The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-14

TO FIGHT THE WATER METER.
Mr.. w. II. stiIIvcITs Experience
with the Machines.


with the Machines.
Mr.. w. B. Stllwen proposes to ehai-
lenge the little water meter to scientific
glove contest with an unlimited number
Of rounds and decision required on the
part of the referee.
Mr.. Stillwell says that the water COM
mission will either remove the meter
from his house on Huntingdon street or
he will move out of the house. He does
not propose to pay the bill which the
meter has run up against him. If the city
wants to collect the bill he said, it will
have to levy on the house and sell it.
According to Mr.. Stillwen, the water
meter attached to his premises by the
water commission has been guilty of more
vagaries than were ever accomplished ny
the gas meter in it's most frolicsome days.
1.-THE first month the meter was put in"
he said, Il decided to give it a test and
use all the water possible. When the
freeze occurred in January had ever fau-
Get in the house, six in number, turned
on and allowed TO flow full tilt as long
as the freeze lasted. I did this twice that
month, but one water pipe burst anyhow.
My bill at the end of the month was $2.G3.
Next month we used water at the ordin-
airy rate, neither stinting nor wasting,
and at the end of the month the bill was
Sc. / could not understand this ana
thought it well to economize a little. At
the end of the third month the bill was
$40. Yet my neighbor, Mr.. II. p. Smart,
who undoubtedly uses as much water on
his premises as / do on mine. received
bill for only Y cents. This cured me OF
any disposition toward water meters Ny
water rent by the year had beeen 500, less
10 per cent, or SIS. With the meter my
bill amounts to SIS in three months"
There was a credit for $6 on the last bill
for leak" How the city treasurer or who
ever has charge of the water bills, man
ages to make such an accurate estimate Of
the value of the leakige Mr.. Stillwen is at
a loss to know, especially as there was no
leak
"There was a leak" he said. (which ex-
listed for two months in the street in
front OF my house before it made its pres
ence known by showing on the surface,
which goes to show that Superintendent
Lotions theory that any sort of a leak
will show on the surface in a compare
lively short time is incorrect. For over
two months before there had been a very
disagreeable rafting noise in the water
pipe leading into my bedroom. with a SEN
sible decrease in the supply of water from
the pipe. The noise was very annoying.
and / had three different plumbers on as
many different occasions search for the
leak without success. Al last it manifest
ed itself across the street. A small pipe
had been broken and the water had been
going to waste all that time. Therefore I
hold that the superintendent is wrong and
that water is going 20 waste from the
mains and pipes underground all over the
city: that the chief waste is there and not
on the premises of water users, ana con-
sequently the meter system is wrong"
Mr.. Stnwell is in earnest about the mat
ter. and says that he is looking for an
other house to move into where there is
no meter attached, when the turncock
shuts the water off from the one he now
occupies. Neither viii he be responsible
for the sanitary condition OF the house
when he leaves Il, he says.