The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-06-18
nnr Cistarnn.

before our city Willie supplied with water. In
the meantime, We shall have to depend upon
the wells and cisterns The water Of tho for
u,er within our city lu,its is, with few ex-
ceptions, not fit for drinking, or even for
washing purposes. and, consequently, our
only resource is the cisterns.
Every summer we complain Of our scauty
supply Of water, and many Of our people have
to send squares to get enough to drink
Moreover, the cistern water is very often by
no means pure,-sometimes even so offensive
to the taste, that unless we were row and
then in the condition of the thirsty caravans
of Sahara, we would not touch Il. t4'
What is the cause Of this scantiuesS and
frequent EMBELLISHMENTS of the cistern
In the first place, our csterns are too small.
a ridiculous economy prevents landlords from
expanding enough to build cistern of dimen-
sions sufficient to meet every emergency.
1t costs but a very few dollars more to build
cistsrn to contain 10000 gallons, than it does
to build one to contain 6.Oo0--any one who
can calculate the expense of brickwork knows
this to be perfectly true and the owner of
property, BY this false economy, while he saves,
say twenty dollars, in building his little vat,
loses many times that sum In the rent his
property would bring annually, had he not
been so "penny-wise and pound-foolish "q9
| Again, the water Of our cisterns is often
foul to both taste and smell. This is unpar-
dcnable, and results simply from the want Of
cleaning. There is no excuse tor this; for
when the water gets very low, the cistern can
DO cleaned out at a very small expense. More
over, the saving of dollar for this purpose,
very often curtails the expenditure of hum
dreds In doctors bills. and sometimes even
the destruction OF human life itself; fer foul
water is a most prolific source of disease.
| Our cistern water is also sometimes 90
6rackish that we cannot drink it, and DC
"hard" that it Is not even fit to wash clothes
in. This Is caused either by the brick work
being defective, or not sufficiently coated
with cement When this is the case, the els
tern has to be patched and repatched, and
sometimes even rebuilt
Often the brackishness is the result Of an
| ignorance of the plainest principles of hydro
states. The gutter pipe is let into TIE Cts
tern and sealed in tight all round, and there
| is often no outlet for the water after the cs-
tern is filed. The consequence is, that the
pips is gorged with water macy feet above
the cistern. Now, if the column of water &C.
cumulates in the pipe, whose cross-section is
say 10 square inches. and its weight is sc
pounds, this Eve pounds to eosry squass incl
in the cistern Is enormous, and there is hardly
a cistern, In this town or any other, that car
stand it, The result is, that the walls burst
and when the water in the area becomes low.
er than the average height of water in ths
wells, the filthy DRAWINGS OF the soil are car.
ried through the cracks into the cistern. AL
this can be prevented by putting a waste
pipe near the top wall of the cistern, at cost
of almost nothing
| Most OF our clsterns are built on bass
which is parallelograrn, aud this is precisely
the form which subjects the sides and angles
to very great and needless strain from thu
enclosed water This can be easily ayoidee
by making the cistern either circular, or a
least elIptical, either of which shapes not onl,
tgives much more strength to resist pressure
but for agiven quantity Of brick and morta
encloses the greatest amount of water.
/ We hope that these remarks may hav
some effect in the building and management
of the only sources of supply of water w
have; foria proper regard to the facts ant
principles we have treated Of, will conduc
very much, Tot only to the comfort, butte tn
health, of our citizens. 'l