612 



bCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 538. 



Unfortunately, these experiments have 

 been confined to laboratory quantities and 

 conditions. It is hoped that an oppor- 

 tunity will offer to try them on a larger 

 scale. 



Mr. Alfred M. Quick, chief engineer, 

 Baltimore Water Department, said: The 

 subject under consideration here to-night 

 involves so much more of chemistry, bac- 

 teriology and entomology than it does of 

 water-works engineering, with which I am 

 more familiar than I am with the sciences 

 I have referred to, that I would very much 

 prefer to have appeared here simply in the 

 role of listener. 



I have been very miach interested in the 

 extremely valuable discussion of this sub- 

 ject from the scientific standpoint of all 

 the previous speakers. The only excuse 

 for my speaking or appearing here in any 

 other role than as a listener is, I suppose, 

 because I have had some experience in the 

 practical application of copper sulphate in 

 the treatment of large reservoirs in wse in 

 a water department. 



As to the experiments that we made, 

 while they were probably not so valuable 

 in illustrating the success of this method 

 of treatment as some other cases where the 

 proportion of algae in the reservoir was 

 very much greater than it was in our case, 

 or where the trouble had been experienced 

 from the presence of these organisms for a 

 longer time than it has been in Baltimore, 

 still they give results that are none the less 

 emphatic and conclusive. As I have said, 

 we have not had any trouble with these 

 organisms for any long period, and we had 

 no reason to suppose that they are present 

 in a'ny large quantity in our reservoirs. 

 We have had trouble, however, with com- 

 plaints of bad water, water of bad odor, 

 bad taste and discolored water, but in every 

 case — practically every case — we have been 

 able to get rid of the complaint by flushing 

 the mains, our conclusion being that the 



trouble was caused by the numerous dead 

 ends in the distribution system and also 

 by bad management of previous years in 

 allowing muddy water to be sent to the city 

 and thus filling our water mains with sedi- 

 ment. 



As I say, we had been able to get rid of 

 these complaints in previous years by flush- 

 ing the pipes, but this past summer there 

 was a continual complaint by a large arti- 

 ficial ice manufacturing concern that the 

 ice had a bluish-green color which prac- 

 tically made it unmarketable. Supposing 

 that the cause was the same as in the most 

 of the previous cases, we started to flushing 

 the pipes and connecting up some dead 

 ends in that vicinity, hoping by that means 

 to get rid of the complaint, but it still con- 

 tinued. I, therefore, made a personal ex- 

 amination of the matter and fovmd that the 

 ice was badly discolored and that there was 

 apparently no evidence of sediment in the 

 water, so that the complaint was undoubt- 

 edly due to the presence of some vegetable 

 organisms in the water. It immediately 

 occurred to me to try Dr. Moore 's suggested 

 method of treating the water in reservoirs 

 to eliminate the algae by the application of 

 copper sulphate. 



I had read his pamphlet and was con- 

 vinced of the value of the method of treat- 

 ment which he suggested, and so I com- 

 municated with Dr. Moore, and he sent his 

 assistant, Mr. Kellerman, over to Baltimore 

 and he examined the water in the reser- 

 voirs. Lakes Clifton and Montebello, which 

 feed the district from which the complaints 

 came. He also made some analyses of 

 samples of the water in these lakes, which 

 showed that the particular species of alg£e 

 which cause the disagreeable odor and dis- 

 coloration, and other species, were present 

 in such considerable numbers as to justify 

 an experiment with the copper sulphate. 



However, before attempting to make such 

 an experiment, not because I had any doubt 



