The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-31
POTOMAC WATER.

The rapidly approaching completion of the Wash
ington aqueduct should induce our citizens to CON
slider well the best means of securing its advantages
without detrimeDt to their health. Before long it
viii be in the power of every householder in Wash
ington to have an abundant supply of water in every
room of his dwelling. 1t becomes important, then,
that there should be great care in tho selection of
the pipes to be used in it's transmission. This sub
ject has recently undergone tho scrutiny of the
water commissioners of Boston by the direction of
the city council. In their report, the commissioners
do not recommend any material for the construction
OF pipes, nor have they expressed any opinion as to
which is entitled to a preference for this pur-
pose. Pipes of cast or wrought iron may be safely
used in the transmission of water so far as health is
concerned, but are likely to impair the purity of the
water, and in small pipes to cause distractions
from the accumulation of its oxide. Copper pipes
effectually timed are safe SO long only as they are
kept in repair, but copper in the form of some of it's
salts is an active poison. Leaden pipes, in certain
waters and under certain circumstances, are known
to communicate a deleterious quality to their
contents. Still, in the cities of Boston, Philadel-
phia, New York, and London pipes of this material
have been used with apparent impunity. Pipes
of sheet-iron, coated with hydraulic cement, have
recently been introduced, and promise to be highly
useful.
The consulting physicians, in their report to the
commissioners, although they they did not recon-
mend the use of leaden pipes, strongly intimatcd the
expectation that the doubts which they entertained
might be removed by further experiments. To the
commissioners, it appeared that the experiments
which had been begun by Professor Horsford, and
have been since more thoroughly prosecuted by
him, afford a satisfactory solution of this apparent
contradiction. These experiments demonstrate that
the action of tho comparatively pure water of
lakes and rivers, upon bright bars of lead, which,
on their immersion in it, is distinctly perceptible,
ceases alter a period of a few days and that
this immediate action of the water, upon the
surface of lead, forms a coating, which, for all
practical purposes, is impervious to water, and
entirely insoluble in il. This coating remains un-
changed during any period in which it has thus far
been immersed its appearance after some months
or years of immersion, in the case of the Croton, is
quite the same, as within three or four days from
the first immersion. The water on the first and sec
ond days in which the lead is so immersed, and du-
i"B VIC OohthuanCS u any peTcepuDio action on
the surface of the leaden bars, shows traces of a
mixture of lead, ON trial by the ordinary tests but
on the repeated removal of this water, and substitu-
tion of other water from the same source, after the
coating is formed, no trace of lead is discoverable
by the most effective tests, after any length of
exposure of the water in contact with the lead,
which viii ordinarily occur. 1t has, however, never
been doubted by those who have investigated this
subject, that the water of wells and springs of GER
tain descriptions, and in certain situations, exerts a
much more powerful and a continued effect upon
lead with which it comes in contact and that cases
of paralysis, collie, and even death, have been traced
to the drinking Of water contaminated by this poi
sonous mixture.
These are important considerations, independent
of the cost of the pipes and the expenses of laying
them. We hope, therefore, that the subject viii re-
oeive that de6beration which it's importance de-
mands.
stephens, convicted in New York Of poisoning his wife,
not sentenced on Tuesday. as WAS expected. On mo-