Miscellaneous Papers. 153 



siphon turns down into the big well. Any air, therefore, that may 

 leak into the siphon line or be separated from solution in the water 

 is carried to this high point, where it is removed by the machine 

 as fast as accumulation occurs. A vacuum of twenty-one inches 

 has been maintained in the line without any difficulty. A vacuum 

 gauge placed on the farthermost well shows an average of one and 

 one-half inches less vacuum than there is at the big well when the 

 wells are being pumped. 



Tests were made, with a specially designed water meter, of the 

 amount of water furnished by each individual well when all were in 

 operation, which gave results varying from nothing to 130 gallons 

 per minute, the farthermost well being, except one, the best pro- 

 ducer in the system. 



The great difference in the amount of water produced by wells 

 in the same locality is accounted for by the fact that the gravel is 

 quite variable, being much more open and less silted up in some 

 wells than in others. The water takes the course of least resistance 

 out, and if it requires more head to force it through silted gravel to 

 one well than it does through more open gravel to another well 

 farther away, it will go to the farther well. 



The installation of this new well system has been accomplished 

 under many difficulties, ranging from the blathering of pin-head 

 politicians and the continued opposition of the men in charge of 

 the pumps, to the breaking of flanges and the blowing out of gas- 

 kets twenty-four feet under ground after the work was completed. 

 But a demonstration has been made of the fact that water can be 

 successfully pumped from wells located more than one-half mile 

 from the pumping station. 



