The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-02-05
: LAWRENCE.
-
Providence Officials See
the Filter.
Were Well Entertained and
Learned Much.
The Interesting Process Of Cutting
Ice in the Filter Basin.

His Honor, Mayor McGuinness, and q
party Of Providence Councilmen were de-
lightfuliy entertained at Lawrence yester-
day by His Honor, Mayor jenkins, and Q
party OF the officials of that city.
The object OF the visit was to afford
the Providence officials an opportunity OF
seeing the natural filter beds of Law
renee and by observation and inquiry to
determine for themselves whether 1t
would be advisable or not for this city to
adopt a similar system.
The Providence delegation was met at
South Lawrence early In the forenoon by
Mayor Jenkins, city clerk Kimball and
councilman Morton and carriages were
taken for the drive along the banks of
the historic Merrimac river to the big
pumping station and filter bed. Here
City Engineer Marble and superin-
tendent of the water works Salisbury,
who, by the way, is an old Providence
man, joined the party and IN hour or
more was devoted to asking and answer
ing questions Two immense embank-
ments of sand fianked the filter bed on
the east side, one washed and ready FOR
use and the other caked up and blacken-
ed by the refuse of the water which had
already been forced through 1t. This
second pile was awaiting the spring
washing after which it will again be
spread on the underdrains OF the hitter.
On the west side is the Merrimac, from
which the water Is taken by an intake
conduit several feet below the surface.
The hitter itself could not be seen to
very good advantage as the surrounding
dykes were covered with snow and a gang
OF 70 men were busy cutting the heavy
ice that had formed on the bed. The
method for removing this ice, however,
was very interesting TO watch. No teams
are necessary but the huge blocks OF
frozen Merrimac are carried up from the
surface of the filter basin in an inclined
railway, deposited in a big covered car
which may be railroadeo along the en-
bankment, and then dumped back in the
main stream. 1t all costs money and this
annual expense Is the one feature OF their
filtration system which the people OF
Lawrence object to. superintendent Sal
isbury said that the bed should be COW
cred with solid masonry and the first cost
of the protecting structure would be
more than compensated for by the saving
i'm winter maintenance.
Mr.. Clarke, the chemist in charge of the
Massachusetts, experiment station at
Lawrence, takes the same view of 1t. He
is the successor of the filtration expert,
Mr.. Hagen, in whose judgment as to the
necessity of covering sand filters he is a
firm believer. Mr.. Hagen has a north and
south division of the entire country
and all towns north of this imaginary
line should have their filter beds pro-
tected by covers. Providence, as well as
Lawrence, is north OF this line, and Mr..
Clark, who was down here in 1894, ex-
aiming the Providence sands, said yes
terday that a natural filter for the Paw
tuxet river water should be covered.
After the filter had been examined and
the immense pumping engine with a ca
pacity of 223 gallons to every stroke had
i - 49, I- aA4
tendent Salisbury, the visitors were
driven up and around the reservoir, in
the middle of which is the big fountain
that flows at the rate OF three million gal
Ions of Uttered water every "a hours.
The next stop was at the Franklin
House, where there was a pleasant infor-
NAL reception and dinner, after which
bracer the party was initiated intS the
mysteries of microbic study and develop
| ment and of filtration on such a small
scale that 1t could be better demonstrated
and more easily understood. This was at
the Massachusetts experiment station in
charge Of Mr.. III. W. Clarke. Here the
| visitors were shown samples of Lawrence
sewage before and after being filtered
through five feet of sand. The difference
was such that each one could be induced
I'd take n sip Of the clarified product.
From the experiment station the Provi-
dence people were taken back to South
Lawrence, where they boarded the Port
land express for Boston, after a visit that
was as delightful as it was instructive.
The guests were Mayor McGuinness,
Alderman Robert u. Little, Councilman
William Blakeley, James +. Freeman and
Joseph ID. Grinnell, a representative Of
the Evening Telegram and a representa-
tive OF the Evening NEWS.
They were entertained by Mayor George
s. Jenkins, City Clerk William T. Kim
ball, Superintendent Salisbury, City En-
gineer Marble, Councilman Morton, Coun-
Gilman Low, Alderman Robinson, Mr..
III, w. Clarke and ex-Mayor Collins, pres
ident Of the water board.