WATERING THE PARKS. 



41 



is generally twelve metres long and 2in. in diameter; it is 

 constructed either of leather^ vulcanized india-rubber or 

 canvas ; tbe first and second costing 

 from 6s. to 6s. 8d. per yard^, and the 

 last only lOd. or lid. The screw- 

 connecting pieces, wbicb are made of 

 gun metal, cost about 6s. The leather 

 hose, losing the oily matters from its 

 pores, through the pressure of the 

 water, soon becomes brittle, but it 

 lasts on an average two years ; the 

 rubber is light and has no other fault 

 but that of wearing out in twelve 

 months, while the canvas hose soon 

 cuts to pieces on the gravel. A sys- 

 tem of mounting such tubes on small 

 trucks so as to keep them from trail- 

 ing on the ground, and consequently < 

 making them lighter to handle and 

 more durable, was tried for a long ^ 

 time, but this has been superseded by 

 a very simple and inexpensive inven- 

 tion, that of tubes made of sheet iron, 

 lined with lead and bitumen, and con- \\ |^ 



nected together by means of leather 

 joint pieces, the whole being mounted 

 on small wooden trucks. The cost of 

 this apparatus complete, with the sin- 

 gle exception of the branch, is only 

 70f., or 5f. 20c. per metre, and it 

 will last on the average four years, 

 while the old hose on trucks costs 

 127f., or nearly double. 



The cost of that now in use is 

 made up as follows : — Eleven metres 

 of iron tubes, 19f. 25c. j leather junction pieces, 25f. 60c. ; 

 ten trucks 20f. ,• ligatures, 5f. 15c. ; total, 70f. The appa- 

 ratus in use at the present moment in Paris consists of five 

 tubes, each about 6ft. long, and a shorter one to which the 



