Wa′ter-works.
The largest reservoir in the world was the
Lake of Moeris, made by the Pharaoh of that name, and supplied by the flood-water of the
Nile.
It has been explored by
M. Linant, and found to be 150 square miles in extent, being retained by a bank 180 feet wide and 30 feet high, which can yet be traced for a distance of 13 miles. This reservoir was capable of irrigating 1,200 square miles of country.
The ancient city of Tlascala in
Mexico, was furnished with abundance of baths and fountains.
Every house in Zempoloa had water.
Tezcuco had an aqueduct from which every house was supplied by a pipe, as in modern cities.
Cortez, in his first letter to Charles V., mentions the spring of Amilco, near
Churubusco, of which the water was conveyed to the city of
Mexico “in two large pipes, molded and hard as stone, but the waters never ran but in one at the same time.”
The
Spaniards destroyed it, of course.
Humboldt saw the remains of it, and says it was inferior to the aqueduct of Tezcuco.
The inca
Garcilasso de la Vega was born in 1539 at
Cusco, in Peru, about eight years after the
Spanish invasion.
His mother was a native princess, his father a Spaniard.
He writes as follows of the Peruvian aqueducts:—
The seventh inca, Viracocha,
made an aqueduct 12 feet in depth and 120 leagues in length; the source or head of it arose from certain springs on the top of a high mountain between Parcu and Picuy, which was so plentiful that at the very head of the fountains they seemed to be rivers.
This current of water had its course through all the country of the Rucanas, and served to water the pasturage of those uninhabited lands, which are about 18 leagues in breadth, watering almost the whole country of Peru.
There is another aqueduct much like this, which traverses the whole province of Cuntisuyu, running above 150 leagues from south to north.
Its head, or original, is from the top of high mountains, the which waters falling into the plains of the Quechuas, greatly refresh their pasturage, when the beats of the summer and autumn have dried up the moisture of the earth.
These aqueducts
were carried over craggy rocks and inaccessible passages; and to make these ways plain, they had no help of instruments forged of steel or iron, such as pickaxes or sledges, but served themselves only with one stone to break another.
Nor were they acquainted with the invention of arches, to convey the water on the level from one precipice to the other, but traced round the mountain until they found ways and passages at the same hight and level with the head of the springs.
The cisterns or conservatories which they made for these waters, at the top of the mountain, were about twelve feet deep; the passage was broken through the rocks, and channels made of hewn stone, of about two yards long and about a yard high, which were cemented together, and rammed in with earth so hard that no water would
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pass between to weaken or vent itself by the holes of the channel.
The current of water which passes through all the division of Cuntisuyu, I have seen in the province of Quechua, which is part of that division, and considered it an extraordinary work, and indeed surpassing the description and report which hath been made of it. But the Spaniards, who were aliens and strangers, little regarded the convenience of these works, either to serve themselves in the use of them, or keep them in repair, nor yet to take so much notice of them as to mention them in their histories; but rather out of a scornful and disdaining humor, have suffered them to run into ruin beyond all recovery.
The same fate hath befallen the aqueducts which the Indians made for watering their corn lands, of which two thirds at least are wholly destroyed and none kept in repair, unless some few which are so useful that without them they cannot sustain themselves with bread, nor with the necessary provisions of life.
All which works are not so totally destroyed but that there still remain some ruins and appearances of them.
The water supply of
Rome during the first century of our era would suffice a population of 7,000,000, at the rate of the
London supply.
This, however, is very far from being sufficient for comfort or cleanliness.
It was conveyed to
Rome by nine aqueducts.
(See aqueduct.) Five more aqueducts were subsequently added.
Three of the old aqueducts suffice for modern times.
See aqueduct, page 128.
The present
London supply during July is 127, 563, 492 gallons of water to 3, 645, 069 persons, residing in 511, 005 houses.
The number of miles of streets containing mains constantly charged, and upon which hydrants could at once be fixed, is 664 1/2 miles, while the total number of hydrants erected thereon is at present 2,507.
The supply of various cities is reputed to be as follows:—
| Washington | 158 gallons daily to each person. |
| New York | 100 gallons daily to each person. |
| Brooklyn | 50 gallons daily to each person. |
| Philadelphia | 55 gallons daily to each person. |
| Baltimore | 40 gallons daily to each person. |
| Chicago | 75 gallons daily to each person. |
| Boston | 60 gallons daily to each person. |
| Cincinnati | 60 gallons daily to each person. |
| Albany | 80 gallons daily to each person. |
| Detroit | 83 gallons daily to each person. |
| Jersey City | 99 gallons daily to each person. |
| Buffalo | 61 gallons daily to each person. |
| Cleveland | 40 gallons daily to each person. |
| Columbus | 30 gallons daily to each person. |
| Montreal, Canada | 55 gallons daily to each person. |
| Toronto | 77 gallons daily to each person. |
| London, England | 29 gallons daily to each person. |
| Liverpool | 23 gallons daily to each person. |
| Glasgow | 50 gallons daily to each person. |
| Edinburgh | 38 gallons daily to each person. |
| Dublin | 25 gallons daily to each person. |
| Paris | 28 gallons daily to each person. |
| Turin | 22 gallons daily to each person. |
| Toulouse | 26 gallons daily to each person. |
| Lyons | 20 gallons daily to each person. |
| Leghorn | 30 gallons daily to each person. |
| Berlin | 20 gallons daily to each person. |
| Hamburg | 33 gallons daily to each person. |
The first water-works in the
United States were planned and constructed by
Mr. John Christopher Christensen, at
Bethlehem, Pa., in 1762.
The machinery consisted of three singleacting force-pumps, of 4-inch caliber and 18-inch stroke, and worked by a triple crank, and geared to the shaft of an undershot water-wheel, 18 feet in diameter, and 2 feet clear in the buckets.
The water was raised by this machinery to the hight of 70 feet, and subsequently to 114 feet. The works were in operation as late as 1832.
The first rising main was made of gum-wood, as far as it was subject to great pressure, and the rest was of pitch-pine.
In 1789 leaden pipes were substituted, and in 1813 they were changed for iron.
The
Corliss pumping-engine for the
Providence Water-Works has a system of automatic self-regulation.
The
table-engine is capable of pumping 5,000,000 gallons of water per diem, or more, if needed.
If all the outlets from the supply-pipes distributed over the service of the city are closed, so that no water escapes, the pumping apparatus remains perfectly at rest, but the instant any appreciable outflow occurs, the machinery proceeds to supply the waste.
It has been known to be over five and a half minutes in making a single revolution, moving regularly all this time, however, and capable of automatically increasing the rate almost immediately to more than 30 revolutions a minute.
The “
Holly” Water-Works in various cities of the
Union have also an automatic regulator.
The first engine known to have been thus automatically regulated was one at
Ross, Herefordshire,
England.
In that town, in 1720,
John Kyrle, celebrated in
Pope's “Elegy” as the “Man of
Ross,” established a system of water supply for that town, which, from that time to the present has been uninterruptedly in use. The distinctive feature of this system consists in forcing water by pumps into the street mains, so as to supply the town with water under such pressure as may be required.
At the Ross works, the ordinary pressure for many years has been 45 pounds per square inch.
Steam-power has been substituted for the old water-wheels long since.
