Morning herald., 1839-08-27

Sing Sing Saw Mill Valley, Harlem River, Manhat-
tan and Clendennng yalllss, and few ether points,
it will be compsly hid from sight for where il is
not tunneled through earth or rsck, the aqucduct
is covered with dirt in many Instances grass
will grow it and cattle Craze thereon, and there
will be nothing TO point out even the course of the
aqueduct except the ventators which are to be ex
acty mile apart and built IN the form OF small py
ramid in this respect differing from the Roman
tilators which were square and built up only feet
from the gronnd
The Subterranean Aqneducts of the Romans were
tunaelled through rocks and hills, on scale quite
extensively any thing the line of the Crston
Aqueduct, and in many instances much more So
Mouutfaucon says that he entered one ofthese
aqueduct tunnels in a rock above Tivoli, at place
called vicevaro, (he ancient Vicus Varronis) which
was more than mile sng; the tunnel was five feet
high and four feet bread Our tunnels the
Crotsn are of them mile long; the longest is
but then. the other hand rock tunnels
less than feet 3 inches in width at the chord Of
the roofing arch andfrom feet inches to feet in
hight from the lowest point OF the Inverted arch, to
the top of the rock cutting And although 1t is usual
y stated by almost every author, that has written
the subject that the Greeks knew little nothing
relation to aqueducts and the reore nsne
yet find a very clear accosnt in Hersdotus, (Har
per's Classical Library, No 80, page 52 section LX)
Of the manner in which Enpalinus, an architect Of
Megara, supplied the city Of Samos with water; a
hill 900 Greek feet high (l50 orgyiG) pierced by
tunnel 1920 feet long q stadia), which feet
high and s feet wide, about the same area the
Cro,on tunnel Procepius says but he is unsapPort-
ed, that the water channel in the Roman Aqueducts
could ride through them without difficulty Atseveral
points of the Croton aqueduct we rode In on horse
back without much trouble.
In point Of length, have reason to believe that
Crotsn Aqueduct that Of any other in the
world, in straight line Taking the zig zag
of the Roman Aqueducts into there
only that reached 40 miles ia its winding extent
and only one that went beyond that length Again in
height shall certainly excel them fer the extreme
height of one point of our work, Harlem Bridge, is
l60 feet, whereas on point of the lines of Roman
Aqueducts do meet with greater height than l09
feet whes even one row of arches was placed above
another. Still however there Modern Aqueaucts,
those of Caserta and Maintenon, that exceed tho
Croton Aqaeduct in the height of the work. In
the matter of the supply Of water, we shall also
ceed that yielded by all the Roman Aqueducts.
Whether they had IA Aqueducts according to Pro-
copus or 20 according to Victor, lin the year $50
C they only delivered into the city of Rome total
Of 40 000, 800 Of gallons daily; whereas the Crston
Aqueduct will deliver $1,000 600 Of gallons daily
can be made to deliver that quantity Immediately
after il is once fairly in operation, which we presume
will take place in two years, after the present mis-.
managing Commissioners are removed.
However, is but proper to state here, that there
is still unsettled question with regard to the terms
made Of in the Roman authors in relation to the
quantity Of water furnished by the aqueducts.
Frontinus, who was the superintendent Of the aque-
ducts, or the "Curatore Aquarium under Nerva,
says, that nine of the aqueducts had each l3, ,594
pipes of one inch diameter, making total Of l22 346
inches in diameter Of pipe to deliver water from;
and pipe of inch diameter at adepth Of four feet
il is said will discharge 6l35 cubic feet Of water per
minute; 50 that there must have been some in
this calculation, for the highest total Of water de-
vered in Rome is sand by no one to exceed $1,000
600 Of cubic feet daily. Rome had a million Of in
habtant and thus gave them 50 cubic feet for each
individual. London has not over 6000,0e0 cubic
feet daily; say 30 600 600 Of gallsns; Paris has
supply ofhalf cubic fost fer each inhabitant. In
Turkey, each person is allowed twothrds Of cubic
foot daily, or about AZ pounds On the other hand,
vigerus, speaking Of the supply Of water from the
aqueducts, says, they yielded but 500,000 hogheads
daily, about 81 900 gallons making average
Of little than 81 gallons to each person So that
considering all these circumstances we think il is
more than than probable that andcr proper rcgula-
tions our single aqucdact will yield more abun-
dant supply than the whole Of the Roman Aqusducts
yielded the inhabitants Of the Eternal City.
Before leaving the subject Of the supply Of water
to Ancient Rome, which is most interesting and
important topic will show the quantities Of water
which furnished by seven Of the aqueducts, as
given by Frontinus, from measurement a. the head
of each aqueduct, except in the cases of the Aqua
Julia and Virgo, which he states from the quantity
delivered by the registers