1847.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



79 



tion of the steam engine (which had then begun to develope its extraor- 

 dinary powers) to the York Buildings Waterworks by Savery, in 1710, 

 and afterwards by Newcomen in 1730. Newcomen's engines were sub- 

 sequently applied at Chelsea, Shadwell, Stratford, London Bridge, and the 

 New Kiver \\ aterworks. As soon as Watt had brought his improvements 

 into operation for pumping water, his engines were applied at each of the 

 above waterworks by degrees, in addition to the old engines, thus a com- 

 parison between them could easily be made ; and soon showed the supe- 

 riority of Watt's engine in every respect. They were thus applied at 

 Shadwell and Chelsea Waterworks in 1778, at London Bridge and Lam- 

 beth soon after, and at the York Buildings in 1S04. The usual mode for 

 the old engines was to pump the water into a cistern, at the top of a high 

 tower, and from thence it descended through pipes, to the districts and 

 buildings where it was required ; the engine was thus always kept to its 

 full load, whether necessary or not, and a waste of power ensued. Air- 

 vessels were afterwards added to the pumps at Chelsea, and subsequently 

 became general ; the air in the vessels being compressed, acted by expan- 

 sion and contraction on the water, so as to force it with regularity through 

 the pipes, without going up to the cistern. Smeaton,who had constructed 

 water-wheels for pumping at Stratford in 1763, and at London Bridge in 

 17G7, where towers were employed, afterwards became the principal pro- 

 prietor of the Deptford Waterworks, and in 1773 constructed a water- 

 wheel for pumping water from the Ravensbourne without a tower. The 

 machine is still in existence, although steam engines have been subse- 

 quently applied. About 1810, Boultun and Watt's improved pumping- 

 engines, constructed wholly of metal, and erected in handsome substantial 

 buildings of brick and stone, with large air-vessels for pumping direct into 

 the pipes, became generally adopted at all the London waterworks; cast 

 iron pipes were substituted for the old ones of wood. The new engines 

 being more powerful, and the cast iron pipes stronger, enabled water to be 

 distributed to cisterns on the tops of dwelling-houses, hence denominated 

 the high service. Stone pipes were tried at the Grand Junction Water- 

 works, but failed, and iron pipes were substituted. Filtering reservoirs 

 upon a large scale were constructed at Chelsea by Simpson in 1830, and 

 subsequently at other places, with complete success, and are now univer- 

 sally employed. The water is now generally taken from the Thames 

 above the town, where it is least adulterated. The old waterworks lower 

 down the river, viz., York Buildings, London Bridge, the Borough, and 

 Shadwell, have been abandoned, and new places chosen at Hammersmith 

 and Brentford, higher up the river, and at Old Ford upon the river Lea ; 

 the river water is received into capacious settling, or filtering reservoirs, 

 and distributed by steam engines to the respective districts. Latterly, 

 powerful condensing steam engines, very similar to Watt's, but worked by 

 high-pressure steam with great expansive action, on the system introduced 

 by Woolf, in Cornwall, for deep mines, were introduced by Wickstead, in 

 1840, at the East London Waterworks,' and have since been adopted by 

 other Companies with advantage in saving fuel. The double cylinder 

 high-pressure condensing engine, with great expansive action, on the sys- 

 tem of Hornblower, have also been introduced by Woolf, Hall, and Ren- 

 nie, and applied to work mills with success. Waterworks, similar to those 

 in the metropolis, have been erected at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, 

 Manchester, Liverpool, and all the principal towns in the kingdom. At 

 Glasgow, one of the last engineering efforts of Watt was to suggest the 

 idea of laying a pipe under the Clyde, to bring water to the city from the 

 opposite side of the river ; this was to have been effected by making the 

 pipe with flexible ball and socket joints, uniting the whole together iu one 

 piece, and closing it at each end, floating it to its position, and sinking it.* 

 Rennie effected a similar operation at York Buildings in 1810. The in- 

 creased means for the supply of water, and the economy and punctuality 

 with which it is distributed, has occasioned a greater consumption, and 

 induced a degree of cleanliness throughout all classes, which has tended 

 to augment the comfort and health of the community. Still the system is 

 capable of improvement: larger reservoirs and more copious supplies are 

 necessary. 



Artesian Wells, which appear to have been known to the ancients, and 

 have been common in France and Italy, were introduced into this country 

 about the year 1790, it is said, by Vulliamy, near London. The system 

 consists in boring holes or wells through the superincumbent strata, im- 

 pervious to water, until they reach the porous strata where water abounds, 

 the pressure then acting according to the level from whence the water is 

 derived, forces it upwards through the holes, frequently to some height 

 above the surface ; these have since been multiplied all over the kingdom 

 during the present century, and latterly in Trafalgar-square, ^ for supplying 

 the first public fountains which have been erected in the metropolis. These 

 fountains, though upon a small scale, are a beginning; and it may be 

 hoped that this example will be generally followed for the ornament of 

 this great city ; which, although perhaps the best supplied with water in 

 the world, has not been adorned with fountains, which are so general, and 

 are constructed upon such a grand scale at Paris,'' Rome, and almost all 

 the other great cities in Europe, adding so much to their magnificence and 

 salubrity. In carrying out the improvements above mentioned for the 

 supply of water, the names of Smeaton, Watt, Mynle, Rennie, Telford, 

 Simpson, Bateman, Anderson, Clark, Wickstead, Walker, Martin, and 

 others, must not be forgotten ; and we shall no doubt witness efforts upon 

 a still greater scale in future. Projects for bringing a large supply from 



> See C. E. and A. Journal, Vgl. 3, 1840, p. 65. 2 Vol. 2, 183S), p. 451. a & 4 Vol, 8, 

 1345, p. 133. . • . e i if ■ > 



the Thames, above Windsor, by Rennie ; also from the Colne and Wandle, 

 and Darenth, and elsewhere, by Telford, Rennie, and others, have long 

 been in agitation, and sooner or later may be eflected with advantage to 

 the metropolis. 



