2 BULLETIN 155, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



information and in part to carelessness or bad judgment. In con- 

 nection with irrigation projects many expensive wood-pipe lines 

 have been built, perhaps according to good design and careful loca- 

 tion, and then turned over to operatives who have no knowledge of 

 how to maintain them properly. For this reason it is especially im- 

 portant to the irrigation interests of the West that such knowledge 

 be made readily available. 



Recent investigations have included the inspection of many pipe 

 lines throughout several Western States ; interviews and correspond- 

 ence with manufacturers, builders, and operators of wood pipe; 

 and a review of published data bearing upon the subject. It is 

 believed that the findings should be helpful in arriving at a proper 

 estimate of the possibilities as well as the limitations of wood pipe 

 for several classes of service; that they should be of special value 

 to all who are interested in the construction or maintenance of irri- 

 gation projects. The presentation of such findings, in the hope that 

 the foregoing may be true, is the purpose of this bulletin. For much 

 of the information acknowledgment is due to many engineers, 

 managers of waterworks, irrigation systems, power companies, and 

 pipe factories, to all of whom the writer wishes to express apprecia- 

 tion and thanks. 



HISTORY. 



The first use of wood for water pipe appears to have been several 

 centuries ago. It is said that 400 miles of " pump logs " were laid in 

 London in 1613, and it is known that the use of wood pipe for munici- 

 pal waterworks was common in eastern cities of this country more 

 than 100 years ago. 



The primitive wood pipe was usually of elm, pine, spruce, or other 

 soft wood which was easily bored, and the holes seldom exceeded 6 

 inches in diameter, though it is said that at Philadelphia oak logs 

 up to 3 feet in diameter were used with bores of from 6 to 12 inches. 

 The logs were cut into lengths up to 12 feet. Boring was done by 

 hand. 1 This primitive type of pipe has been made in places within 

 quite recent years, but its manufacture declined rapidly after 1820 

 with the almost universal adoption of cast-iron pipe which, by new 

 processes, could be made in sizes much larger than the wood pipe 

 of that time. 



In 1885, A. Wyckoff, of Elmira, N. Y., patented a boring machine 

 for making pipe from solid logs. The product of his factory and of 

 others using the machines secured gradual recognition, first locally, 

 and later somewhat generally, in the mining districts of Pennsyl- 

 vania and elsewhere, for use under conditions where acids injurious 

 to cast iron and steel were encountered. But the notable revival in 



1 U. S. Geol. Survey, Water Supply and Irrig. Paper 43, p. 63. 





