356 



MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL 



Long Pond, by gravitation only, in a brick conduit to Corey's Hill Reservoir. Two 

 reservoirs within the city, as in Mr. Treadwell's first report, were recommended as 

 especially useful, in case of extensive fires, or of accident to any of the connections 



external to the city. 



In December, 1838, at the request of the water committee, a revised report by 

 the same commissioners was made, in which the two plans are again considered, 

 and that from Spot and Mystic Ponds combined, as advocated by Mr. Treadwell, 

 is again recommended, with a supply of 28J gallons daily to each inhabitant. 

 These two independent sources were believed to have great advantages over a 

 single source, through a single conduit, from Long Pond ; the estimated cost of the 



first was $839,806; that of the other, $1,060,484. In the report written by Mr. 

 Treadwell, the commissioners say : — 



u In expressing this opinion, they are not insensible to the great excellence of the supply 

 which is proposed as the alternative. Long Pond, as we have already stated, is capable of 

 affording an ample and permanent supply of pure water. It is of sufficient elevation to admit 

 of its water being brought to the neighborhood of the city, by a simple aqueduct, to a reservoir 

 of such height that it may be distributed therefrom to every part of the city. This may be 

 done without the attention required by works for pumping. By the aqueduct proposed to be 

 constructed, a copious stream of pure water would be at once brought to the vicinity of the 

 city sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants for a long period to come. It would be a work 

 which, when completed, the inhabitants might well regard with pride and satisfaction, and 

 such as the commissioners would not hesitate to recommend, were they not firmly of opinion 

 that all its material advantages may be obtained by works somewhat less imposing, yet less 

 expensive, and in some degree more entitled to confidence in their permanency." 



To Mr. Treadwell we owe the first of a series of examinations and reports, 

 which led to the construction of the great Water-Works opened in October, 1848. 

 To these works additions have been made as the demands increased, until they 

 deliver on a daily average thirty-six millions of gallons, by a combination of the 

 two systems recommended in the first report, by pumping and gravitation, 

 of it derived from two of the available sources, Mystic Pond and Lake Cochit- 

 uate, there pointed out, and producing an annual revenue of over one million of 



mu 



doll 



Of the importance of more than one source of supply, and of reservoirs within 

 the city, Mr. Treadwell never lost sight, and in 1870, in an article published in the 

 Traveller, he says: "It may be well for the city authorities charged with the 



responsibility of deciding the question of discontinuing the Beacon Hill Reservoir, 

 not to destroy it until they have a little more experience of elevating the water 

 supply by steam-pumping, say one hundred and thirty feet above the level of the 



