INTRODUCTION. 



IT is a strange fact to chronicle that, amongst the great mass 

 of scientific .literature, there is no distinct treatise upon the design 

 and construction of metallic receptacles or structures whose 

 province it is to retain a sufficient reserve supply of water, elevated 

 to a proper height and intended to be used in conjunction with 

 other necessary features of a modern water-supply system. Such 

 structures, generally termed " tanks," "water-towers," "stand- 

 pipes," or "towers and tanks," according to their design, are 

 rapidly increasing in number, and are being generally specified 

 in the smaller water-plants, where the economies are to be prac- 

 tised and natural and suitable elevations are unattainable. The 

 popularity of this class of reservoir being on the increase, it would 

 seem that along with the many exhaustive and elaborate discus- 

 sions of kindred subjects, as hydraulics, hydrostatics, statics, 

 stress, and the metallurgy and physical properties of structural 

 steel, there might be found some work dealing with this now 

 important subject, but so far as the writer is aware, in the entire 

 range of such productions, only the" most fragmentary articles 

 are to be found. 



The inability to procure definite or reliable information upon 

 the design and construction of such work is probably the cause 

 of the scanty and meagre instructions frequently appearing in 

 sets of specifications for water-works construction, and the defi- 

 ciency in this respect has been, commented upon by a prominent 

 member of the profession in the following terms: 



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