The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-11-05
THE BATH WATER PIPE
Is Laid Under the River at Last.

Is Laid Under the River at Last.
Five Days Laid $500 Feet But 1t Took
Eleven Weeks for the Remaining 800
Feet-Extraordinary Hard Luck on the
Bath Shore-A Single Slight Slip.up
Meant Weeks work-The Electric
Railway.
Especial to the PRESS.)
Bath, Me-, November Alt is:now ex-
pected that the long and dificult.task
of laying the 16-inch iron water pipe
under the river between Bath and WOOL
wich. will be completed by tomorrow
night, and that the joining of the land
at both ends and the completion of
every detail for the flow of fresh water
under the river will be accomplished by
the last of the week.
1t has been big undertaking, and
will have required twelve weeks when
completed. though had NO ACCIDENTS
occurred 1t could have been done in
two weeks. The accidents that delayed
this work were of course not unavoid-
able. but there has been good deal Of
bad luck.
To understand the long delay due to
an accident. the process of laying this
pipe must be understood. Imagine
three great iron pipes, IL feet long. is
inches in interior diameter, and nearly
an inch in thickness. They must be
joined together and laid on the bot
tom OF this deep .river of swift tides and
currents SO carefully that not point in
the whole 2800 feet shall leak. There are
two scows in use. The smallest is tipped
down very much on one side by the
heavy timbers. shat project into the air
some ten or twelve feet. That chute. or
run" as it Is called, is over 100 feet long,
for the lower end must always rest on
the bottom of the river, which is 60
feet deep in places. The slope Of the
"run' is about 45 degrees.
Down this "runn the great iointed
pip is slowly and carefully allowed to
slide to the bottom of the river. The
joints are of course movable. They
are what are called ward Joints There
is big. bell on one end of the pipe. and
ridges around the small END, that is in
serted into it. When they are put to-
the joint, and pounds Of molten lead
poured in, filling the space between the
ridges of tho ball and aud the sweetness
of the "bell". This, as it cools, makes
the joint watertight, but it is neveits.,-
less movable to an angle of nearly 50 d.
grees, but II bent more than tnai a.ie
side of the bell will be broken. Tlls
is what must be guarded against lie
100 feet OF the pipe Oh the run" is so
heavy that if It's weight is brough tn
bear on joint, by some Inequality of
the river bottom, or wrong position OF
the "run," the help of tho JOINT 10
broken like so much crockery. Also il
the pipe breaks loose, slides off the
run" and falls to the bottom, the ioinIs
Will be broken.
The pipe was first laid about eleven
weeks ago, from the old wooden steps Of
the "town landing" at Bath. For about
300 feet the bottom is rocky and un-
even. The joints broke several times.
Then it was necessary for Nat Gordon,
the diver, or his assistant, to 60 down
and sfasten chains around the pipe SO
that it could be pulled up on to the bot
tom "runn again. very difficult un-
dertaking. In fact, it is SO difficult that
when they had finally got the pipe laid
300 feet from the shore and were run
into by the steam scow and the pipe was
therefore dropped to the bottom, It was
impossible for them to get it up again,
and after working week over it, Mr..
Gordon suggested that they give it up
and begin to lay the pipe from the Wool
wich shore.
This was done, and in five days they
had laid $500 feet ofspipe and reached the
first pipea that was lying on the bottom
on the Bath side. This had to be pulled
up in sections. since they couldn't get
it up whole. They would pull up the
end and drop it. That would break
joint somewhere, and then they could
lift section made up of several of the
Fo.,k S<xi,,
broken, it spoiled pipe of course, and
meant loss of $40. The pipe was raised
and relaid successfully till week ago
Friday, when just as they bad almost
reached the steps of the "town landingn
and had come in. blythe projectiagsswharf
into eight or ten feet of water, somehow
the long run" tipped over and dropped
the water at the outer part being about
40 feet deep. This broke several JOINTS,
and all the past week has been occupied
in relaying this broken section.
1t will be seen that the almost contin-
ual work Of diver has been necessary,
and Mr.. Gordon or his assistant have
been on the bottom of the Keunebec a
good deal of the time. After the pipe Is
laid, they will have to 60 down and put
into place about 500 feet of stone riprap
around and undt' the pipe, where there
are hollows. The river will deposit all
kinds of sediment among the rip-rap,
and make it solid bed. The pipe must
lie perfe city immovable and without
strain on the joints.
The electric railroad in this city will
be kept running all winter, if it is
found possible to handle the snow. An
effort will be made to do so. Already
several open box cars have been built to
be used in hauling awaE the snow from
the narrow, crowded streets into the
|, open country.