SEWAfiE. 



Connected with the supply of water for domestic purposes, we must not 

 omit the important subject of sewage, or surface drainage, upon the due 

 operation of which the health of the community so much depends. Sew- 

 ers appear to have attracted notice at an early period, and during the reign 

 of Henry VIII. commissioners were appointed with extensive powers to 

 levy rales for, and to see them properly carried into eflect; but until under 

 ground or covered sewers were adopted, all the surface water from the 

 adjacent hills and country, as well as the refuse from the buildings, was 

 discharged into open ditches and street gutters, which, passing through 

 the centre of the town, accumulated, and occasionally remaining stagnant 

 for a considerable period, produced a degree of effluvia and malaria ex- 

 tremely prejudicial to the health of the inhabitants. This was remedied 

 to a certain extent, by covering over the open drains; but the bottom of 

 these were not low enough, and the want of surface drains continued. By 

 degrees, covered sewers, of enlarged capacity, entirely of brickwork, were 

 introduced ; the importance of the subject then became duly appreciated 

 and studied ; sewers were laid out upon a general and enlarged system ; 

 main, subsidiary, and surface drains, and cesspools of a proper form, con- 

 struction, and capacity, adapted to each other, and to the several districts 

 they were to drain, were designed, and, in many cases, carried into eft'ect. 

 The subject is still under consideration, and improvements are being daily 

 eflected, although much still remains to be done in the form, capacity, 

 inclination, distribution, and arrangement of sewers, not only in the me- 

 tropolis,* but in almost all the principal towns of the kingdom, before the 

 system can be said to be complete. The removal of Old London Bridge, 

 by which a fall of about 5 feet at low water has been gained, has been of 

 immense advantage in improving the drainage of the metropolis; and it 

 only remains for this great improvement to be carried out further, by re- 

 moving the shoals and regulating the high and low water channel of the 

 river, by dredging and other means, but to be cautions in contracting the 

 width. It is greatly to be desired that this important work should be 

 speedily carried inio efl^ect, upon a general scientific system, which, if 

 properly done, would confer the greatest benefits upon the extensive and 

 populous districts, draining into and bordering upon the Thames, as well 

 as the navigation of this noble river, upon the proper maintenance of which 

 the immense commerce, health, and prosperity of this great metropolis, 

 and its adjoining populous vicinity, depends. In the improvements of 

 sewerage, Cubitt, Barry, Donaldson, Gwilt, Hardwick, Nash, Smirke, 

 Soane, Walker, Rennie, Roe, and others, have been conspicuous. 



Gas. 



It is difficult to point out with accuracy the date of the invention and 

 introduction of that invaluable substitute for daylight, or artificial lighting, 

 carburetted hydrogen gas- It is generally believed, however, that it may 

 be attributed to William Murdoch, soon after he succeeded to the manage- 

 ment of Boullon and Watt's steam engine works at Suho, although the 

 inflammable properties of that gas had been long known. Murdoch's first 

 apparatus was erected at Soho, and he successfully illuminated that es- 

 tablishment with it in 1802, in celebration of tlie Peace of Amiens ; he 

 afterwards constructed similar apparatus on a large scale at Leeds, for 

 lighting Messrs. Gotts' woollen manufactory, and for Messrs. Philips and 

 Lee, at Manchester, and published an account of it in the " Philosophical 

 Transactions" for 1808. Clegg, who was brought up at Soho, also pub- 

 lished an account of it in the " Transactions of the Society of Arts" in 

 the same year. It was subsequently, by degrees, introduced into several 

 large manufactories in Lancashire ; Winsor afterwards exhibited it iQ 

 Pall Mall, where it excited a good deal of attention; bnt the general ap- 

 plication of gas for lighting towns was for some time retarded, in conse- 

 quence of the failure of several attempts by inexperienced persons, which 

 prejudiced the public against it, so that it was not until the year 1813, 

 that apparatus of eflicieut and proper construction was made, and erected 

 in London by Clegg, Farey,and Manby, upon the same principle as ori- 

 ginally introduced by Murdoch. The employment of gas for lighting 

 towns and buildings has now become almost universal here as well as on 

 the Continent. It is manufactured by distillation from coal in cast iron or 

 clay retorts, and collected in immense gasometers, some of them 100 feet 

 diameter, 44 feet deep, and capable of containing 390,000 cubic feet ; 

 thence it is distributed through cast and wrought iron pipes, under pro- 

 perly regulated pressure, many miles from the place where it is made ; 

 and self-acting meters, invented by Clegg, are applied at each building 

 and district, in order to ascertain the amount consumed. It is purified by 

 lime, sulphuric acid, &c., and its brilliancy is augmented by naphtha. In 

 the various contrivances and details of the apparatus, and in the processes 

 for manufacturing it, as well as in the economy of management, many 

 improvements have been made by Clegg, Lowe, Manby, Philips, Croll, 

 Crosly, Hedley, Edge, and others. When we compare the present mode 

 of lighting towns and public buildings with gas, with the old system of 

 oil lighting thirty years ago (even allowing that to have been a vast im- 

 provement upon the custom of our ancestors), we are astonished at the 

 amelioration, and can scarcely comprehend how we could have gone on so 



* There are nearly 500 miles of covered se^YerB la the metropolis. 



