Chap. 6.] Application of Pumps in Modern Water-works. 293 extends through the entire length of the cylinder and is made air and water tight to both ends, and also to the plate upon which its lower edge rests. The upper edge extends to the under side of the axle to which the piston B is united. One end of the axle is passed through the cylinder and the opening made tight by a stuffing box; it is moved by a crank or lever. Near the clacks c c two other openings are made through the plate, to which two forcing pipes are secured. These tubes are bent round the outside of the cylinder and meet in the chamber C where their orifices are covered by clacks. Thus when the piston is turned in either direction, it drives the water before it through one or other of these tubes; at the same time the void left behind it is kept filled by the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the liquid in which the lower orifice of the suction pipe is placed. The edges of the pistons The edges of the pistons are made to work close to the ends and rim of the cylinder by means of strips of leather screwed to them. Modifications of these pumps have also been used in England as fire-engines. Reciprocating rotary pumps have sprung up at different times both here and in Europe, and have occasionally obtained "a local habitation and a name," ," but have never become perfectly domesticated, we believe, in any country. We have seen some designed for ordinary use that were elegantly finished, and decorated with gilding and japan-they resembled those exotic plants which require peculiar care, and are rather for ornament than for use. Reciprocating rotary pumps have also been proposed as steam-engines. Watt patented one in 1782. CHAPTER VI. APPLICATION of pumps in modern water-works: First used by the Germans-Water-works at Augsburgh and Bremen-Singular android in the latter city-Old water-works at Toledo-At London bridge -Other London works moved by horses, water, wind and steam-Water engine at Exeter-Waterworks erected on Pont Neuf and Pont Notre Dame at Paris-Celebrated works at Marli-Error of Rannequin in making them unnecessarily complex. American water-works: A history of them desirableIntroduction of pumps into wells in New-York city-Extracts from the minutes of the Common Council previous to the war of Independence-Public water-works proposed and commenced in 1774-Treasury notes issued to meet the expense-Copy of one-Manhattan Company-Water-works at Fair Mount, Philadelphia. BEFORE noticing another and a different class of machines, we propose to occupy this and the two next chapters with observations on the employment of pumps in "water-works," and as engines to extinguish fires -both in this country and in Europe. The hydraulic machinery for supplying modern cities with water generally consists of a series of forcing pumps very similar to the machine of Ctesibius, (No. 120;) and when employed to raise water from rapid. streams, or where from tides or dams a sufficient current can be obtained, are worked like it by under or by overshot wheels. An account of old European water-works is an important desideratum, for it would throw light on the history of pumps in the middle ages, during which little or nothing respecting them is known. The older cities of Germany were the first in modern days that adopted them to raise water for public purposes; but of their construction, materials, and application under various circum stances, we have no information in detail. Rivius, in his Commentary on 294 Pump Engines in Germany. [Book III. the machine of Ctesibius, speaks of pumps worked by water wheels as then common, (A. D. 1548.) The hydraulic engines at Augsburgh were at one time greatly celebrated. They are mentioned, but not described, by Misson and other travelers of the 17th century. They raised the water 130 feet. Blainville, in 1705, speaks of them as among the curiosities of the city. He observes-"The towers which furnish water to this city are also curious. They are near the gate called the Red Port, upon a branch of the Leck which runs through the city. Mills which go day and night, by means of this torrent, work a great many pumps, which raise water in large leaden pipes to the highest story in these towers. a chamber on each of them, which is very neatly and handsomely ceiling'd, is a reservoir of a hexagonal figure, into which the water is carried by a large pipe, the extremity of which is made like a dolphin, and through an urn or vase held by a statue sitting in the middle of the reservoir. One of these towers sends water to all the public fountains by smaller pipes, and the three others supply with water a thousand houses in the city; each of which pays about eight crowns yearly, and receives a hundred and twenty pretty large measures of water every hour." Travels, vol. i, 250. Misson's Travels, 5 ed. vol. i, 137. In the middle of Contemporary with the engines at Augsburgh was one at Bremen that is mentioned by several writers of the 17th century. It was erected on one of the bridges and moved by a water wheel it raised water into a reservoir at a considerable elevation, whence the liquid was distributed to all parts of the city. An old author when speaking of it, mentions an android in Bremen, a species of mechanism for which the Germans were at one time famous. At the entrance of the arsenal, he observes, "stands the figure of a warrior arm'd cap-a-pe, who, by mechanism under the steps, as soon as you tread on them, lifts up the bever of his helmet with his truncheon to salute you." There was also a celebrated water-engine at Toledo, the former capital of Spain. It raised the water of the Tagus to the top of the Alcazar, a magnificent palace erected on the summit of the declivity on which the city is built; the elevation being " five hundred cubits from the surface of the river." What the particular construction of this machine was we have not been able to ascertain, nor whether it was originally erected by the Moors who built the palace. It is mentioned by Moreri as a "wonderful hydraulic engine which draws up the water from the river Tagus to so great a height, that it is thence conveyed in pipes to the whole city;" but in the middle of the last century (1751) the author of the Grand Gazetteer, or Topographic Dictionary, remarks (page 