PUMPING MACHINERY OF THE WATER AND SEWERAGE HOARD. XXXIX. 



Discussion.— The President, Mr. T. W. KEELS, m. inst. c.e., 

 introducing the discussion, said: — The business of the 

 evening, gentlemen, is the discussion of Mr. Furniss's paper 

 on the Pumping Machinery of the Metropolitan Board of 

 Water Supply and Sewerage, which was read by the author 

 at our meeting held on Wednesday, November 20th, 1907. 

 He then called on Mr. Norman Selfe. 



Mr. Norman Selfe, m. rust. c.e., said: — The paper of Mr. 

 Furniss was of great interest if considered only as an 

 addition to the "Records" connected with the Water 

 Supply of Sydney; but the author was also to be compli- 

 mented upon the extent of the data which he had accu- 

 mulated, and the very interesting series of lantern slides 

 exhibited, some of which (as the old Botany pumping 

 engines) are of historical value. As the early history of 

 the water supply of Sydney has not yet been fully written, 

 it might be opportune now to record the fact that the first 

 steam pumping engine employed for that service was set 

 up in the forties during the time that Daniel Egan was 

 mayor of the city under the original corporation. This 

 machinery was erected at the site where the Randwick 

 road crosses the main stream to Botany, and was employed 

 to raise the water otherwise running into Botany Bay up 

 into an elevated tank, whence it flowed to the Lachlan 

 Swamps, in order to augment the supply to the "Tunnel" 

 or Busby Bore. After the Botany engines came into use 

 the old engine was sold, and he (Mr. Selfe) adapted it to 

 the ferry steamer "Quandong," in which vessel it worked 

 for many years until broken up. 



Coming to the technical portion of the paper several of 

 the statements therein were not precisely correct, or at 

 any rate were calculated to convey a wrong impression. 

 For instance, in the second paragraph it is said — "The 

 intermittent nature of pumping work detracts from the 



