Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-08-15
Water MAIN
Gone TO Pieces

P. j. Keefer, superintendent of the
water works, has unearthed rather
bad state of affairs on Beaver street
relating to the borough water system,
which shows that the long four-inch
main branching out to the Bennett
farm and supplying the stove works
and the big'tank of the D. L. & W.
railroad company has gone all to pieces
apparently, from end to end, utterly
failing to conduct water.
1t has been known for some time
past that the main on Beaver street
was in bad condition, but nothing like
the true state of the pipe was dream
ed of. On last Friday night break
occurred about thirty yards north of
the canal On Saturday morning o
force of men was put to work repair
ing the break. The water main on
Beaver street was laid over thirty
years ago and owing to the repeated
filling up which has taken place the
pipe now lies at depth of some ten
feet.
In excavating it was necessary to
digthrough course of hard cinder The
work was in progress during Saturday
and Sunday and it was not until the
evening of the latter day that the
break was repaired and the deep trench
closed. No sooner was the pressure ap-
piled than the pipe sprang another
leak near the first. This rendered it
necessary to do all the work over
again.
By this time it was discovered that
the entire main was completely eaten
up by rust. At many places the pipe
is reduced to mere SHE'LL at other
places it is full OF small holes.
The water mains laid in other parts
of town at even an earlier date, while
showing the effects of wear, are still
serviceable. TIE worn.out condition
of the Beaver street main is attributed
to the fact that the pipe lies in bed
of furnace Stag. a substance which is
peculiarly destructive to iron Furth-
er investigation revealed that the con-
dition of the pipe is the same along
the entire street and all idea of max
ing repairs was abandoned.
New pipe was ordered and pending
its arrival pipe for temporary SER
vice will be laid along the surface of
the street from the point where the
last hreak nccurrod &c che n T. &. W
tank and the stove works. Both of the
latter have been getting along as best
they could since the main gave out
last week. The d. l.. & W. freight
locomotives have been taking water at
other points so far as practicable leav-
ing what remains in the tank here to
supply the switch engine.
No attempt WHY be made to dig up
the long line of Worthless pipe, buried
ten feet below the surface. The new
main will be laid at depth of about
four feet.
Although an order for four inch pipe
for the new main has already gone in
it is not unlikely that it may be
countermanded and siX-inch pipe ord
cred. The Danville stove and manu-
featuring company feels that nothing
less than a six-inch pipe will suffice
to give its plant adequate fire protec-
tion. General Manager W. A. Sechler
yesterday laid the matter before the
water commissioners. He pointed out
the fact that when the main was orig
inally laid the stove works was not in
existence and the demands at the farm
were nothing like at present. The six
inch main brought down from Wall
street TO the stove works last year sup
plies plug at the rear of the plant
and will not avail much when it comes
to playing on fire on the west end of
the buildings. What is needed, the
company holds, is six.inch main at
each end of the plant.