Forty-sixth Annual Meeting. 



29 



another filter plant was constructed to purify water taken 

 from Lake Tegil. 



At Hamburg the waterworks were built with the intention 

 of installing filters, but for some reason delay was occasioned, 

 and work on their construction was not begun until 1891. It 

 was originally intended to devote three years' time to the work 

 of building the filters, but a cholera epidemic occurred in 1892 

 and swept away 8605 of the city's inhabitants. This served 

 strongly to emphasize the need of a filter plant. The cause of 

 this epidemic was traced directly to water pollution, and to 

 prevent a recurrence of the scourge work was continued on 

 the filter night and day until it was completed in 1893. 



The wonderful success of the Hamburg filter plant is shown 

 in the remarkable drop in the typhoid death rate in the city of 

 91.6 per cent. The Hamburg death-rate chart, which I have the 

 pleasure of showing, with others, gives a graphic illustration 

 of the actual results that have been achieved by the eflficient 

 operation of the modern filter equipment. 



The largest filters built in America, at least prior to 1900, 

 are those at Albany. These filters were constructed in 1898 

 and 1899 at a total cost of $496,633, and have a rated capacity 

 of 14,700,000 gallons daily. They are of the slow sand type 



