Mr. Smith on retaining Water in Rocks for Summer Use. 417 



of whinstone, granite, mountain-limestone, &c. which gravel, 

 between the clay and the face of the rock tapered downward 

 " to nothing" in the bottom of the excavation. 



About two yards within the edge of the rock (which was 

 nearly as upright as a wall) a basin six feet in diameter and four 

 feet deep was excavated, to receive the water flowing from the 

 joints of the rock. Cast-iron pipes branching from the main 

 line of pipes were laid up to this basin, to receive the regular 

 flow of the spring, which before the end of summer was re- 

 duced to less than six hogsheads per hour. The clay chan- 

 nel, in the bottom of which the pipes were laid, was refilled 

 with clay and puddled, so that no water could pass from the 

 rock but through the pipes. The end of the last pipe was closed, 

 and a vertical aperture made for receiving the run of the 

 spring. No further contrivance was required for stopping the 

 water and damming it up in the rock, than an open vertical 

 pipe ground to fit tight into the aperture in the horizontal 

 pipe ; and this to the height of four feet was done by pieces 

 of pipe, each a foot in length, tight-fitting one into another 

 for the convenience of wholly or partially damming or draw- 

 ing off the stored water as occasion might require ; the water 

 being allowed to run in at the top of the pipe. 



After the rainy days in the beginning of November last, 

 these short pieces of pipe were put in one after another, and 

 found to dam up the water in the joints of the rock to the 

 height of four feet, which from the quantity wasted last sum- 

 mer during the progress of the works, was calculated to con- 

 tain 5000 hogsheads. The vertical pipe being since closed at 

 top, (and lately also the main iron pipe,) the whole of the 

 water from those parts becomes forced into the cavities of the 

 rock, and now stands I* feet deep at the spring, or 10 feet 

 higher than we calculated upon penning it; so that the subter- 

 raneous reservoir may contain 12,000 or 15,000 hogsheads of 

 water. This will be ascertained in the summer as it is drawn 

 down from time to time into the new arched reservoir in the 

 town. This reservoir, formed of a brick cylinder 18 feet deep, 

 sunk in the ground, and covered by a dome 40 feet span and 

 '2.0 feet high, surrounded by a strong bank of earth, is calcu- 

 lated to contain 4000 hogsheads. 



Scarboroiigli, Feb. 5, 1827- WiLLlAM SmitH. 



NeU) Scries. Vol. 1. No. (i. ,///»H827. 3 M LX XXIII. Out- 



