340 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Skptembkr, 



(patents) of an anterior date. This plea was answered on liehalf of tlie Com- 

 pany, by the proof that Fonvielle's mode of applyhig high pressure was en- 

 tirely (Urterent from those of his predecessors. These were to force the water 

 through tissues of felt, wool, or flax, or t/ironyh skills, while Fonvielle's con- 

 sists in filtering througli snnd, poundeil stones, ffrni'el, and oilier inert animal 

 srtbstatices, which is so different, that previous to this date it had been found 

 impracticable to apply high pressure to such filters, the efl'eet being inevitably 

 to overturn the filtering bed and confound the materials with the hquidtobe 

 filtered; — that this being the dirticulty, in tliis consisted the merits of the 

 invention. >1. Fonviclle had discovered the means of so retaining and com- 

 pressing the materials, as to be able to npply liigli jiressiu'C, the sole agent 

 which can operate on great masses of watci'. In a word, filtration on a great 

 scale is the j)rincipal object of Fonvielle's patent. It was shown that the 

 greatest ctfcct of preceding methods was to filter five heclolitres ( = 132 gal- 

 lons) per day, whereas it was proved that filters of the " French Company," 

 of the same capacity, would give in the same time fifteen hundred and two 

 thousand r/allons, or even more. Hence the evidence of a new idea — a great 

 and real invention. 



But the patent of the Company jiroves its value by two other new and 

 happy applications ; the first is the facility of cleaning the filter, without 

 unpacking it, by a simple play of opening stop cocks, continued for 5 or 6 

 minutes only. This alone is enougli to condemn every other filter which 

 cannot, like those of the Company, clean tliemsehes. The second is the hap- 

 py use of the laws of hydraulic level, in raising the filtered water to a height 

 nearly equal to that of the fountain head, a principle of the highest utihty in 

 the domestic and other arts, while all other filters leave the water simply at 

 their feet. 



The honomable testimony of the Academy of Sciences, evidenced by the 

 report of Arago, was brought into view, and the advocate for the Company, 

 at the conclusion, read another communication, addressed to the President 

 from the same academician, containing some new developments of the scien- 

 tific question, and treating this delicate and interesting subject in the enUght- 

 ened manner, and with the energetic precision, which distinguish his pen. 

 We cannot withhold the following extract from it : — 



" I will add a few- words on the merits of the question. This will only be 

 pursuing the task I have long imposed on myself, of defending the rights of 

 inventors, dead or li^^ng, against imitators, copyists, and plagiaries — a task 

 in which, to the great displeasure of the EngUsh, I have been allowed to 

 restore to our cmnitrymian, Papin, the honovu' of the discovery of the steam 

 engine, and of steam boats. 



" When the law declai'es in general terms (en these generale) that a patent 

 shall never be granted for a simple idea, it goes perhaps beyond its own 

 object J but it thereby shows the complete separation which society ought to 

 make between a theoretical and a practical machine. To transform au appa- 

 ratus whith works with ditiicnlty, or scarcely works at all, into a powerful, 

 common, economical machine, which, occasionally, changes completely the 

 uii'i.iufactm'ing aspect of a whole nation^nothing more is sometimes requisite 

 than an apparently insignificant alteration, vvliich, in the shops, might be 

 designated liy the simple term, ' a turn of the hand.' 



" The machine w hich we owe to the genius of Watt, includes no principle 

 which is not seen in the much older macliine of Neucomen, only the steam 

 was no lo!iger condensed in the body of the pump, but in a separate cylinder. 

 What did Bramah add to the princijiles of Stevin and Pascal in the liydraidic 

 press ? Nothing, absolutely nothing ! He only modified the shape of the 

 large piston, so as to render it completely tight and staunch. Watt and Bra- 

 mah arc none the less regarded as the principal and most skilful promoters of 

 British industry. M. Fonvielle may have added to the results of his prede- 

 cessors only his demonstration of the jiossibiUty of filtering under strong 

 pressm'e through filters par eucellevce. composed of sand and povuided sand- 

 stone ; he may have only proved that the two materials in question can be so 

 disposed as to maintain their situation under the action of rapid currents, and 

 not to mingle with and be carried away with the fluid mass, — he is stUl an 

 inventor : but he has dono more ; he has found the means of cleaning the 

 filter without dismomitiug it, without haniUing it. The two inventions united 

 form a process whose efficiency is not contested, and winch provide the means 

 of filtering vast masses of water with very small macliines. Nothing like this 

 existed before. Never, for example, had the city of Paris suspected the pos- 

 sibility of filtering, on the spot, the water of the puldic fountains. Now, om 

 citizens are certain of soon seeing this valuable improvement reaUzed. The 

 only water not subjected to filtration will be that for washing the streets. 

 Well ! this might have been possiljle without any one having recently inveuted 

 any thing ! The able engineers of Paris, the hydraulic engineers of London, 

 wlicre the subject of filtering was not long since an object of parliamentary 

 investigation, might have had in their eye all the elements of a simple, elegant, 

 economical solution of the problem, and yet no one has seized hold of it ! 

 Vain supposition ! Such pretensions cannot be supported, without opposing 

 the most usefid thing in the world — common sense itself. 



" The name of the engineer Thom of Greenock, has been cited in the me- 

 moir of our adversaries. This name, which was parenthetically introduced 

 into my report, did not prevent the celebrated Myliie, engineer of the New 

 River, the chief hydraulic establishment in Lon<loM, from considering Fon- 

 vielle's apparatus as a good and useful invention. Wlicn lately Mr. Mylne 

 came to Paris with Mr. Cm-tis, President of the Bank of England, for the 

 purpose of inquiring relative to a project for tlie distribution of water at each 

 house, and oa wlucU occasion the Municipal Council charged me with the 



preparation of the account of charges, Mr. Mylne declared to me t u . - 

 (ended to apply to the ' French Company,' and purchase from thembat e in 

 jO their process of filtering.— iJec. Soc. Polylech., Juillet, 1838. the right 



CHELSEA WATER-WORKS. 



