5'i4 



NATURE 



[September 24, 1903 



the roads at a little distance from the town when I heard 

 a sound, and looking in the direction whence it came, saw 

 in a field near by a black column rise vertically in the air 

 for about forty feet in height. A girl who happened to be 

 working in the field put her hands to her ears and fled, 

 probably thinking she had seen Satan himself, but the 

 column soon became clear, the black colour having been 

 caused by the peat carried up with the water. 



Having traced the water from its source to the door of 

 the consumer, we now enter into another branch of the 

 subject. Up to this point the water has been entirely under 

 the control of the company or local authority by whom it 

 is provided, but from the moment it enters the consumer's 

 communication pipe, or where the communication pipe is 

 the property of the water supplier, from the moment the 

 water reaches the premises of the consumer, it comes under 

 his control, subject only to such regulations and super- 

 vision as the Legislature has given the water supplier 

 power to make and to exercise. 



When water was supplied on the now almost obsolete 

 "intermittent service," under which a town was divided 

 into a number of districts into each of which in succession 

 the water was turned for only one or two hours a day, the 

 water suppliers paid but little attention to the fittings within 

 the houses of the consumers, because, however great the 

 quantity of water wasted through defective* fittings, the 

 waste could only last for the short time during which the 

 ■water was turned on in each district, and it ceased 

 altogether during the night. 



About the year 183 1 the system of "constant service," 

 'by which is meant a supply of water available from the 

 pipes of the water suppliers at any moment throughout the 

 -day or night, was introduced into this country by the late 

 Mr. Thomas Hawksley, at Nottingham, and it soon became 

 evident that if a constant service was to be maintained the 

 fittings within the houses of the consumers must be adapted 

 to the new conditions and be placed under regulation and 

 supervision. Suitable regulations were therefore formu- 

 lated, and have since been improved and modified to meet 

 modern requirements. These regulations, which are mainly 

 directed to the use of proper pipes, taps and other fittings, 

 and to service cisterns so constructed as to prevent a con- 

 tinuous flow and consequent waste of water, do not in any 

 way limit the use of water by a consumer, who is at liberty 

 to take as much as he requires whether by day or by night, 

 nor does their strict enforcement inflict any hardship on 

 the consumer, to whom good water fittings kept in a proper 

 state of repair are in the end more economical than cheaper 

 and inferior fittings requiring the frequent attendance of 

 the plumber. 



About five years ago, I had occasion to obtain statistics 

 relating to the consumption of water in sixteen towns (in- 

 cluding Sou-thport) in England, containing an aggregate 

 population within the district supplied of rather more than 

 five millions of people, and found that the average quantity 

 of water consumed in those towns for domestic purposes 

 was 183 gallons per head per diem, showing what can be 

 €ffected by good management and a careful observance of 

 proper regulations for the prevention of waste without im- 

 posing any restriction on the quantity of water legitimately 

 ■used. The figures which I have quoted as water for 

 domestic purposes include the unmetered trade supplies and 

 ■that comparatively small amount of waste which cannot be 

 prevented, but do not include the water supplied by meter 

 for trade purposes, the amount of which varies greatly in 

 different towns, but being paid for by the consumer accord- 

 ing to the quantity used may be disregarded when com- 

 paring the management of waterworks undertakings. 



Some soft waters, more especially those derived from 

 moorlands, have an injurious action on lead pipes and lead- 

 lined cisterns, and are liable to cause lead poisoning in 

 sensitive persons drinking the water, but this action is now 

 commonly prevented by bringing the water into contact 

 with lime before distribution. 



In certain instances of public supplies, the hardness of 

 the water is reduced by one of the several softening pro- 

 cesses now in use, but it more frequently happens that the 

 softening is effected by those consumers who require soft 

 water for boiler or other trade purposes. 



A few words with regard to the water supply of the town 

 in which the Meeting of the British Association is now being 



held may not be out of place, the more especially when it 

 is borne in mind that the rapid growth of its population 

 during the last half century could not have taken place 

 but for the introduction of a supply of good water. 



