I7t>& 
RURAL NEW-YORK.tR 
Trouble with Water System 
In my water eystem the water comes 
through a %-in. head pipe laid nearly 40 
years ago from a well almost three-quar¬ 
ters of a mile away. It has supplied my 
neighbor and me with water for all that 
time without any trouble. The pipe runs 
through a swamp lower than the well, 
which is 18 ft. deep. A year ago the 
water stopped. We commenced at the 
well and laid new %-in. iron pipe for 
about .35 rods. We found the pipe for 
about 10 rods from the well porous and 
brittle, but the rest of the 35 rods seemed 
as good as the day it was laid. After lay¬ 
ing the new pipe the water ran all right 
until the middle of last January, when it 
stopped at my house, but. continued to 
run to my neighbor’s house nil Winter, 
his house being about 10 ft. lower than 
mine. Last May it stopped at his house. 
Then we went down in the swamp at low¬ 
est point and put in two valves, one to 
hold the water from draining out of the 
pipe from the house down, and the other 
to let. the water run. out of the pipe from 
the well house. On opening this valve 
and closing the valve or shut-off to the 
house the water will run for 13 to 15 
minutes without a flicker and then great 
quantities of air will come for three or 
four minutes. We let it run for 10 min¬ 
utes until we are sure the air is all out. 
Then the water will run all right to our 
buildings for about a week, when it will 
gradually stop. We repeat the operation 
and the water will run perfectly for an¬ 
other week. We have been doing this all 
Summer. As a further test to locate the 
trouble we went down to the further edge 
of the swamp and cut the pipe, put in a 
farmers’ union. At this point the water 
will run for about seven to eight minutes 
before the air comes. As a still further 
test we disjointed the pipe at the end of 
the iron pipe and tlie water runs two to 
three minutes before the air comes. This 
point is about 35 rods from the well. 
The length of time the water will run 
after letting out the air at lowest point 
has gradually lessened until now it is 
about three to four days. The siphon ex¬ 
tends from 15 to 20 rods from the well, 
depending of course on the height of the 
water in the well. The plumber said he 
felt, sure every joint was tight, yet the 
air all seems to collect in the pipe at or 
near the well. The well is a spring and 
we thought possibly the air came up from 
the bottom of the well and entered the 
strainer, so we set the strainer in a 12-qt. 
galvanized. iron pail in the bottom of the 
well. This did not remedy our trouble 
any. E. L. H. 
Maine. 
Siphons frequently give trouble due to 
air gathering inside and obstructing the 
flow. Where the flow of water has a fair¬ 
ly high velocity, as in a short line or in a 
siphon where there is a considerable dif¬ 
ference in the levels of the intake and dis¬ 
charge ends, this air may be dragged 
along by the swiftly flowing water in the 
form of small hubbies without giving so 
much trouble, but where the flow is some¬ 
what sluggish, as it is bound to be in a 
siphon as long and of as small pipe as the 
one described by E. L. H., it is very likely 
to gather in the high points of the pipe 
and stop the flow of water. 
The fact of running water being se¬ 
cured at the low point after it had 
stopped flowing from the outlet might be 
explained by noting that the point seems 
to be considerably lower than the outlet, 
and consequently there is a greater head 
of water to cause a flow. This greater 
* head, coupled with the lessened friction 
due to shorter pipe length, may be suffi¬ 
cient to overcome the “air bind” and start 
the siphon to working. The different in¬ 
tervals of time elapsing before air bub¬ 
bles come when the pipe is cut would 
seem to indicate the time necessary for 
the air hubbies to move from the point of 
gathering down to the disehai'ge point, and 
by determining the yeloeity of the flow 
hv catching the water and measuring it 
over a timed interval it should be pos¬ 
sible to find at what point the air is 
gathering by measuring up the line the de¬ 
termined distance. It will be found at 
some high point. 
Every effort should be made to provide a 
tight pipe, preventing the least air leak. 
In addition, sharp bends should he avoid¬ 
ed, and the high points of the pipe line 
made as nearly horizontal as possible, 
with long easy bends, to the lower levels 
instead of elbows. The object is to se¬ 
cure as smooth a path for the water as is 
possible, so that more of the admitted air 
will he carried along to the outlet in the 
form of minute bubbles instead of gath¬ 
ering at the high spots or against rough¬ 
ness in the form of large bubbles which 
fill the pipe and stop the flow. Beeause 
of its greater smoothness lead pipe may 
be better than the iron pipe that you now 
have, hut if the iron jpipe is laid abso¬ 
lutely tight, with the joints well reamed 
out, I would try other means of overcom¬ 
ing the difficulty first, because of the cost 
of the lead pipe. Using a larger size 
would only reduce the velocity in the 
upper end, so long as the remainder of the 
pipe is of %-in. size, and would probably 
increase your trouble rather than helping 
it. Use the same size as the remainder 
of your line. It might be well, however, 
(a substitute a short length of lead pipe 
for the elbow that now leads down into 
the spring to get an easy bend here. 
It is probable that the failure of your 
pipe line while that of your neighbor 
continued in operation was due to air 
collected in your branch. If higher than 
that of your neighbor air coming down 
with the water might rise and gather in 
it. This would he especially likely to 
occur if the pipe is controlled by a faucet 
and not let running all of the time. 
