Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-11
LOndOn's Water Supply.

Our water supply writes London CORES
pondent) comes to us from the Thames and
the New river, and il somewhat sparingly and
very dearly brought to our dwellings BY eight
private companies placed under the general
supervision of a commissioner appointed BY
the government The water accumulates in
large open reservoirs. whence it is distributed
to the different quarters of the huge metropo-
lis after having filtered through a not very
efficient stratum Of sand. 1t is neither fresh
sparkling. nor sweet, and the analytic chem
lists are grievously unanimous in declaring it
to be richly admixed with infusoria and or
Vanic matter. Whatever purity it may have
obtained BY the first summary process of al.
tration il promptly loses in its transmission
to private houses. Each of these possesses,
according TO its size. one or more lead els
terms adequate to its supposed requirements.
These are placed respectively in the base
ment or in the roof, and a few other supple
mentary receptacles for hot bath and drink
ing water are placed on the intermediate
floors II under ground, being open at the
top. they attract and harbor all the foul
stenches, from scullery. drains and dust
holes. They are not unfreguently connected
with or placed in the immediate vicinity of
ventilating shafts and waste pipes. If at the
top of the house. being generally imperfectlv
I
the impurities of dust or particles of SCOT and
dead leaves, not to mention the corpses of
birds, mice, rats, black beetles. flies. moths,
spiders and cockroaches, for which they are
a sort of humid family vault.
| respectable householder living in a new
fresh block of good buildings. finding both
! hot and cold water more highly and less
| pleasantly favored than usual. at last had his
cisterns emptled and examined by experienced
| plumbers, They found nothing wrong with
the hydraulic gear, but embedded in name
less stratum at the bottom they discovered
two swallows, one sparrow, a pudding cloth. a
backing brush, a comb. and various other
items too much advanced in decomposition to
bear of special identification. Yet even a
monthly or quarterly cleaning of these Augean
receptaces for our daily drink adopted by
some fastidous landlords is not AS entirely
satisfactory as it might be, from the fact that
| it can only be achieved by the entrance of two
able bodied men into the cistern, who scrape
the sediment from the floor and walls, but
| leave behind them the flavor and aroma of
hobnailed shoes, fustian clothes, and honest
eyertiOns
The water supply is nowhere in London
continuous; the only rational system, as it
obviates at least the peris of stagnation and
the formation of vegetable growth. The
stream is turned on from the main once only
in the twenty four hours, and each cistern
| fills till its own private ball cock drops and
shuts out the supply. But these ball cocks
are not by any means to be implicitly trusted.
They work with dangerous independence and
caprice, sometimes absolutely refusing to let
the water come in on any terms, sometimes
giving it such unchecked access that it over
flows and swamps kitchen or loft In winter
il freezes and becomes rigid; then pipes burst
| in all the reconcile and Inaccessible recesses
where the ingenuity of the builder has Sec
reted them, causing unspeakable damage and
discomfort.
II from these or other reasons the allotte 4
bulk Of water does not come or vanishes, YOU
are without it till the usual daily hour when
the turncock-sn official in sort of uniform
again comes round to your street to turn on
the supply. London has no ,Bornes fon-
tsines" or street-curb fountains like Paris,
nor are the cutters flushed by running cur
rent, effectuslly quenching the dangerous ex-
halstions from the open sewer gratings
While futile precautions are taken against
| fictitious peris by short sighted. custom
ridden administration, the simple. useful
reforms which would add so materially to the
sslubrity of London and the comfort and
! cleanliness of its immense population are
supinely neglected. Should the cholera real
~ come, and it is but question nov of time
and season, we shall be, with all our boast
| ing an3 abuse of our neighbors, unprepared