Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-12
TO THE STATION.
CITY OFFICIALS TAKEN TO THE
PUMPING STATION.
All Well Pleased With the Works
description Of the Plant.

The council at its last meeting having
accepted an invitation from the superin-
tendent of the water works company, Mr..
f. c. Amsbary, to visit the station, yes
| terday leaving the cOmpany'S Office, on
North Market street, at p NJ That hour
found Mayor Allen and Councilmen Buck
ridge. Downing. Stone, Glaze and Simison
present, also City Clerk Schattner, City
Treasurer c. l.. Adams and City Engineer
0. Mulvey. The rain was pouring down.
which was conceded the excuse for only
half the memb ers of the council being pres
ent. Hacks were in waiting and the party
accompanied by the superintendent they
started for the station on the island. On
arriving they were shown machinery and
principals of the same explained by the
engineer and superintendent IN very
interesting manner.
The building is of brick, fifty feet
square, one story, with smoke stack
forty feet high The building is located
near the center of the island. On the west
side of the building are seyentytwo drive
wells, each down thirty-fve feet and four
inches in diameter. AT about twenty-five
feet a vein of impervious clay eight
feet deep is found and under
the same is gravel filled with
water from which the city receives its
supply. The drive wells are connected to
the main suction line. The supply is esti-
mated to be sufficient for city four times
as large as Wichita, or giving 5,000,000 gal
Ions per day.
The station is supplied with two Walker
duplex pumps, having capacity of three
million gallons and Dean pumpwith one
million gallons. One of the Walker
pumps has been doing the work, going at
forty pound pressure. 1t is also sufficient
for fires, but frequently second is
turned on to assist The fire
pressure is eighty pounds and
the engineer Yesterday for the benefit of the
visitors put the pressure up to seventy-five
pounds in about a half minute. When
the telephone calls two electric bells To-
Gated in other rooms also join in the alarm
and continue to ring until disconnected.
This insures the alarm to be heard pro-
vided it reaches the station. But the wire
is of the ordinary telephone wire and is re-
ported as frequently unable to carry the
alarm. This matter was discussed to some
extent and the effort some months ago on
the part of the council to get
an insulated wire from central
to the station referred to. 1t was
distinctly remembered that the effort
failed, and whether properly or not was
the question.
The company has over twenty-five miles
of main and the city one hundred and
tifty-one fire plugs. The number of gallons
pumped each day is counted by an apDsr
atus and for the last month has been
averaging between five and six hundred
thousand gallons. Last Saturday being
dry day, and lawn sprinkling to some eX-
tent, the record shows over seven hundred
and ten thousand gallons. The superin
tendent says that he expects the city to use
over million gallons as soon as warm
weather comes.
1t was the original intention to take the
water from the river and run it through
Hyatt filter, supposing that sufficient
water could not be secured from the drive
wells. In the light of the drive well ex
pertinent this idea seemed less meritorious
and the other was adopted. Mayor Allen
says he is very much delighted with the
water, thinking it much better than that
received from the old station and says Wis
1tors to the city tell him 1t is OF the finest
water they find in any city.
The company is not yet salts
fed with their pumping capacity
and are putting in two more boilers and
two pumps with three million capacity.
The improvements during the last year
have cost over S150, 900 and they will spend
several more thousand this year at the
station and in extensions
All who visited the station were quite
we'll pleased. But two had never been
there and the others were very much sur
prised to find one of the best pumping sta
lions in the west