier particles of sediment by diminishing the velocity of the water. Only one of these basins was serviceable in 1868. The largest one was used for a short period only, because of a defect in the construction of the dam; the others were abandoned because of the neglect in or difficulty of withdrawing the sediment. A costly filter gallery was built at Longchamp, consisting of two apartments, with a series of arches in the center, forming the bed for the filtering material and the cover for the collecting reservoir for the filtered water. The plan was abandoned in 1866, because of the unusual amount of sediment carried down by the Durance River, which is estimated at one thousandth part of its volume. In 1868, there were from three to four inches of compact mud on the sand beds, and the gallery used for a reservoir only. Subsiding basins have since been constructed. The rate of filtration, when the gallery was in operation, was 90 cubic feet to the square foot, equal to 8,312,940 U. S. gallons per day for both filter-beds, or 36 gallons per inhabitant for a population of 230,000.