140 REPORT—1874., 
through a professional connexion with Ireland of fifty years, has so much 
advanced the usefulness of the Upper Bann by improved mechanical and en- 
gineering appliances ; unfortunately for the world that eminent and invalu- 
able life has just terminated, after having accomplished more than the most 
sanguine could hope to see realized in a lifetime. He put up an iron breast- 
wheel, which gave great satisfaction and is still capable of doing good work. 
Tt was at first used for driving linen beetling-machines, and was calculated 
to give a useful effect equal to 60 per cent. of the theoretical power of the 
water. He erected another of the same kind shortly after this at Seapatrick, to 
drive beetling-engines and power-looms, and subsequently several others were 
put up at different mills on the river by Mr. Boyd and the firm of Coates and 
Young, of Belfast. In 1835 the principal mill-owners formed themselvesinto 
a provisional Committee to take steps to procure a better and more regular 
supply of water by the construction of reservoirs. They placed the matter 
in the hands of Sir William Fairbairn, who, assisted by J. F. Bateman, Isq., 
F.R.S., suryeyed the collecting-grounds of the river Bann and its several 
tributaries, and made an excellent and most interesting report of the water- 
bearing resources of the district. He recommended the construction of two 
impounding reservoirs, Lough Island Reavy and Deer’s Meadow, and one 
auxiliary one, the Corbet Lough. The Bann Reservoir Company was then 
formed, and Lough Island Reavy first constructed according to the plans and 
under the superintendence of Mr. Bateman, and was finished in the latter 
part of the year 1839. 
The Corbet reservoir was also constructed, but not to the full extent 
contemplated, the embankment having been made to impound the water to 
a depth only of 11 feet 3 inches instead of 18 feet. Much difficulty was 
encountered in the work, which was not finished till the year 1847. 
The Deer’s-Meadow reservoir was abandoned, as the works were of a heavy 
character, and the gathering-ground being small, it was feared there would not 
be sufficient water to fill it. A detailed account is given of the works at 
Lough Island Reavy by Mr. Bateman in the ‘ Transactions of the Institution 
of Civil Engineers’ for 1841 or 1842, so it is not necessary to do moré than 
to describe a few specialities. The works are most substantial, and the em- 
bankments never showed any deficiency or weakness ; one peculiarity in their 
construction is the use of a wall of peat on the water side of the puddle-wall 
and another on the water face of the embankment. ° Its application has been 
most successful, as there has been no leakage through the embankment. I 
haye found peat used in this way in conjunction with clay puddle most effi- 
cacious in mill-dams and river-courses, and for surrounding smooth iron pipes 
in their passage through banks; indeed the value of its use is well attested by 
the prevalent practice of its traditional adoption in difficult cases in those 
districts where it is procurable. Some experiments made to determine the 
rationale of its action, showed that, like a sponge, it expands to fill the space 
left by the shrinkage of the puddle; if this space were not thus occupied, 
water would trickle into the fissures and gradually wash soft material away. 
In the solid ground under the main embankment a culvert is built about 
150 feet long, filled at the half of its length by a solid plug of masonry, 
into which three iron pipes are inserted. These pipes are each 18 inches in 
diameter; one of these, which lies above the other two, is for use in cases of 
emergency, only 73 feet long and closed (by a dead flanche) on the discharge 
end; the others, which are laid on the bottom of the culvert, are 82 feet long 
and provided with sluice-valves. These valves are surrounded by an arched 
chamber (an enlargement of the outer culvert), and are regulated, according 
