January, 1913 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
19 
This electric switch automatically controls the 
electrically driven outfit 
more advisable than 
either, the water be¬ 
ing discharged by a 
compressed air out¬ 
fit contained direct¬ 
ly at the well, or the 
water may be sucked 
to the h ouse by 
means of a pump in 
the basement of the 
house and forced to 
the various fixtures 
by a pressure tank. 
By far the ma¬ 
jority of country 
houses are supplied 
with water from a dug or driven well and this is usually the most 
satisfactory solution of the water supply problem. Whether to 
dig a well or “drive” one is largely a matter to be determined by 
local conditions. Old farms, so often bought and modernized, 
usually have a dug well somewhere on the place which in many 
cases proves adequate to supply the estate with water. In using 
an old well of this sort, however, one should be particular that 
it is located far enough from buildings to admit of no contamina¬ 
tion. The water should be tested and pronounced pure. 
It is general practice now in most 
sections of the country to “drive” 
wells instead of digging them, for the 
former kind can be sunk to a deeper 
level than is usually possible with 
dug wells, making it possible to tap 
that larger and purer supply of water 
which lies deep below the surface. 
Driven wells vary in depth from 
thirty or sixty feet to 300 feet or 
more, according to location. The pro¬ 
cess consists in boring or “driving” a 
hole (usually four to six inches in 
diameter) by means of a well drill¬ 
ing machine (operated by a profes¬ 
sional well-driver), the hole after¬ 
wards being filled with pipe (called 
“casing”) to which the pump is sub¬ 
sequently attached. Prices for these 
driven wells vary in different sec¬ 
tions of the country but average about as follows: Six inches in 
diameter, $2.25 per foot; 5 inches, $1.75; 43T inches, $1.50, in¬ 
cluding the casing. 
Many houses located in mountain districts are fed adequately 
with pure water from a spring by the 
simple means of pipes laid from the 
spring to the house. When the spring 
is high enough above the house to give 
a good head of water at the fixtures 
this is a practical way to get a supply 
of water. After locating a spring- that 
flows throughout the year, a concrete 
cistern should be built, enclosing it, 
containing pure sand in the bottom 
through which the spring can bubble. 
The outlet pipe (from which water 
flows to the house) should be covered 
with a fine, copper wire screen to pre¬ 
vent any sediment from entering the 
pipe line. At the top of the cistern 
build an iron or wooden cover. With a 
A basement pressure tank equipped with an electrically 
driven pump 
maintain a good sized cistern (holding—say 120 barrels), there 
should be an adequate supply of water. 
If the spring is not situated high enough above the level of the 
house to give good head to the water it will be necessary to in¬ 
stall a hydraulic ram below the spring to force water into the 
house under pressure. A hydraulic ram is an ingenious little de¬ 
vice by which water lifts itself from pool to house. The flow of 
water from the pool to the ram by force of gravity propels a 
column of water upward to the house, a portion of the water be¬ 
ing wasted in the operation. Water at the house end of the line 
is stored up in a storage tank (from which it flows by gravity to 
the fixtures) or it can be delivered to a pressure tank for feeding 
the fixtures. The hydraulic ram works simply by utilizing the 
weight of a body of water to drive a comparatively small amount 
to a considerable height. When once installed it need's practically 
no repair or attention and it has no operating expense. 
The same conditions that control the use of spring water for 
supplying a country house also control any stream, pool or lake 
from which the owner may desire to obtain the water supply for 
his house, bearing in mind always, that no source of water should 
be considered until it has first been tested by a reliable chemist. 
In many instances a hydraulic ram works well at stream or 
pool, or frequently it is more practical to use a compressed air 
outfit for forcing water from the source of supply to the house. 
For the benefit of the reader who is considering water supply for 
his country place it may be well to 
review here a few of the standard 
systems which are available for this 
purpose. 
In the first place, there is always 
the windmill outfit where a windmill 
located directly over a driven or dug 
well pumps water into a high tank 
from which it is delivered by force 
of gravity to the various fixtures in 
the house. There is no reason for 
windmills being the unsightly stacks 
they so often appear. By inclosing 
the framework to harmonize with the 
architectural scheme of the outbuild¬ 
ings proper, much more pleasing ap¬ 
pearance is obtained, or, as is shown 
in the illustration at the head of this 
article, the windmill may be of 
the decorative as well as prac¬ 
tical Holland type. A success¬ 
ful method when it is desired 
to do the pumping by means of 
a windmill is to provide 
a pressure tank in the 
basement of the house 
I 
flowing spring of capacity to fill and 
The compressed air 
system with lift¬ 
ing apparatus in¬ 
side the well is 
a great saver of 
< - DNFTTM ATT, 
P/iEUMATIC * 
space and the water does not stand in a 
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CMOTOH- 
to which water is pumped by the wind¬ 
mill and whence it is delivered to the 
various fixtures by pressure of the tank. This 
removes the possibility of a frozen tank in the 
winter time. 
Generally speaking, there are two 
PUMP- types of pressure tank systems — those 
tank (Continued on page 53) 
