The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-03
Chief Engineers RepOrt.

ROCHESTER,, N. Y, July 81, lS6S
John Williams, Esq, President Rochester
Water Works Company-Dear Sir:-In COM
pliance with your request, and in accordance
with the letter of Mr. Nicolay, Of New York,
which you have handed me, beg to submit the
following report on the present condition OF the
work.
AT the commencement of the undertaking 1t
was confidently believed that the works would
be so far completed as to let on the water by
the first or about the middle of the present
month"; but Notwithstanding 1t has been
pushed forward with great energy and judicous
management, many impediments have been
met with and causes herein explained have
presented themselves, delaying the completion
of the work. Legislation has been necessary in
order to render the securities of the company
unquestionably safe. The corporation has ex.
listed since 1852; the parties interested deemed
1t advisable TO haze every act Gncluding the con-
tract for building the work. Iegalized 6y the
Legislature up TO The present time. This has been
done.
Considerable trouble has presented itself in
procuring the rights OF way, in consequence of
The belief among the farmers, agitated by mill
owners on the SUI cam OF supply, that the mills
would be deprived OF water. All this trouble
has been obviated by the decision to 60 nine or
ten miles nearer the Hemlock Lake, and by the
s WHICH Tt she eomgrses any area of V acpes
and will hold when completed, and indepen.
dent of the reservoir at East Henrietta (twenty
acres in extenD, q sufficient supply for the city
OF Rochester for the whole dry season.
1t is the intention to store water in these re-
servoirs when the water In the lake Is abundant
(and the mills are even endangered by the
swollen stream), for use In the dry season, when
1t would interfere with the working of the
many mills on the line to take the supply from
Since this plan has been adopted, mill o,Oners
and farmers are giUin0 very facility TO the prose.
cution of The s0ork. The great OBSTACLE to an
amicable adjustment of rights of way has been
aI, - nh nE Int
with the rights Of mill owners, which has done
more than anything else to retard the work in
ada anS Sy taxing lie @ water IN ali sy
purity from the gravelly outlet of Hemlock
Lake. the % only Prejudice H die & the citizens Of Ro-
bly, dispelled; and when 1t becomes generally
known that the company will get the supply
daily on The securities and public confidence In The
character of The O0rk.
The foregoing will fully explain the reason
why the water is not TO be introduced as soon
AS concerns the mechanical construction of
be completed in July, and every means which
energy and money could command have been
actively used, 1t has been impossible, In my
opinion, to push the work to a more advanced
state than 1t is at present in.
Large quantities OF materials have had to be
procured; machinery for erecting pipe had TO be
erected, in order to make even proper COM
boTers haVe been @ 80 extre@eIy W scarce d1ripS the G
whole season, notwithstanding the contractor
has procured men from New York and other
places at different times, and is paying twenty.
five cents per day higher wages than Ia paid on
any other work; Notwithstanding those diff.
culJies, the constant i'm mpOrtation OF emigrants
from New York, has kept up a very large force,
and the work has progressed with great rR.
pidity. After the completion OF haying and
harvesting, there will be q great increase in
the FORCE employed upon the work, and the latter
part OF the work Will be completed with des-
The work may be included in the following
divisions. viz The distributing pipe in the
line, the Henrietta Reservoir, seven and a half
miles from the city; the storing reservoir near
Richmond Mills; the supply main, seven and
a-half miles from the city to the Henrietta
Reservoir TO the storing reservoir, and one. half
mile from the storing reservoir to the source
There are about ten miles OF cast-iron pipe
laid in the streets or the city, and q consider
able quantity OF pipe now on hand. ready to be
laid, The pipe laid includes all the most diff
euIt part of the work; the sixteen inch cast iron
main under the bed of the Genesee River Is
laid In q trench blasted cut OF the solid rock.
and re. fiIled, to preclude the possibility OF
damage to the pipe under any circumstances.
Gast-iSon nine mains have been laid under the
canals at all the necessary crossings.
or the conduit pipe, from the city 10 the Hem
rietta Reservoir, between Two and three miles
are laid and covered up, and the trench has
receive the pipe which Is now being supplied al
he rate of four miles per month.
The Henrietta Reservoir comprises twenty
acres OF land. on clay and hard pan solli tn'
banks are of this material, ninety. .nve Zee
thick at the base, and twenty-five feet nigh
have stood the storms and weather OF the fall
winter and spring, without showing any dam
age whatever. This work was interrupted pN
be early winter frosts or IL would have peeI