1289) that this "admirable engine" was then " entirely ruined." The introduction of pump engines into the public water-works of England and France is sufficiently ascertained. This did not take place till long after they had been employed in Germany; and both London and Paris were indebted to engineers of that country for the first machines to raise water from the Thames and the Seine. Previous to their introduction, cities were commonly supplied from springs by means of pipes. As early as A. D. 1236, the corporation of London commenced to lay a six inch leaden pipe from some springs at Tyburn, a village at that time some miles distant from the city. This is supposed to have been the first attempt to convey water to that city through pipes, and fifty years elapsed before the whole was completed. These pipes were formed of sheet lead and the seams were soldered: part of them was accidentally discovered in 1745 while making some excavations, and another portion in 1765. (London Mag. for 1765, p. 377.) In 1439 the abbot of Westminster, in whom Chap. 6.] London Water-works. the right of the soil was vested, granted "to Robert Large the mayor and citizens of London, and their successors, one head [reservoir] of water, containing twenty-six perches in length and one in breadth, together with all its springs in the manor of Paddington: in consideration of which grant, the city is for ever to pay to the said abbot or his successors, at the feast of St. Peter, two pepper corns." This grant was confirmed by Henry VI, who at the same time authorized the mayor and citizens, by a writ of the privy seal, to purchase two hundred fothers of lead" for the intended works of pipes and conduits, and to impress plumbers and labourers." Maitland's Hist. of London, pp. 48, 107. 66 the 66 In the 33d year of Henry VIII, the mayor of the city of Glocester, with convey water in pipes the dean of the church there, were authorized to of lead, gutters and trenches" from a neighbouring hill, "satisfying the owners of the ground there for the digging thereof." In the following of Poole were authorized to erect a wind and burgesses year, mayor mill on the king's waste ground, and a conduit head sixteen feet square, and to dig and draw [water] in, by, through and upon all places meet and convenient, into and from the same, &c.-yielding yearly to the king ." It would appear that the reservoir was in and his heirs one pepper corn." too low a situation for its contents to flow through pipes to the town, and hence the wind mill to raise it sufficiently for that purpose. The machine used was probably the chain of pots, which, as remarked page 125, was at In the 35th of Henry VIII, the that time often employed in such cases. corporation of London was authorized to draw water through pipes from various villages and other places within five miles of the city, and for this purpose to enter any grounds not enclosed with "stone, brick or mud walls, and there to dig pits, trenches and ditches; to erect heads, lay pipes, and make vaults and suspirals," &c. Two years afterwards, (A. D. 1546,) a law was passed by which those who destroyed conduit heads and pipes, were put to death. In 1547, William Lamb conveyed water in a In that year leaden pipe from a conduit or spring, which still bears his name.d In 1582, the first pump machines were used in London. Peter Maurice, a German engineer, proposed to erect a machine on the Thames for the more effectual supply of the city," which being approved of, he erected the same in the river near London bridge, which by suction and pressure, through pumps and valves, raised water to such a height as to supply the uppermost rooms of the loftiest buildings, in the highest part of the city therewith, to the great admiration of all. machine, the first of the kind that ever was seen in England, was so highly approved of, that the lord mayor and common council, as an encouragement for the ingenious engineer to proceed in so useful an undertaking, granted him the use of one of the arches of London bridge to place his engine in, for the better working thereof."e Maurice's engine consisted of a series of forcing pumps (similar to Nos. 118 and 121) seven inches in diameter, and the pistons had a stroke of thirty inches; they were worked by an undershot wheel that was placed under one of the arches and turned by the current, during the rise and fall of the tide; the water was raised to an elevation of 120 feet. The number of pumps and wheels was subsequently increased; but in 1822, when the old bridge was taken down, the whole were removed.f Two years This curious before Maurice undertook to raise water from the Thames, Stow says "One Russel proposed to bring water from Isleworth, viz : a Statutes at large. Lon. 1681. e f A description of the London Bridge Water-works, by Beighton, may be seen in the Philos. Trans. vol. vi, 358, and in Desaguliers' Philos. ii, 436. 296 French Water-works. [Book III. the river Uxbridge to the said north of London; and that by a geometrical instrument: he propounded the invention to Lord Burleigh." In 1594, Bevis Bulmer, an English engineer, undertook to supply a small district of the city with Thames water, which he raised by four pumps that were worked by horses. They were continued in use till the time that Maitland commenced his history, viz: to 1725. The pumps of other London works were moved by horses, by wind mills, and others by the current of the common sewer. About the year 1767, one of Newcomen's steamengines was erected at the London bridge works to raise water at neap tides, and also as a security against fire during the turning of the tide, when the wheels were consequently at rest. A company was incorporated in 1691 to supply the neighbourhood of York Buildings with Thames water: Newcomen's engines were employed; and the pumps had solid plungers, one of which we have figured and described at page 272Maitland enumerates them among other causes of the company's embarrassments: "the directors, by purchasing estates, erecting new water-works [new machines for raising water] and other pernicious projects, have almost ruined the corporation; however, their chargeable engines for raising water by fire, being laid aside, they continue to work that of horses, which, together with their estates in England and