The Southport Waterworks Company, by whom water 

 was originally brought to Southport, was established under 

 the authority of an Act of Parliament passed in the year 

 1854. Water was first obtained from a well sunk at Scaris- 

 brick, about five miles south-east of Southport, a source 

 which was practically superseded by another well which 

 was a few years later sunk at the Aughton pumping station 

 near Ormskirk. As the population to be supplied increased 

 in numbers, the Company subsequently sank a third well, 

 and constructed the still larger Springfield pumping station 

 near Town Green, about nine miles south-east of Southport, 

 and it is from the Aughton and Springfield wells, both sunk 

 into the Bunter Beds of the New Red Sandstone formation, 

 that the present excellent supply of water is derived. At 

 each pumping station the water is raised by a pair of beam 

 rotative steam-engines into two covered service reservoirs 

 situate on the summit of Gorse Hill, near Ormskirk, at an 

 elevation of 260 feet above ordnance datum, or in other 

 words, above the mean level of the sea. From this reservoir 

 th^ water is brought through two main pipes to Southport 

 and Birkdale, which places have from the commencement 

 of the undertaking had the advantage of a constant service. 

 The late Mr. Thomas Hawksley acted as engineer to the 

 company from its formation until his death in 1893, and I 

 subsequently acted in that capacity until the transfer, under 

 the powers of the Southport Water (Transfer) Act, 190 1, 

 of the undertaking of the company to the Southport, Birk- 

 dale, and West Lancashire Water Board, consisting of re- 

 presentatives of the Corporation of Southport, the Urban 

 District Council of Birkdale, and the Rural District Council 

 of West Lancashire. 



The advances in recent years in chemical science, and the 

 application of the science of bacteriology to the examination 

 of water, have led to the condemnation of waters which 

 a few years ago would have been deemed to be perfectly 

 suitable for a town supply. W'hilst fully appreciating the 

 advantages to be derived from the most careful examin- 

 ation of water supplied for domestic consumption, I cannot 

 but think that we are sometimes unnecessarily alarmed by 

 the results obtained. Taking a broad view of the subject, 

 and looking to the healthy condition of towns which have 

 for many years been supplied with water from sources now 

 regarded with suspicion, I venture to think that the teach- 

 ings of chemistry and bacteriology are as yet but imperfectly 

 understood, and that in the future it will be found that 

 some waters now considered of doubtful character are per- 

 fectly good and wholesome. I am well aware that the ex- 

 pression of these views may call forth the indignation of 

 some of my friends amongst eminent chemists and bacteri- 

 ologists to whose opinions on such subjects I feel bound to 

 pay deference. A Royal Commission has recently recom- 

 mended that a Government department be established and 

 endowed with enormous powers of interference with the 

 action and discretion of the bodies entrusted by Parliament 

 with the responsibility of the administration of water sup- 

 plies, and it behoves those bodies to give careful consider- 

 ation to that recommendation, and to take such steps as 

 may be necessary to check any attempt to give effect to a 

 proposal which may result in committing them to the carry- 

 ing out of unreasonable requirements, possibly involving 

 needless expenditure, at the bidding of a Department from 

 whose dictum they may have no appeal. • 



Although a matter only indirectly connected with water 

 supply, I think it may be of scientific interest to this 

 Section to have brought to their notice the case of the River 

 Rede in Northumberland, which takes its rise in the Cheviots. 

 At a place called Catcleugh, about four miles below the 

 source of the Rede, its waters are diverted by the Newcastle 

 and Gateshead Water Company for the supply of their dis- 

 trict. The gathering-ground above the point of diversion 

 is about 10,000 acres in extent, and the quantity of water 

 taken is ascertained by means of a gauge, and registered 

 continuously by a recording instrument. An inspection of 

 the diagrams taken during periods in which there was no 

 rainfall shows a daily variation in the volume of water 

 flowing down the river. For example, during a period of 

 eight days (June 9 to 16, 1899) without interruption by rain, 



NO. 1769, VOL. 68] 