There are several traps designed to put 
on the high point of a line to release this 
imprisoned air, but they are more or less 
likely to give trouble from freezing, and 
for this reason would probably be of little 
service to you. A simple device that is 
sometimes used, and one that might he of 
service in your case, is to connect in a 
tee at the lower end of the line and to 
the tee, by means of a suitable pipe, con¬ 
nect on a small cistern pump. A valve 
should be placed between the pump and 
the main line to permit shutting off the 
pump when not in use. When the siphon 
begins to show signs of failing it may 
be sometimes revived by opening the valve 
and giving a few quick strokes to the 
pump, starting the water. If the siphon 
could be entirely done away with, letting 
the pipe line enter the well or spring be¬ 
low the water level, a true gravity system 
could be established, which would give 
less trouble than the siphon. R. H. s. 
Developing Stream for Electric Power 
We are interested in developing a 
stream of water with the idea of generat¬ 
ing electricity for use in a factory. The 
stream in question has an average depth 
of about 2 ft. and is about 10 ft. wide, 
and the water appears to have an average 
flow of about five miles an hour. Could 
you tell us the method used in computing 
the approximate horsepower which we 
could expect this stream to develop? By 
building a dam we could back this stream 
up into a five-acre lot and get about a 10- 
ft. fall of water at. the dam. o. N. R, 
New York. 
To determine the horsepower that a 
stream is capable of developing it is nec¬ 
essary to know the amount of water 
(cubic feet or gallons) passing a given 
point in a given interval of time, and the 
distance through which it falls, or the 
head. Water does not work because of its 
weight and position ; it acts as a falling 
weight, hence the necessity of knowing 
the above factors. 
In practice the flow of a stream is 
measured in a variety of ways. One meth¬ 
od in common use is to time the passage 
of a float over a measured length of the 
stream. A float ifi chosen that, will ride 
well down in the water, such as a nearly- 
filled bottle, in order that the effect of the 
wind and other disturbing influences will 
lie as little as possible. Also a straight 
section of the stream should be chosen for 
the test of velocity, with as uniform a 
cross section as it is possible to find. Due 
to the fact that the stream is swiftest at 
the center, where the float rides, the prob¬ 
able actual velocity is usually taken as 
eight-tenths of the apparent velocity as 
indicated by the float. 
After thus obtaining the velocity the 
average area of cross section in square 
feet is obtained by a series of depth meas¬ 
urements across the channel of the 
stream. This area of cross section, if 
multiplied by the velocity in feet per min¬ 
ute, will give the discharge of the stream 
in cubic feet per minute. 
A cubic foot of water weighs, roughly, 
02 5 lbs.; therefore multiplying the quan¬ 
tity of water expressed iu cubic feet by 
this figure will give the weight of water 
passing a given point per miuute, and if 
this product is then multiplied by the 
head or fall in feet the result will he the 
number of foot pounds per minute that 
the stream is capable of furnishing. It 
requires 33,000 foot pounds per minute to 
equal a horsepower; consequently, divid¬ 
ing the last product by 33,000 will give 
the result in terms of horsepower. This 
< November l>(j, 1920 
is theoretical horsepower, however and 
as no machine is perfect it is custoniarv 
to deduct somewhat from this figure ti> 
get the probable actual horsepower that 
may be expected. Seven-tenths is (L 
factor frequently used for this nmltinlica 
tion. 
Another and more accurate method of 
measuring the flow of a stream is by 
means of a weir. This consists of a rec¬ 
tangular notch cut in the top of a tem¬ 
porary but tight dam through which the 
water is made to flow. By measuring 
the depth of water passing over the weir 
and reference to weir tables the ouantity 
of water that the stream is discharging 
can be determined. These weir tables 
together with complete directions for mak¬ 
ing a weir, will be found in the advertis¬ 
ing matter of water wheel manufacturers 
and will not be gone into here. 
In the case mentioned, if the figures 
given have been obtained by actual care¬ 
ful measurements, and are not approxi¬ 
mations only, the horsepower would he 
as follows: The stream has a cross sec 
tion of 20 sq. ft. (2 ft. deep and 10 ft. 
wide), and this, when multiplied by the 
rate of flow (five miles per hour or 440 
ft. per minute), gives a discharge of 8,800 
cu. ft. of water per minute. This is 
equal to 550.000 lbs. per minute, taking a 
cubic foot of water as 62.5 lbs., and as it 
has a 10-ft. drop or head, the whole i.s 
equivalent to 5,500,000 foot pounds per 
minute. As the doing of 33,000 foot 
pounds of work in a minute constitutes a 
horsepower, 5,500,000 divided by 33.000 
equals 106 horsepower, nearly. This is 
the theoretical output. The probable ac¬ 
tual horsepower would he seven-tenths of 
this amount, or about 125. 
These figures are given chiefly as an 
example of the method of working out a 
problem of this kind, and should not he 
relied upon until velocities and cross sec¬ 
tions are carefully checked over. Quite 
valuable power is iu sight here, and there 
should be no difficulty in getting an engi 
neer from one of the water wheel com¬ 
panies to look the proposed installation 
over and give adviee on the spot. R. h. s. 
DIPLOMA’' 
Here’s the Man 
and Here’s His Work 
Ootobor «, mo. 
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VUnuiee, »l»oon»ln. 
OcatlMWBt* 
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Box tot Crystal Lake Ill. 
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863 Third St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin 
