St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-29
CITY WATER PITCHER
Given a Thorough Clean sing
to the Cadence Of Runie
Rhymes.
A Sunday Sepubbing Excur-
sion Through Five Miles
Of Conduit,
Which Contained Much Of the
Weird and Just a Spice Of
Danger.
The Quarterly House Clean
ing Of the City Water
Supply Service.

were drawn up in front of the party. A
police officer eyed the men, who were
muffied up in overcoats, and, seeing
spades, ropes and axes in one of the
wagons. had an idea that a prize fight
was about to come off in the suburbs.
A GLOBE representative formed one
of the party, and the guardian of th e
peace. knowing him, inquired where
the lob" was to come off. "Out at
Lake Vadnais, ten feet underground"
was the reply. The officer looked myS-
tilted, and the reporter quietly lit
cigar, enjoying in the meantime his per-
pleXity. At last the bluecoat asserted
his authority, and demanded in the
name of the law to be Informed why the
party had met, and the nature of
their business. The matter was
soon explained, and the officer
recognized that the reporter had quietly
been hoaXng him in making him be-
lieve that Killen and Shelby were about
to bring off the liZzled fight of Saturday
evening. The party was bound on
harmless mission, in which every indi-
vidual in the city was concerned. Supt.
j. b. Overton and Engineer w. A. Som
ers, of the water depal tment of st.
Paul, were about to direct the gang of
sixteen laborerS under their command
in the work of cleaning and
Flushing the Brick Conduit,
running for %, 600 feet from Lake Vad-
nais to the pumping station at Lake
McCarron, and GLOBE representative
had been invited to accompany the
party. The clock in the tower of the
court house struck 6:30 as the word was
given by the superintendent to mount
I'm. aioIn 81.
first buggy rode Mr.. Overton
tanned the foreman of the men,
Michael Monahan, and the GLOBE
representative. the two drays following
with the laborers. composed of Swedes,
Irish and Germans. The roads were
covered with a heavy boar frost, and
the tall buildings loomed aloft through
the mist in weird fashion. Up Cedar
street proceeded the procession, past
the beautiful mansions in the vicinity
of University avenue, until Cortland
avenue was reached. Everything
around was covered in white. and gave
indications of the approaching winter.
Through Little Canada, the scene of
the recent cyclone, the party proceeded.
until after drive of half All hour, the
pumping station al McCarron lake, six
miles out on Rice street, was reached.
Here the first stop was made in order TO
inspect the pumps and boilers for the
benefit of the newspaper representative.
The heavy frost and mist by this time
had been dispelled by the morning sun,
and the surrounding country was
seen in all its glory of autumn
nal tints of gold and sepia.
The pumping station is handsome red
brick and stone building, and fireproof.
tho roof haino Of nd
ers, with wired slate root. The resi-
dent engineer, Martin Feist, who lives
with his family in pretty house on the
grounds of the station, explained the
working of the two pump engines,
which were as bright as silver. They
were built in 1884, and have capacity
of 100000 and 100000 gallons each in
twenty-four hours. The fly wheels are
eight and ten feet, with cylinder
strokes of twenty-four and thirty inches.
One engine weighs IS tons, the other 100
tons. The fly wheels make 40 and a
revolutions per minute. Last year the
engines pumped 65S. 45S, 400 gallons of
water, the average consumption of coal
per day being 1850 lbs. Last Friday
5, 100 lbs of coal was used in twenty-four
hours to pump 100000 gallons of water
to the reservoir. which is situated about
one mile off from the pumping station.
The reservoir is 80 feet above the level
OF the river, and contains 16,000,000 gal
Ions. 1t supplies the
High-Pressure Service
for the city, the low service being sup
piled by different mains from the pump
ing house by gravitation. Tho water is
conducted to the pumping house from
Lake Vadnais. distance of $4,000 feet,
through brick conduit, 6X515 feet, and
the party of workmen were about to
clean out with brOOmS all the dirt and
fungOid grOWthS that had accumulated
Oh the walls during the last three
months. The work is don e feur times
year.
A drive of over four miles through
beautiful forest, on the road which is
known as the ''waterpipe road" directly
over the conduit, brought the party to
Lake Vadnais, which lay glistening in
the sun. The supply house is built
forty feet out in the lake, and the iron
sluice gates had been shut down. The
system of cleaning the conduit was as
follows: South of Little Canada is a
| small brick house known as waste weir
| a. Here Sluice gate was opened. al
| lowing the water to run into Lake Ger
| vais. A similar Sluice was opened in
the terminal chamber near the pump
! ing station, allowing the water to run
| into Trout creek. This reduced the water
| in the whole length of the conduit to
about a foot, the pumps at the engine
| house having shut down. High rubber
| boots were donned by the whole party,
each being supplied with lamp. The
| sixteen wOrkmen carried the lamps Sus-
| pended round their neckS: the rest car
| ried them in their hands. At Sis the
work commenced. The party first de-
Scended the iron ladder into the receiv-
| ing chamber, room fifteen feet
below the level of the lake. Mi
chael Monahan, the foreman, was
the first to enter the tunnel, being fol-
lowed by the GLOBE representative.
Then came the gang of sixteen laborers,
| fourteen armed with large straw broomS
and two with deep spades. The engi-
neer of the department., w. A. Somers,
who was appointed five months ago,
brought up the rear of the procession,
making his first inspection of the tunnel.
| TO a Lively Tune,
sung by the Swedes, the party stepped
out. Dipping their brooms in the water
the men swept the sides and top of the
conduit. This cleared off masses of pc
culiar white fungus hanging from the
roof. In many places the sides were
covered with deep brown slime, which
looked far from adding to the purity of
the water which flows through the con-
duit. 1t was explained that the slime
and fungus were caused by filtration
through the brick, aud though one might
think that it was harmful, analysis
had proved that it was not SO.
MIR. Somers explained after the trip,
that he had found this Shiny matter in
all conduits he had ever been through.
The party had proceeded but a short
distance when the air became very
close, and the eXertion of the heavy
walking through the water, together
with the labor of welding the brooms,
soon caused the party to perspire freely.
! The scene was weird one. Ii front the
darkness was penetrated for few yards
by the light of the lamps, which cast
fantastic shadows on the walls, covered
here and there with the fungi, which
the dim light seemed to make appear