The Calumet news., 1911-04-14
INSP ECT new
WATER SYSTEM
CRY OFFICIALS PAY VISIT or IN
epEcTION TO BIG RESER-
voIR IN WEST HAN
COCK.

NIovor Dodge. Engineer Craig Al
,or,oan Bran, and G. II. Rouleau and
,noust Mette of the board of public
,,orl,s paid an official visit OF inspec-
zion 10 the new reservoir yesterday al
,ernoon. and found everything very
satisfactory. Each member of the
,ortv climbed the ladder on the side
of the tank to the concrete roof thir-
r-ave feet above the ground, and
note was taken to the fullness OF the
,onk and the marks made day before
~, the city engineer by means of
which the amount of leakage in the
,onk could be noted. While small
ouontity of water had filtered out
tbrouch the joints and had 'sweated'
tbrough the sides of the big concrete
howl the amount was so small as to
be insignificant.
The trip made yesterday was the
first for some of those i'm the party, in
cluding the mayor and one of the al
dermen. and they were duly impressed
with the magnitude and Importance of
the Improvement. The entire system,
inclusive ofreservoir, electric pump and
about five miles of mains, cost lit
tle over fifty thousand dollars, for
which amount the city has bonded.
The main feature is the reservoir,
which is thirty-two feet deep, seven
~ two feet i'm diameter and contains
about million gallons of water. A
division wall separates it into two
sections from either Of which the wa
tol r.a- be drawn while the other half
Is being cleaned. the concrete walls
are twelve inches thick at the base,
narrowing to eight inches at the top,
and are reinforced with vertical steel
trusting, spaced sixteen inches apart.
Further strength is added by steel
bands imbedded i'm the cement and
running around the circumference like
barrel hoops The floor is built bowl
shape and is eight inches thick, of
concrete, criss-cFossed with quarter
inch steel Six columns of concrete
rising from the floor support the steel
girders supporting the concrete roof
The water enters through two in
takes each eight inches i'm diameter
running to a valve chamber and
thence to ten-inch service main.
The overflow pipe has it's opening at
a height Of thirty-one feet from the
ground. After being allowed to stand
for twenty-four hours after the pump
ing was stopped on Wednesday, the
water yesterday was found to have
lowered only one sixteenth of an inch.
Part Of this was due to evaporation
and the rest from the water finding
its way through the joints and alb
sorption into the concrete. The latter
loss will be very small as the concrete
is prepared with water -proofing
composition provided to eliminate this
difficulty. 1t Is believed that after the
tank hes been i'm use for a few days
there will be no more seepage, and
that the minute openings i'm the joints
viii close themselves.
The water will be drawn OFF through
the same pipe that il enters the reser-
voir by 80 that only the surplus will
reach the storage tank. The city Is
to be divided into districts one to be
served by the new system. the others
by the old pump on the lake shore
Since last fall portion of the upper
district adjacent to the pumping sta
uon property on the city water works
tract near the car barns has been
served by the new system. line run
hlng down to Oak street also provid-
ing water for the E l.. Wright school.
city Engineer Craig expects to open
the main valve tomorrow and supply
continuous service to a large district
extending as far down town as the
block lying north of Elm street, and
extending west to Railroad avenue and
east to Wright street
Engineer Craig estimates that the
nity wells on the city property will
furnish about three hundred thousand
gallons of water a day. At present all
OF these are not In use, several having
necome clogged and are now being ST.
phoned out. the old steam pump first