1911] Water Supply. 'J9 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 17, 1911. 



George Matthey, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 John H. Balfour Browne, Esq., K.C. D.L. J.P. 3I.R.I. 



Water Supply. 



The question of water supply is in one aspect a scientific one, and in 

 another aspect a political one. The source of all water supply is 

 evaporation, which raises and purifies water which is taken up from 

 the land and the sea, which after condensation is returned to us as 

 rain, dew, snow and hoar frost, and these waters are to be found 

 ready to our hand in springs, streams, lakes, and in the envelope of 

 earth which is tapped by means of wells. In early days the water 

 supply was a matter of hand to mouth. In the matter of water, at 

 any rate, men drank water when they were thirsty — unlike the 

 characters in Maeterlinck's "Palace of Happiness," who were, you will 

 remember, the Luxury of Drinking when you are not Thirsty and of 

 Eating when you are not Hungry. In the old days people, in relation 

 to these ordinary articles of diet, acted upon the advice given in that 

 old-world book " Sandford and Merton," and " only drank when they 

 were dry." But even in the old days men in this country used water 

 occasionally for washing, although the modern passion for baths had 

 not developed in the dark ages, but even then there seems to have 

 been a physiological cleanhness which the best advertised soap does 

 not give. We find, however, that even in these early days there was 

 a political aspect in water supply. The existence of springs in many 

 cases determined the sites of cities. Many towns have been built on 

 rivers partly because they were sources of water supply, but mostly 

 when the rivers were navigable and afforded a highway for ships. 

 Now, however, it is found that populations have increased to such an 

 extent in certain localities, owing to the gregariousness of men and 

 other political considerations, that the immediate sources have proved 

 inadequate, and great towns in this country — like Rome in ancient 

 days — have had to go a distance for their water supplies, and have 

 had to construct great engineering works for the conveyance of 

 water to the area of distribution. Water is at present collected and 

 sold in England to a value of nearly £8,000,000 annually, and when 

 it is delivered at the house of the consumer it costs him about Id. 

 a ton. 



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