The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-07-16

ment, which show a saving to the
city
As to the character of the plants
that in South Norwalk is criticised
for it's use of ID. C. 220volt two
wire system, type never generally
adopted in this country, This equip
ment, say Mr.. Edgar and Mr.. Clark
compels the consumer in South Nor
walk to pay 20 per cent. more for the
light produced than would be neces
sary under better system.
The Detroit electric undertaking
is found to be of a type of about fiji
teen years ago and the capacity car
hardly be expanded within the pres
ent building unless the type of oper.
ating units is changed to those of g
more modern class.
The Allegheny plant is described
as poorly designed, inefficient and
expensive to operate. Appropria.
tons for technical equipment have
been neglected to such an extent, say
the reviewers, that the electrician
had to build his own switchboard out
of such junk as he could collect from
machine shop yards.
OF Chicago's four municipal cleo
trio plants, three are declared to be
of obsolete type, while the fourth
is not property constructed for eco
nomical operation. The stations are
scattered through the city without
system and are very poorly located
The plants use l 400, 100000 gallons
of city water (minimum) for which
no charge is made. OF the $500
lamps in use, ALSO are arc of type
which has been generally discarded
throughout the country.
On the subject of operating eff
cheney. it is set forth that economical
operation in Allegheny is much hin
dered by the unnecessary number of
employees. Six or eight of the force
could be dismissed, reducing the pay
roll Is to Is per cent, and "the half
dozen extra laborers often put on for
political purposes at election time
which would add to the eff
cheney of the service as well as lower
ing its cost" In Chicago, the civil
service rules are declared to be a
source of inefficiency. Men who have
become inefficient are held in respon-
sible positions longer than they
should be, and the best men are often
prevented from being advanced in
| TALK VI CuOStll llOHl tHC OutoioC bC-
cause of lack of the special knowl-
edge required by the civil service ex-
aminerS.
American Water Works.
| Water systems operated by the mu-
inequalities in Chicago, Cleveland and
Syracuse and by private companies in
Indianapolis and New Haven were
Investigated. The investigating en-
gineer quoted by Messrs. Egar and
Clark found that at Chicago the ia
cilities for developing water from the
present sources of supply are INSULT
Gent The sources of supply at
Cleveland were abundant. At SYRIA
cuse a new conduit from Lake Ska
neateles will be needed in the near
future, as the maximum daily capa-
city is exceeded by the maximum
daily consumption. There is, how
ever 20 100000 gallons of storage.
At Indianapolis Operated by private
company there is more satisfac-
tory state of affair. the maximum ca
pacity largely exceeding the maxi
mum consumption. This is true also
of New Haven. The municipal plants
at Chicago and Cleveland are found
to be deficient as regards installation
of pressure gauges. Syracuse tmu-
nicipaD and Indianapolis and New
Haven are equipped with recording
gauges. In Chicago complaints of
lack of pressure were numerous,
houses in certain districts being able
to get water in their upper stories
only at night In Cleveland anu Syr-
acuse the pressure was, on the whole,
satisfactory. This also applies to
indianapolis and New Haven.
Summarizing the results of the in
vestigation as to the quality and pur-
ity of the water supplied, Messrs Ed
gar and Clark say:
This phase of the question may be
summarized with the statement that
different cities call for different
methods of treatment, it is evident
that the two companies examined
were more solicitOus regarding the
purity of the water supply, and
adopted more thorough means for in
surfing the same than did the three
municipalities who ran their own wa
ter department.
1.-The conclusion drawn as result
of our investigation into the quality
of the water is that the water sup
piled by the two companies is good,
sanitary water; that its quality is
much better than the water supplied
in Chicago, somewhat better than the
water supplied in Cleveland and quite
as good as the water supplied at Syr-
acuse. The latter place is blest with
water from source which, down to
the date of this report, has remained
pure without any special expense OF
effort on the part of the water de-
partment.
"It seems that the citizens obtain
the cheapest water in Cleveland
while New Haven is the second
cheapest. At Indianapolis the poor
man gets water fairly cheap, but the
cost increases rapidly as the class OF
dwelling improves. At both Chicago
and Syracuse the poor man pays a
high price for water.
Financial Results.
Under the heading Financial" an
exhaustive review of the economic
operations of municipal and private
undertakings, both in Great Britain
and the United States, is given by the
reviewers, who find that it is admit
ted by the advocates of municipalities
ton that the debts of British cities
have been enormously increased by
its operations. I'VE venture to be-
lieve," they say, that the loss to the
communities whose municipal indus
tries we have investigated from bad
management and lack of enterprise