770 KEPORT— 1903. 



From the service reservoir tlie water is convej^ed by one or more main pipes 

 into the district of supply. These pipes are gradually reduced in diameter as 

 they pass through the district, the water which they convey is talien oil" by 

 other main pipes branching from them, and finally enters the service pipes, which 

 are usually from five inches to three inches diameter, and are those from which 

 the consumers' communication pipes are talien. The service pipes should in all 

 cases be controlled by valves, so that the water can be shut off from them without 

 interfering with the flow through the main pipes. Consumers' communication 

 pipes are not generally allowed to be attached to pipes of greater diameter than 

 live inches, and where a pipe of six inches diameter and upwards is carried along 

 a street, another pipe of three or four inches diameter (preferably the latter size), 

 and called a ryder pipe, is laid alongside to receive the attachments of the commu- 

 nication pipes. The ryder pipe is divided into lengths of from 350 to 400 yards, 

 each of which is controlled by a valve at its junction with the main pipe. 

 Hydrants for use in case of fire are attached to the ryder and other service pipes 

 throughout the district at a distance apart not exceeding 100 yards. Except in 

 streets where the houses are small and not high, it is desirable to lay the service 

 pipes of not less than four inches diameter, not because a smaller pipe would not 

 suffice to meet the requirements of the domestic consumers, but in order to ensure 

 an ample supply of water in case of fire. When determining the sizes of the 

 main pipes to bo laid throughout a town, the engineer commences with the pipes 

 most remote from the service reservoir, and gradually increases the diameter 

 according to the probable number and magnitude of the supplies to be talien from 

 them. 



Pipes of cast iron having soclcets run with lead and set up with a hammer are 

 mostly used for waterworks purposes, but in some instances turned and bored 

 joints put together without lead have been used with success, but these are only 

 suitable where there is an unyielding foundation. I remember a case in York- 

 shire, where turned and bored pipes were, much against the advice of the engineer, 

 used for the distribution of gas in a colliery district, with the result that in a few 

 years nearly every joint was leaking ; fortunately the engineer had anticipated that 

 result, and had laid the pipes with sockets in addition to the turned and bored 

 joints; consequently, by opening the ground at each joint and running the joint 

 with lead, the leakage was stopped without necessitating the relaying of the 

 system of pipes. The main pipe of forty-four inches diameter, conveying water 

 from Ilivingtou to Liverpool, passes for several miles over a coalfield, and the 

 ground has in places subsided over the coal workings as much as four feet without 

 interfering with the supply of water ; the ground having been opened at the pipe 

 joints, the lead, which had been partially drawn from the joints, was forced back 

 by hammering, and the joint was again made sound. 



In some countries, where the cold is intense, water pipes have to be laid at 

 a depth of from 10 feet to 12 feet below the surface of the ground to protect the 

 water from frost, but in the United Kingdom a depth of from 2 feet 6 inches to 

 3 feet has l)een found to be sufiicient even in very severe frosts. 



Water, especially when soft, causes the interior of cast-iron pipes to become 

 incrusted with nodules of iron, which reduce the effective diameter of the pipe and 

 so diminish its capacity. This action is greatly retarded and in some instances 

 entirely prevented by the application to the pipes, soon after they have been cast, 

 of the coating introduced many years ago by the late Dr. Angus Smith, a process 

 now nearly always employed. 



It was at Southport that I witnessed the bursting of a main pipe, the only 

 occurrence of the kind that I have seen during a period of forty years, of which 

 a considerable portion has been spent amongst waterworks. Owing to the intro- 

 duction of a new supply of water, the original main pipe was charged with water 

 at a higher pressure than it had been intended to bear, with the result that several 

 fractures occurred. I happened to be standing on one of 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 



