St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1876-06-09

Io tie E,I,for Of fdieiOniotn :

10 TIE Ed,tor Of CdIoionidn:
Since the agitation of the question a.
t" Watrr->uppll BEGAN. there have been
more fires in this Village than tuI many
Years before. and the Trustees. II"
doubt. felt anxious L" prov idle against
thciI recurrence at the earliest practical
hl, moment But while giving them
dine credit tnI this. ii has seemed To me
that they decided upon the plan adopt
ed with To-" little know ledge of any
other. and IN fact without hearing ANY
thing from one competent to AL, l>.'
them except in one direction. | do not
state this aS Il fact. ior | do not know II
To hc 81. simply have hat impression.
and the more 50. from statements made
in N"uI last paper in an article 10y them.
Ia which | desire to call attention.
After mentioning th, fact of inviting
an engineer To adv i>r with them. they
90 on t" SAY that. learning stiles Pond
WIS bonded. ''thr choice then lay he
tween the Moose and Pa>>umpSic rivers
Now | did not understand that this en-
giIIrcI was invited to examine Stiles
Pond alone. but the whole country
around and my impression is if hr had
come. he would have said that good
water could have been had nearer than
that. up the DamvilIc road.
Another statement ma.lc 10y the Trns-
tees Is ;hi> "E>cIN boy upon the street
knows that with the Flanders pump II"
reservoir * needed. | am afraid hr
knows this simply because he has been
told 50. This is 10y NO means Il new
idea. it is nearly 300 Years old and mu
more tine now than it was then. In
making this statement | do not rely
upon personal knowledge. but give the
authority. la a recent number of the
journal Franklin Institute" is the
following:
''ln constructing water works fnr
western cities it is frequently impos>i-
bile to have a reservoir for want of the
necessary elevated ground To place it
upon. Many of the cities have, there
fore. been c"mtentcd to adopt the direct
supply plan that is. pumping directly
| into the distributing mains. the plan
adopted 10y Peter Morice in the works
built for supplying the city of London
/ i'll l5S2. The impcItcctions of such !;
SYSTEM are apparent the supply de
ponds entirely upon the integrity of the
machinery; not Il drop more can he
procured than that which is pumped
and lis it Is pumped. The
objection tn this plan does not lie only
in the complicated and unnecessarily
large. expensive machinery. but also il
the rapid wear and destruction of the
apparatus. Another objection is the
constant attention and watchtulneS,
necessary day and night to keep up tia,
supply OF water. and the machinery il
running order"
This article then goes on to say thai
in Bloomington, ILL.,. to obviate thi.
difficulty. they built IN iron stand pipe
eight feet in diameter and 200 feet high
as IL poor apology for Il reservoir. AN,
which cost S26.700. This holds sntfi
cient water to allow them to Stop th,
pump for Ordinary repairs. packing, an,
at night.
Here is another article which appear
editorially in the Hydraulic Engineer o
December 1875:
There are i'll this county three dis
tinct modes or plans. (of water supplv.
The first is called direct puApinc.' il
which the water passes direct from tn,
pumps into the distributing mains
without the intervention of reservoir
or Stand-pipes. There is one advau
tage in this method it saves expens,
in the original construction, but tn,
continuous supply of water is depend
ent upon the constant working of til,
pumps. A failure of the machisery vii
suspend the supply of water until thu
cause Of failure will have been removed