6 OCTOBER 1849, Page 12

THE WATER QUESTION: SUPPLY.

How much water London needs for public and private uses, and in what manner the requisite quantity ought to be distributed, are questions to he determined solely with reference to the good of the community ; and little danger will there be of missing the right solution of these problems, provided the inquiry be con- ducted strictly on that principle, instead of being warped to fit a foregone conclusion, based upon the trading interests of the mo- nopolizing Water Companies. Five years ago, it was given in evidence on behalf of those Companies, that the aggregate supply afforded by them, inclusive of the trade consumption, was at the rate of 40,000,000 gallons a day, or 20 gallons per head of the population; a quantity equal to the contents of a lake covering fifty acres with a mean depth of three feet. Later calculations, we are informed, have raised the supposed delivery to the some- what questionable amount of 60,000,000 gallons : an imposing statement, which would assume another aspect if a specification were made showing how much is available for the use of the public, and how much goes to waste under the system of inter- mittent supply. For the Companies are pleased to persevere in a system under which, every time that the supply is turned on, a large portion goes through the waste-pipes and passes into the sewers. But even as to the portion that reaches the consumers, it is not enough that there should be somewhere within the limits of the Metropolis a mass of water sufficient for the use of all the in- habitants ; a no less important requisite is that it should be dis- tributed in a manner commensurate with their several and col-

lective wants, and that it should be easily and fully available whenever, wherever, and by whomsoever needed. But the actual system of delivery is faulty in every particular ; being at once wasteful and parsimonious, costly and inadequate. It ought to be constant—it is intermittent ; it ought to be ubiquitous—it partial, and never carried, even in the houses of the wealthy, to altitudes where its presence is indispensable forlealth, convenience, and security from fire. In proportion to its great natural advan- tages, its vast magnitude, and its compactness,the London market for water ought to be the cheapest and the best-supplied in the world ; but in both respects it is greatly surpassed by many pro- vincial towns. In Preston, Hyde, Nottingham, Paisley, Ayr, Glasgow, Greenock, Aberdeen, &c., the poorest houses have a constant unlimited supply of water under high pressure, at rates greatly below the London charges for low service during two hours thrice a week. If we cross the Atlantic, we find in Phila- delphia a system of hydraulic engineering to which the botch. work of our Metropolitan Companies stands in some such pro-

portion as the old pack-horse system of transport to the modern

railway. Even with regard to gross quantity, which the Com- panies seem to consider one of their very strong points, London

is hugely outdone by New York, whose 400,000 inhabitants have at their command four times as much water as enters London for the use of its two millions.

In the teeth of these notorious facts, our London hydraulists have the courage to assure us that the works and the system they administer have reached the utmost practical limit of perfection.

Nothing better is to be looked for at the hands of these gentle- men. Suggest to them the simplest and most feasible improve- ment, and they instantly open upon you a tremendous fire of ob- jections: indeed it appears to be part of their official duties, always to keep their weakest positions fortified, after the Chinese fashion, with a terrible-looking artillery of sham engineering dif- ficulties. Fortunately, however, there are plenty of provincial engineers who can accomplish for us, as they have accomplished for others, what their London brethren declare to be impossible; as witness the following facts respecting Nottingham, reported in 1844 by the Commissioners for inquiring into the state of large towns and populous districts.

The Trent Waterworks supply about 8,000 houses in Notting- ham, containing a population of 33,000 persons, with filtered water issuing from a reservoir at an elevation of 135 feet. The

pipes are always full, and subject to a pressure which, varying according to the locality, averages 80 feet ; and the water is con-

stantly delivered to the tops of all the houses, in a quantity limited only by the will of the consumer, for,every tenant is at liberty to take as much as he pleases. The average charge for this superior

accommodation is is. 6d. per house ; more than 57000 houses en- joy it for a cost of one penny a week ; and these charges are suffi- cient to remunerate the company. In Nottingham, and in every

other town which has adopted the system of constant supply under high pressme, satisfactory proof exists of its superior economy as regards not only the consumer but the purveyor likewise. For the latter it effects, in the first place a great saving of fixed capi- tal, as it enables him to diminish the diameter of the pipes by one- third and their weight by one half; secondly, it prevents the waste of water, which is very great on the intermittent system,—the effect in both these respects directly contradicting the con- clusions of our London engineers; and thirdly, it saves labour and cost of management to a degree that more than compensates for the cost of pumping the water into the reservoir. In Preston, one turncock is found sufficient for the service of a company that supplies 5,300 houses. In Nottingham, one man and a lad are quite able to manage the distribution of water to 8,000 houses, and to do all the plumbing and repairing

required to the branch-pipes and mains. The Trent Water Com-

pany has never departed from its system of constant supply, ex- cept during a period of one month, when, for the purpose of ex- periment, the water was shut off at ten in the evening and turned on again at five in the morning : but the result showed that it was less expensive to pump water than to keep extra turncocks, do extra repairs to valves, draw plugs, cleanse the pipes, attend to complaints, &e. The original plan was therefore resumed. The advantages of that plan to the consumer are beyond price. It has carried cleanliness, health, and moral regeneration into many a poor man's home before condemned to filth and wretch- edness by the dearness of water, and by the amount of manual labour necessary for procuring it. By superseding the use of water-butts and their appurtenances, it effects a saving which in Nottingham is equal to more than half the tenant's expense for water. Baths in private houses, now a rare luxury, might, with full pipes on every floor, come to be classed among the most ordi- nary fittings. It is no uncommon thing in London for gas to mingle with and taint the water in the street-pipes, and to escape through them into dwelling-houses. Several serious explosions have been traced to this cause. But the constant system would afford a perfect protection against such accidents; since they can only happen in consequence of the gas being sucked in through a leak in a water-pipe in which a partial vacuum is created by the withdrawal of water at one end while none enters at the other.

Lastly, to crown the excellencies of the system, it might be SO

applied as to bring down the danger of fire to a minimum. Siace its introduction into Philadelphia, it has reduced insurance risks by two-thirds. In Preston, it has superseded the use of fire- engines ; a hose fixed on to a plug in the street being all the machinery nedessau for throwing a column of water over the

highest building ; and such was the security afforded in this way, that in 1844 many of the millowners "had thought of discon- tinuing their assurance."

Such are, in brief outline, some of the merits of a system which might with much facility be applied to London ; as we shall hereafter demonstrate. Meanwhile, we request the disin- terested advocates of the intermittent system of supply (if any such there are) to ponder these words of Mr. Hawksley, the con- structor of the Trent Waterworks—" Any company that possesses an ample quantity of water at its works and a sufficient reservoir in an elevated situation, may adopt this [constant high pressure] mode of supply without difficulty or disadvantage ; and indeed, the difficulty and disadvantage are far from insuperable when an elevated reservoir cannot be obtained." It is for the public of the Metropolis to determine how long, for the sake of monopolizing Water Companies, it is to be deprived of such advantages in quality and in mode of supply as are enjoyed by many provincial

towns.