Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-05-27
Reservoirs.


reservoirs situated like the one at Williams
burg that swept down Mill River Valley
with such fatal effect, Naturally people
are studying the philosophy of the con-
struction of these huge tanks" and find
ing that not many are built as experienced
engineers say they should be, do not arise
from their lesson with great contentment
if they live within the possible sweep of
down-ccming waters.
The disaster at Sheffield, England, in
1864, where $50 people lost their lives and
on which Charles Reade founded his IA
nous incident of the bursting of Ousley
DAM" was strikingly like the one in
Hampshire county, and the two accidents
should make it certain that the utmost care
in building reservoir walls should here
after be taken, and that those now built
should be at once examined and made safe
or left untitled
An experienced engineer of England
says that the principles directing the de-
sign of embellishments to retain water are
much more intricate than the mere calcu-
lation of the force to be resisted caused by
the mere weight of water. 1t will not do
to figure mathematically the weight of
water and then make an embankment suf-
ficiently strong to resist the simple weight.
This engineer says:
The practice adopted in the best English
cmbankments has been to carry up the
| earthwOrk in layers of two or three feet in
. thickness, and, at the same time, to con-
struct in the center of the bank wall of
| well-puddled clay, the foundation of which
is carried down for whatever depth may
be necessary in order to reach an imper-
meable bed of earth or rock. 1t is not in
all situations possible to procure earth ex-
actlv suitable and in sufficient quantity for
the construction of an enbankment, and
consequently it is advisable to dispose the
best part of the material ,-that is, the most
retentive of water,-in juXtapositOn to the
puddle-wall. Earth should not be removed
! from the bed of the reservoir. as natural
| basin of ely may thus be irretricvablv
/ broken through. In specifying for the di-
mansions of the puddle-wall, a sound rule
/ for adoption is that it shall have q thickness
| Of ten feet at the top water-line, and in
crease in thickness to the surface of the
ground at the rate of one inch on each side
for every foot downward.
In the Sheffield case, the bank was %
feet high, with top width of II feet, and
slopes of 2! to l. The puddle wall was IS
feet in width at the ground-line, and taper
ed to four feet at the top. The fault of
this dam was the too great reliance upon
the masonry, the earth being put in loosely.
The Williamsburg dam sloped on the
inside only 10 degrees, the slope at which
earth is stable out of water Water rem
ders it more unstable and the inside slope
should be three feet for one of perpendicu-
lar hight The outside slope may be less,
say two to one. The inner surface should
be lined with stone.
Col. Henry w. Wilson, a member of the
Massachusetts House, and practical en-
gineer, who visited the ruins with the leg
islative committee, says that the Williams
burg dam was not constructed with Il
proper wall, the masonry being poor and
the wall not going far enough below the
original bed of the pond on which it was
built. The tube by which the water could
be drawn off was but 100 feet long when
the contract called for dam no feet at its
base. An inquest is now being held at
Williamsburg and the evidence shows that
sham work is responsible for the great loss
of life. The feeling of the country round
l1l, no Il,
ister who said man and not God was the
author of the calamity, and that when Mr..
Spellman went up three weeks ago to look
at the dam, did not like it but concluded
to risk it, there was an illustration of the
criminal carelessness of the age.
There are couple of reservoirs still re-
manning higher up Mill River Valley, and
from Col. Wilson's account they are not
safe though better than the one that gave
way He thinks they can be made secure
: and the water is being drawn from them
: slowly. Thursday night the people of
Williamsburg had watchmen stationed
along the road to the reservoir, mounted
on swift horses and guard of thirty men
in the village to give the alarm if the
Goshen reservoir should break. Theil
alarm was owing to reports of its insecure
ty and to the heavy rains that hal lust
fallen.
The people of Worcester are exercised
somewhat concerning the North POND
Dam " that has several times been pro-
nounced unsafe. The pond held in i.
twice us large as the Williamsburg one
was, and a break would cause fearful de
struction of life and property in the city.
The city engineer of Fitchburg has been
inspecting the ruins, and on returning
home writes to the Mayor that he has al
ways thought the dam of the :. Overlook
reservoir" unsafe and now he knows that
it is, for it is apparently in worse condition
than the one swept away in Williamsburg.
Worcester and Fitchburg are both scratch
ing their municipal pates trying to think
what to do about it, and are likely to do
something very quickly as they should.
and the example SO set should be followed
by all who have control of embellishments
of this kind on whose firmness depend the
lives of those whose gods are the gods OF
the valleys"
CIVIL RIGHTS BILL.-This bill which
passed the Senate Saturday morning, after
an all nights session, in which the Demo-
c1.acv r1llied all liz nlI ...o....>. 1