Scotland, may in time restore the company's affairs."b A figure of this chargeable engine is inserted in the second volume of La Motraye's Travels. The author of the Grand Gazetteer, a folio of nearly 1500 pages, published in 1751, was a native of Exeter, on which account he excuses himself for describing that city at large; after mentioning some ancient conduits he observes:-" this city is otherwise well watered, and not only by most houses of note having wells and pumps of their own, but by the river water being forced by a curious water-engine, through pipes of bored trees laid under ground, even up to the very steep hill at Northgate Street; and then by pipes of lead into the houses of such inhabitants as pay a very moderate price for such benefit. The said water house and engine were begun about Anno. 1694." This extract shows that at the close of the 17th century, such works were not very common in English cities: of this there are numerous indications: thus at Norwich "the water-works at the new mills were undertaken in 1697, and completed in about two years."e During the reign of Henry IV of France, John Lintlaer, a Fleming, erected an engine consisting of lifting pumps (such as No. 125) at the Pont Neuf which were worked by the current of the Seine. The water was raised above the bridge and conveyed in pipes to the Louvre and Tuilleries. This engine received the appellation of The Samaritan, from bronze figures of Christ and the woman of Samaria, which decorated the front of the building in which it was enclosed. The success that attended this experiment, led to the erection of similar engines at Pont Notre Dame, a figure of one of the pumps of which is inserted at page 277. The most elaborate machine ever constructed for raising water was probably the famous one at Marli, near Paris, for supplying the public gardens at Versailles from the Seine. It was designed by Rannequin, a Dutch engineer, and set to work in 1682, at a cost of eight millions of livres-about a million and half of dollars.d We are not aware that any description of it in detail was ever published till Belidor inserted a short account in the second volume of his Architecture Hydraulique in 1739; and such was its magnitude and the multiplicity of its parts, that he was a Maitland, pp. 622, 628. b Ibid 634. Norfolk Tour, Norwich, 1795. d Desaguliers says eighty millions, about four millions of pounds sterling," but Belidor has only eight. 66 Chap. 6.] may Water-works at Marli. 297 for a long time unwilling to undertake its elucidation, on account of the difficulty of describing it with sufficient precision. Its general features be sketched in a few words, but a volume of letter-press and another of plates, would be required to explain and delineate the whole minutely. The reservoir or head of the aqueduct, into which water from the Seine was raised by this machine, was constructed on the top of a hill, 614 toises, or three quarters of a mile, from the river, and at an elevation of 533 feet (English) above it. To obtain a sufficient motive power, the river was barred up by a dam, and its whole width divided, by piles, into fourteen distinct water courses, into each of which a large undershot wheel was erected. The wheels, by means of cranks attached to both ends of their axles, imparted motion to a number of vibrating levers, and through these to the piston rods of between 200 and 300 sucking and forcing pumps! The pumps were divided into three separate sets. The first contained 64, which were placed near the river, and were worked by six of the wheels they drew the water, by short suction pipes, out of the river and forced it through iron pipes, up the hill; but instead of these pipes. being continued directly to the reservoir, (which might have been done by making them and the machinery of sufficient strength,) Rannequin made them terminate in a large cistern, built for the purpose, at the distance from the river of 100 fathoms only, and at an elevation of about 160 feet. In this cistern he then placed 79 other pumps (the second set) to force the water thence to another cistern 224 fathoms further up the hill, and at an elevation of 185 feet above the other. In this last cistern 82 pumps more (the third set) were fixed, which forced the contents to the reservoir. In thus dividing the work, Rannequin made a mistake for which no ingenuity could compensate as the second and third sets of pumps containing no less than one hundred and sixty-one, with all the apparatus for working them, merely transferred through a part of the distance, the water which the first set drew directly from the river, they were in reality unnecessary, because the first set might have been made to force it through the whole distance; hence they not only uselessly consumed (at least) four fifths of the power employed, but they rendered the whole mass of machinery cumbersome and complicated in the highest degree; and consequently extremely inefficient, and subject to continual repairs. The first set of pumps, as already observed, were worked by the wheels near which they were placed, and the remaining wheels imparted motion to the piston rods of the second and third sets, in the two cisterns on the hill: of these, therefore, eighty-two pumps were stationed at an elevation of upwards of three hundred feet above the power that worked them; and nearly half a mile from it! and seventy-nine were one hundred fathoms from the wheel, and 160 feet above them! To work these pumps, a number of chains, or jointed iron rods, were extended on frames above the ground, all the way from the cranks on the water wheels in the river to both cisterns, where they were connected to the vibrating beams to which the piston rods were attached. It was the transmission of power to such elevations and extraordinary distances by these chains, that acquired for the machine the title of "a monument of ignorance." A writer in the Penny Magazine (vol. iv, page 240) who examined the machine in 1815, says the sound of these rods working was like that of a number of wagons loaded with bars of iron running down a hill with axles never greased. The creaking and clanking (he observes) must have convinced the most ignorant person that the expenditure of power was enormously beyond what was required for the purpose effected. It has |