The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-04 00:00:00

from which the supply is to be taken, had produced
from time immemorial 11,000,000 per diem, being 20
per cent. more than is required by Mr. Knight s own
showing.
The CHAIR:NIA N observed that he had gua;ed these
springs himself; and knew Mr. Paten's statement to be
correct.

Mr. PATEN here detailed his operations at Bushey
Hall Meadows, which he stated had been carried on
under an order of a Committee of the House of Lords.
lie had put nearly 20 borings in various parts of that
valley, and he found the springs in every one of them
equally abundant. He subsequently commenced an
Artesian boring twelve inches in diameter, and
sank a pipe, as the Rev. Mr. Clutterbuck should have
done, 30 feet deep, forcing it into the chalk by which
all surface waters were shut out. He then bored
deep springs, which he found to increase in geometrical
progression the deeper he went. At the depth of 100
feet he put in two pumps, and the little boring of only
12 inches in diameter produced at the rate of about
700,000 gallons every 24 hours, and 12 or 14 of these
little Artesian wells would produce the quantity re-
quired. He subsequently sunk a shaft, 20 feet in dia-
meter, going through the gravel, aad, by means of three
double pumps and a six-horse power engine, he suc-
ceeded in getting down to the chalk. He found it
necessary to erect a 16-horse power engine, with which,
to show the immense stream that issued, and the six-
horse power engine working up to 81-horse power, he
could only get eight feet into the chalk springs, and
although they continued working every day 16 hours
per day for upwards of three months, and pump-
ing at the rate of one million and three quar-
ters gallons per diem, yet they could not
take away the water for the purpose of lowering the
well, and after putting four small borings into the well,
the water rose so abundant that those engines could rot
lower it within eigl.t feet of the bottom of the well, not-
withstanding the well was only 35 feet deep, and only
eight feet into the chalk. Had these engines been of
sufficient power to have pumped the water within two
feet of the bottom of the well, it would alone have pro-
duced two to three million gallons every 24 hours ;
and if he (Mr. Paten) had had a 75-horse power engine
to have enabled him to have sunk the shaft 60 feet
lower into the springs, that one well alone would have
produced
all the water required for the supply of
56,000 houses. At the time Mr. Stephenson the en-
gineer examined the works, the engines, by his orders,
were at work 26 hours successircl3, notwithstanding
which the water could not even then be reduced lower
than eight feet, and there it remained stationary. He
begged to observe, in conclusion, that the Company
would most readily assent to any protective clause in
their Bill, although they were convinced from the expe-
riments that not a drop of water would be taken from
the Colne, or any of the wells-be affected thereby.
Mr. GLAZIER. observed that Mr. Dickenson had as-
serted that Mr. Paten's plan would scarcely supply
two streets, whereas, one of the little twelve-inch
borings would almost supply the 14,000 houses in
Marylebone.—( Hear.)
Mr. Lowe was then requested to afford the meeting
some information on the matter.

Mr. LOWE said he was totally unconnected with the
project for supplying the metropolis with water from
the chalk springs. He came before the Committee con
amore, and as a member of the Geological Society, to
bear testimony to the inexhaustible supply of water
that could be obtained from the !comer springs. Until
the previous day he had never spoken a word upon the
subject to any person connected with the project, and
till that day he had not exchanged six words with
Mr. Stephenson in relation to it. Mr. Lowe
then observed that some exception had been taken
to the alleged inexhaustible supply of the Arte-
sian system, because the wells of certain large
breweries on one side of the Thames had been affected
by those on the other. He begged to say that this
arose from the fact of the brewers leaving contented
themselves by going into the plastic clay formation
only instead of descending to the chalk region. The
well at Messrs. Truman and Hanbury's brewery,
which had been sunk into the chalk, at an expense
of several thousands of pounds, was a proof that any
quantity of water might be got by going to the proper
depth, and he had no doubt Mr. Davidson, the En-
gineer of the firm, would give evidence before the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, to the effect
that let them pump as much water as
they chose out of the well, there was
no sensible decrease of the water. The speaker then
drew the attention of the Committee to the chalk
springs at Hatcham, Croydon, and Dorking, which he
said gave out vast quantities of water ; and after ad-
verting to the geological character of the county of
Hertford, observed that if there was one man who was
better qualified than another to give an opinion upon
that point, that man was Mr. Stephenson, who, during
the herculean task of carrying through the Birming-
ham Railway, had to contend with the very waters
from which it was proposed to supply the metropolis.
He had not the shadow of a doubt that all that Mr. Ste-
phenson had ever committed himself to on this subject
would be thoroughly borne out by him. He believed there
could be no two questions in the Geological Society
upon the subject. Mr. Lowe then, at th© wish of the
Committee, at some length went into the extent and
character of what is termed the chalk formation, ex-
plaining that it was not to be supposed that it extended
over only what was termed the London basin, as, in fact,
there was the Parisian chalk basin, and the Isle of
Wight chalk basin, though in fact, they were but one
basin. As to the apprehensions expressed that the
River Colne would ha affected by the project, he
thought they were entirely groundless. The bottom of
the river was as impervious to leakage as a stone pitcher.
In concluding his address, Mr. Lowe said he thought
the project would be a great public good, and it was
this belief that induced him to come before the Com-
mittee.

After a few remarks, the following resolution was
moved and carried :—" That this Committee, after
mature consideration of the plan proposed by the Lon-
don and Westminster Water Company, for supplying
London with pure water, are fully convinced of the
practicability of producing an abuniant supply of
water from any part of the great chalk basin extending
for many miles in diameter round London, and espe-
cially from a spring situate in Bushey Hall Meadows,
wholesome, pure, and at a moderate expense ; and they
feel called on to use their best endeavours to promote so
immense a benefit to this metropolis."
The meeting then adjourned.

SEWERS OF WESTMINSTER AND

PART OF MIDDLESEX.

A Court of Sewers for the City and Liberty of West-
minster and part of the County of Nliddlescx will be
holden et the Sewers' office in Greek-street, Soho-
square, to-morrow, February 5, at twelve o'clock at
noon precisely.