St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-09
WATER WORKS.
Engineer Waters Shows Some of the
Advantages OF Machinery Over


At the meeting of the Engineers of Min
nesota club last evening there was very
good attendance. R. II. Sanford, W. J.
McNulty and c. T. Tirney were elected
members and Messrs. Delabar, Pike and
Herman appointed committee of arrange
ments for the annual picnic.
The paper for the evening was read by
James Waters, city engineer, who chose
for his subject, Pumping Machinery VS..
Reservoirs, as applied to water works sys-
TENS.
Mr.. Waters explained that his paper was
intended to point out some of the advan-
tages that machinery has over reservoirs
where water is elevated by artificial means
and has an inexhaustible source to draw
from, but he did not mean to advocate
the substitution of reserve ma
chinery for reservoir where the
supply is limited at certain seasons of the
year, thus necessitating large storage ca
pacity. He then proceeded to discuss what
he considered the four important advan-
tages of machinery over reservoirs.
First-As reserve in case of accident
the superior power to supply water in case
Of accident over pumping machinery is a
great advantage claimed for reservoirs. But
repair? Mr.. Waters showed the serious re-
suits from this cause by citing an instance
where city was without water for three
months by the giving way of reservoir
and finally had to put in machinery.
Second-The power to increase the pres
yure whenever it may be found necessary.
The reservoir being at one fixed elevation,
the pressure cannot be increased unless the
supply main is shut off. When there is an
Increased demand by consumers by machin-
cry the supply can be given by increased
pressure until additional mains are pro-
Vided. Again, the advantage OF machinery
appears when it is necessary to elevate wa
ter to high buildings. The advantage pos
sessed by machinery in having pressure
Tor hres without the expense of maintaining
the pressure is a great one. The time to
keep up ire pressure in this city has thus
far been only one hour in fifty-one. When
lire pressure can be given every hydrant
becomes equal to a steamer, and
when that pressure is lacking the amount
Of water that can be thrown is limited to the
capacity and number of fire engines. Min
neapolis by having adequate pumping ma
chinery can raise the pressure on the mains
from about fifty pounds domestic to over a
hundred pounds for fire pressure. In st.
Paul the domestic pressure is about the
same, with no means of increasing it in case
of fire, and all the water which can be
thrown is limited to their six steamers.
Minneapolis can supply her steamers with
water, helping to increase their pressure at
the same time, and in addition to pumping
machinery can take care of six other fires
requiring an equal amount of water,
and that, too, without any as
sistance from the fire steamers,
Although the water works of the two cities
are about of the same capacity, Minneapo-
lis can furnish about seven times as much
water for fire purposes. Another invalu-
able advantage is that when the pressure is
in the mains there is no time lost in getting
up steam. Concerning the objection that
repeated increase of pressure will ulti-
mately destroy the pipe, Mr.. Waters Sc
lected practical test and gave it as his
opinion that the pipes in the city would