170 Mr Whitens Nexo Method of F'dtermg Water. 



It is well known that, till of late years, the want of good wa- 

 ter has been severely felt in the lower parts of Lincoln, Kent, 

 and other fenny districts. In some of these, where the inhabi- 

 tants and their cattle suffered much from the want of good wa- 

 ter, the evil has lately been removed where this essential neces- 

 sary of life has been supplied by means of perforations made to 

 a great depth in the soil, by boring with an iron augrc, so as to 

 reach and bring to the surface the deep-seated springs. 



In the metropolis, every one knows the great outcry which 

 has of late been made about the polluted state of the Thames 

 water for domestic purposes, arising from this river being the 

 receptacle of the drainage waters of that overgrown city. In 

 point of fact, (as noticed by our distinguished countryman Mr 

 Stevenson, engineer), the waters of the Thames are changed or 

 renewed very slowly, nearly the same body of water moving 

 upwards and downwards as the tide flows or ebbs. The in- 

 habitants of London, therefore, may actually be said to be re- 

 ceiving into the stomach what had formerly passed through the 

 public drains. This has become a subject of so much notoriety 

 and interest, that Government has of late made it a matter of 

 public inquiry, and has procured the report of a committee of 

 professional men, consisting of a physician, a chemist, and a 

 civil engineer. The effect of these movements has been to 

 produce numerous plans for supplying the city from a purer 

 source, and also for filtering the water which it already possesses. 

 Among these may be mentioned a plan by Mr James White, 

 engineer, of Oxford Street, London, and another by Messrs Stir- 

 ling and Son of Lambeth, who have invented a machine called 

 the " Rapid Filter,^' and obtained a patent for it. Having no 

 drawing of Messrs Stirling's apparatus, we shall at present con- 

 fine ourselves to a notice of Mr White's " Patent Artificial 

 Spring," as given by himself. 



When new inventions, which promise to be of public utility, present 

 themselves to our notice in a simple form, a degree of surprise is excited, 

 that they should hitherto have eluded the research of ingenious men, whose 

 lives have been devoted to mechanical pursuits. It is certain there are but 

 few things of greater importance to the comfort of every family than water, 

 which shall be good in quality, and provided in sufficient quantity for all the 

 purposes of domestic use. That both these effects are produced by this in- 

 vention, will be best shown by a description of the annexed diagraijj., and an 



