160 W. Whitaker— Brighton Water- Works. 



Chalk, and I was therefore glad to be able to accept the invitation 

 of the Chairman of the Waterworks Committees and of the Engineer, 

 Mr. Edward Easton, to visit the Goldstone Bottom Station on 

 December 6th, 1884, when, under circumstances not likely to occur 

 again for some time, the party, of which I was one, was able to go 

 down into the actual source of supply and to examine it thoroughly. 



For the history, engineering details, and general account of the 

 waterworks, the reader is referred to the papers by Mr. Easton in 

 the Keport of the British Association for 1872, pp. 395 — 400, and in 

 the Transactions of the Brighton Health Congress, 1881, pp. 48-56, 

 with three plates. 



At Brighton the water is got from the Upper Chalk by sinking 

 shafts down to about low-water-level, and by then driving galleries, 

 or small tunnels, more less at right angles to the dip of the beds, so 

 as to cut the fissures along which water flows in its passage from 

 the higher ground on the north to the sea. The present supply is 

 plentiful ; but the Corporation have looked well ahead, and took 

 advantage of a late dry season, to extend these tunnels and so to 

 get a future increase (at the Goldstone Works). 



The depth of the shafts varies of course as the level of their sites. 

 At Goldstone Bottom there are four, and their depth is 150 feet and 

 more. The tunnels vary somewhat in size, up to a height of 18 feet 

 and a width of 12 feet. Under ordinary circumstances these tun- 

 nels are filled with water; but, in order to extend them, they were 

 practically pumped dry (except for small channels by the side), and 

 about 2,000,000 gallons of water were run to waste daily, after 

 enough had been taken for the supply of the town and neighbour- 

 hood. By the skilful management of the resident engineer, Mr. 

 Baker, the chalky water, that comes from the parts where work was 

 going on, was kept separate from the ordinarily clear water of the 

 springs cut ; so that the supply was still got whilst the work went on. 



The tunnels are in white chalk, with but few flints in the flat 

 planes of bedding; but with many oblique layers of thin flint 

 filling joint-planes. These, it should be remarked, are evidence of 

 water-flow, having probably been formed by slow deposit from 

 water along the joints. Some joint-fissures on the other hand are 

 filled with a soft calcareous and sandy deposit, the sand brought 

 down from above by the sinking water. Though some of the chalk 

 seemed fairly soft, yet I am told by Mr. Easton, that much of it was 

 found to be very hard, needing, almost constantly, chisels and 

 sledge-hammers to break it, picks being often of no use. 



At Goldstone Bottom the length of the tunnel was 1800 feet in 

 1881, to which there had since been added (or would be added by the 

 work in progress) 2600 feet. 



The supply comes chiefly from three or four springs yielding from 

 4000 to 5000 gallons a minute, a long way apart. Though there 

 are many small additions between these, yet it is noteworthy how 

 far, in these works, a tunnel has been driven before cutting a fissure 

 yielding a large supply, as this points to the need, in some cases, of 

 great lateral extension to get the required supply from the Chalk. 



