37 
June, I p I 7 
COUNTRY HOUSE 
WATER SYSTEMS 
O NE of the first problems 
which confronted man when 
he ceased being a hunter and be¬ 
came a grazer, was that of water 
supply for his stock. 
As much of the grazing land 
was more or less elevated, it fol¬ 
lowed that it was generally de- - 
ficient in natural water sources. A-'’ 
Hence, the birth of the water A'’; 
works; and thus we face the 
proposition of today, with hun¬ 
dreds of years of experiment and 
experience back of us. Indeed, 
many of our present methods 
have an ancestry far longer and far more 
interesting than our own. 
When a man builds himself a house, he 
naturally picks a dry spot, and the finished 
result has the chance, at least, of being a 
beautiful thing. When he plans for his 
water supply, it is generally after he has 
built, or at least located the house; he then 
picks what he can get for his water. It is 
here a question of suitability—the avoid¬ 
ance of low places, in which the surface 
water may gather; and the ridges, from 
which no water is to be gotten. How he 
may locate his hidden supply is a question 
outside the province of this writing. 
The home service is best supplied by 
gravity, from a naturally high and sufficient 
source. But this is not for most of us. 
Ours is generally the low source, the force- 
pump, and the raised tank or reservoir which 
furnishes our gravity flow. 
The Source of Supply 
The common supply is found in the well, 
which may be spring fed or an interrupted 
flow. The well may be either dug or driven. 
For drinking purposes, the dug well is the 
better, as the water does not stand so long 
in the pipes. A good spring source is best 
enlarged to be contained in a neat reservoir, 
thus giving a reserve supply, even should 
something go wrong with the working of 
the system at any time. 
When your property is on low land near 
a river, the banks of which are of sand or 
gravel and the water naturally good, a well 
may be located at a little distance from the 
bank. Here are natural filtering and a copi¬ 
ous supply. A dug well is best constructed 
with a smooth interior and of solid masonry 
down to nearly the depth of the inflow. Be¬ 
low this the wall should be porous. Well 
: . ... 
V : ^ .. * L . 
. 
TIAN 
The windmill need 
not be an architec¬ 
tural eyesore. Here 
are two suggestions 
—one for tower and 
tank, the other for 
tower alone 
water is generally pure and wholesome ; cool 
in summer and w’armer in winter than that 
taken from ponds or rivers. Thus it is less 
liable to freeze than that of the more ex¬ 
posed sources of supply. 
The copious spring may partake of the 
above qualities. It often has possibilities 
with the hydraulic ram, and as such is a 
valuable possession. The ram is a mechani¬ 
cal device which enables us to raise a small 
body of water by utilizing the power of a 
much larger body. Or in other words, the 
impulse of flow is automatically checked and 
a portion of the flow diverted into our sup¬ 
ply system. It is necessary to the working 
of the ram that the drop of the inflow or 
feed pipe be at least 18" below the source 
of supply, and that the length of the feed 
pipe be not less than 25'. If the ram must 
be nearer than this to the spring, the extra 
length of pipe may be laid in a 6' coil. 
The ram may force water to a distance 
of from 1,600' to 3,300' and raise it from 
100' to 200'. Water carried to a distance of 
1,000' and elevated to a height equal to 
Sources of Supply and 
How to Utilize Them 
CHAS. EDW. HOOPER 
ten times the fall from source to 
ram, will deliver about one-four¬ 
teenth of the water used. Twice 
this delivery will be made if the 
elevation be only five times the 
fall. From this we see that our 
spring must be copious; the 
greater part of the water is not 
delivered and goes to waste. 
The installation of the ram is 
perhaps best effected in a concrete 
pit, which is sufficiently large to 
allow working around the ma¬ 
chine. There should be an effec¬ 
tive drain about its base to keep 
the water from flowing over it, and the out¬ 
let to this should connect at once with a 
lower “splash pit’’ to save the waste from 
digging too deeply into the soil. 
A wooden cover for the ram pit is best 
made in the form of a low pitched roof 
which swings back upon hinges. Ventilate 
this through the small gables. It is hardly 
necessary to mention that all covers and 
doors, which guard both reservoirs and 
mechanical contrivances, should be under 
lock and key to keep them safe from in¬ 
vasion and possible injury. 
The waste of such a supply at once sug¬ 
gests a water garden with bordering pop¬ 
lars, pussywillows and like water-loving 
growth. Perhaps there can be an irrigat¬ 
ing system beyond, where the water is col¬ 
lected in a fairly shallow basin that it may 
get the benefit of the warming sun. 
The delightful possibilities of the screen¬ 
ing of the ram-pit and the spring form a. 
problem both simple and unusual. Success- 
lies entirely in the judicious use of small 
trees, shrubs and plants. And it might be 
mentioned here that in all cases where a 
protective structure is built about any of the 
essential units of the water system, the in¬ 
troduction of planting may be used more 
effectively to tie the structure to the land¬ 
scape and lend it harmony. 
The Storage Tank 
So much for the first step, the source of 
supply. Next comes naturally the provision 
of a storage place into which the water may 
be conveyed, in order that it may be fed by 
gravity into the house system. The most 
common system is that in which the tank is 
installed in the attic. This may be satisfac¬ 
tory for a small supply, but care should be 
{Continued on page 58) 
t. 
At the left of the pump house the stor¬ 
age tank has been earthed over and 
planted concealingly with shrubbery 