W.^TEB may with truth be called the blood of cities ; the first introduction 

 of it into London was by leaden pipes in 123(j, in the reign of Henry UL ; it 

 was brought from Tyliovu-ne. In 1285 was erected, in Westchcap, a great 

 stone castellated cistern of lead called the Great Conduit. The 'Tun upon 

 Cornhill was constructed in 1401. Perilous-pool, Muswell-hill, Hackuey, 

 St. Marylebone, and Hampstead-hcath, were the sources fi'om whence the 

 supplies were derived ; and new conduits were in tlie year 1510 erected iu 

 Lothbury and Coleman-street. " The brook of Tybourne (according to Pen- 

 nant) furnished nine conduits for supplying the city with water. Here the 

 Lord Mayor had a banqueting-honse, to which he and the Aldermen were 

 accustomed to repair on horseback, attended by their ladies in wagons, and 

 after viewing the conduit (query, if they tasted the water), retm-ned to the 

 city, where they were magnificently entertained." Thames water was first 

 supplied to the houses of the citizens in 1582, by engines at London Bridge, 

 made liy Peter Maurice; the water was carried over the steeple of St. Mag- 

 nus, and tlience into the houses in Thames-street, New Fish-street, and Grace- 

 church-street, up to Cornhill, by the north corner of Lcadenhall, then the 

 highest ground iu the city. Here the water from the principal pipe rose into 

 a standard, rushed out through foirr spouts, one running each way at every 

 side. Tlie chief condiuts were at Leadenhall, Cripplegale, Paul's-gate, Old 

 Fish-street, Crippleg.ate, Oldbourue, Fleet-bridge, and Aldgate. Stowe de- 

 scribes that at Fleet-bridge as having the image of St. Christopher at the top, 

 and lower down surrounded with angels, with sweet-sounding bells before 

 them, whereupon, by means of an engine within the tower, they " dyvers 

 hours of the day and night, chymed suclie a hymme as was appointed." In 

 West Sniithfield was a pool, which, according to Bmton, was called Horse- 

 pool, and another in St. Giles's, and divers fair wells and springs, by which 

 the city was served with sweet water. These conduits continued till they 

 were destroyed liy the fire of 1606. 



The vast improvement, by means of pipes conveying water to every house, 

 is but of comparatively modem date : to the ancients it was not in use, at 

 least only in the more splendid habitations of the rich. The larger kind of 

 iron pipes called mains tliey had not discovered the means to fabricate. 

 Water was conveyed [to their cities by means of those gigantic aqueducts, 

 whose ruins are the admiration of posterity. That at Rome called Nuo Auio, 

 according to Frontibus and Strabo, was six miles and a-half in length, was 

 formed of 1,000 arches. That called Aqua Martia was taken from the "Tiber, 

 and was 38 miles in length, and brought the water in a wandering course 

 43 miles, pait of it having a subterranean channel. The nine earlier aque- 

 ducts distributed into Rome 14,018 quinaria, whicli is equal to 28,000,000 

 cubic feet, and when all the aqueducts were in operation the supplv must 

 have exceeded 50,000,000, which, putting the population at 4,000,000, 13 

 cubic feet would give above a hogshead and a-half of water to each uiliabi- 

 tant. 



The first foundation of the Chelsea waterworks was by act of Parliament 

 passed in tlie year 1724. Two years afterwards tlie basin in the Green-park 

 was constructed to supjily Whitehall and part of Westminster. They also 

 formed the reservoir in Hyde-park. At that time they possessed the means 

 of supplying 10,000 houses, at a cheaper rate than the New River Company. 

 In the year 1742 tlie extraordinary severity of tlie winter destroyed the works, 

 and a new act was passed to increase their capital. In 1767 the dady supply 

 raised by tlieir works amounted to 1,740 tuns ; it was shortly after increased 

 to 3,500; in 1809 it exceeded 6,500! and it nowmayaniount to 20,000 tuns. 

 The more easily attainable any article of general necessity and consump- 

 tion, the more fastidious in his choice Ijccomcs the consumer. The supply of 

 water to the metropolis iu the past century was not only more scanty, but of 

 a quality very much inferior even to what it was some years since ; the in- 

 habitants of third and fourth rate houses were then content to receive a mode- 

 rate supply. The great convenience of which, and the small item it made in 

 the yearly expenditure, tlie saving of labour and of time it aft'orded, were 

 found so beneficial, that its quality was hardly considered, or if it was, to find 

 a remedy was supposed almost hopeless. In lai'ger houses, quantity was the 

 object considered, that for draught being otherwise procured, and in the 

 smaller tenements the convenience was unknown ; but as enterprise and com- 

 petition became extended, it was nccessan- that not only the quantity, but 

 the quality should be considered. To effect this object, many difterent plans 

 have, therefore, been tried ; many have failed, after enormous sums expended. 

 The means by which the Chelsea company have endeavoured to succeed has 

 been by applying the princijile of the filter on a scale of greater magnitude 

 than has hitherto been attempted. 



It had always been the opinion of foreign chemists, that although water, 

 in certain and moderate quantities, might by this means be brought to a great 

 degree of purity, yet it would be found, if attemiited to any great extent, that 

 the earthy, limeous, and vegetable particles would be only held in solution, 

 and the water would still continue to deposit whatever impurities it jiossessed, 

 acquired from the source from whence derived ; also, that even if it gained a 

 greater degiee of piuity from the process, yet that a surface of water exposed 



in a ijuic»eent state in « tank, shallow in comparison to its extent, would 



