748 REPORT— 1894. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. Some Reminiscences of Steam Locomotion on Common Roads.^ 

 By Sir P. J. Bkamwell, Bart., D.C.L., F.R.S. 



2. On Bore-hole Wells for Town Water-supply. 

 By Henry Davey, M.Inst.C.E. 



At the Cardiff Meeting of this Association the author proposed a new system 

 of bore-hole wells for town water-supply. Since that time the system has 

 been carried into effect at several places, and he described one of the most important 

 examples of executed work, viz., that of the Netherley Pumping Station of the 

 "Widnes Waterworks. The subject was dealt with under two heads : — 



\st. The system of bore-holes. 



2nd. The application of the pumping power. 



I. The Syste7)i of Bore-holes. — In procuring water for town water-supply it is 

 the usual and necessary practice to provide duplicate pumping engines, and where 

 two engines are made to pump from the same well, the well must be very large that 

 it may accommodate two sets of pumps. 



Such wells are usually 12 to 14 feet in diameter. 



To sink such a well in the ordinary way is a very long and costly undertaking, 

 especially if soft strata are met with, where lining becomes necessary. On the 

 completion of the well it may be necessary to drive adits to increase the water- 

 supply. A simple bore-hole is made very cheaply and very expeditiously. Four 

 30-inch bore-holes can be put down in a very small fraction of the time required 

 to sink a 12-foot well. 



Instead of making a large well, the author puts down four bore-holes to ac- 

 commodate the pumps for duplicate pumping engines — a pair of pumps to each 

 engine. The bore-holes being completed, the pumps are lowered into them and 

 coupled-up to the permanent engines. Immediately that is done the water found 

 in the bore-holes can be pumped and supplied to the town. Should it be insufficient, 

 then a small well would be sunk in the dry to the bottom of the bore-hole pumps. 

 The water being kept down by the pumps, the bore-holes at the level of the pumps 

 would he connected to the centre well, and adits driven to collect more water. 



Should the bore-holes yield sufhcient water, it would not be necessary to sink 

 the well. It would be absurd to advocate any particular system of well-sinking 

 as being universally applicable ; this system, however, of making wells offera 

 advantages under favourable conditions, but the advisability of its adoption in 

 any particular case must be a matter of judgment with the engineer planning th& 

 work. 



The bore-holes at Netherley, two in number, are sunk in Red Sandstone rock,, 

 and are placed 20 feet apart, each bored to a diameter of 30 inches for a depth of 

 200 feet, and to a reduced diameter of 18 inches for a further depth of 200 feet and 

 300 feet respectively, thus making the first hole 400 feet deep, and the second one 

 500 feet deep. On the completion of the boring the water stood 70 to 80 feet from 

 the surface of the ground, when the quantity pumped by the old engine on the 

 same site was 1;^ million gallons per day. The main pumps were then lowered intO' 

 the bore-holes, each pump extending to the bottom of the large part of the hole, 

 200 feet from the ground-level. In that position the pumps were suspended from 

 a cast-iron bed-plate supported on a concrete foundation formed round the top of 

 the holes, a block of oak being inserted between the head of the pump and the 

 bed-plate. In this suspended position the pumps work without the slightest 

 unsteadiness. 



The engines were made for the purpose of pumping 2^ million gallons per day, 

 but it was found that, working up to their full capacity of 2| million gallons, the 

 full yield of the bore-holes was not reached. On starting the new pumps it was 

 found that when pumping 2| million gallons per day the water-level was lowered 

 to 100 feet from the surface of the ground. 



' Published in the Engineer, August 17, 1894. 



