DESIGNING. 179 



for the reason that other forms require somewhat less material; 

 it is easier to secure and maintain water-tight joints; all parts 

 of the bottom are accessible, making subsequent and necessary 

 painting possible; the stresses are less than in the flat bottom; 

 the conical, hemispherical, or compound-shaped bottom is more 

 symmetrical and pleasing to the eye; and, last, the action of the 

 effluent exerts an automatic scour or self-cleaning effect upon 

 the bottom plates, preventing sedimentary deposits, which are 

 sufficient, as has been shown in the discussion of flat-bottomed 

 stand-pipes, to make it necessary to provide some form of man- 

 head permitting ingress for removal of the deposit at intervals. 

 For these reasons the subsequent discussion of suitable bottoms 

 will be limited to this type. 



Fairhaven Failure. Since the complete and disastrous failure 

 of the pretentious and costly water-tower at Fairhaven, Mass., 

 brief mention of which has been made in a previous chapter, 

 attention has been particularly drawn to the proper design of 

 tank bottoms, their connections, and the importance of the con- 

 tinuous girder construction. Shortly after this failure numerous 

 articles were contributed to the technical press, the most logical 

 of which is that prepared by Prof. A. Marston, Civil Engineering 

 Department, Iowa State College, and published in the Engineer- 

 ing News, Dec., 1901, as follows: 



" I have been very much interested in the account of the Fair- 

 haven water- tank failure published in your issue of November 21. 

 I desire to call your attention to some features of the original 

 design and of the modifications of that design made during con- 

 struction which were not mentioned in your account of the failure, 

 and which, it seems to me, whether they did or did not actually 

 cause the failure, may readily have done so. In what I shall 

 say I do not desire to be put in the position of in any way criticis- 

 ing the engineer who prepared the original designs. The Fair- 

 haven water-tower was a pioneer structure of its kind. In most 

 engineering designs some features cannot be calculated and 



