The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-11
ENEW YORK WATER ' SYSTEM A GREAT
 PLUMb|NGFEAT

FreSSure CO GreaL on ln1Clal
 Tests That New York's
 House Piping Breaks. < New York city is already getting V some of the hundred-mile water of the sh Catskill mountains. At a fire in the Bronx the pressure was so tremedous -when the Catskill hydrant was opened
 that steam fire-engines stood aside as gsomething out of date, says Franklin EEClarkin in a letter to the Boston Tran sscript They could not come near aforcing a stream to as high a point on sSthe burning building as the hose that Twas attached to the pipes containing g;;the gravity flow from the ,Catskill alti- 4a.tudes. But the full flood and pres sSure of the mountain water will not sbe turned loose till April 1. Mean jstime these are perfect days for plum ' bers, for much of the existing house. hold plumbing, unable to stand the
 new strains and stress, needs to be re- 1iewed and reinforced. Each inch of 4piping will have to resist from ten to 7; thirty five pounds continuously. The city has warned house owners to look Tout, repair up, or an avalanche Will Mburst on them.
 Already there has been trouble with 9the brand new bronze and brass wrought smaller fixtures of the sys- Item itself Season cracks" appeared lin about one-sixth of the 3,000,0O0, 1000 bpounds of brass and bronze. Tests in- Educed the engineers to replace this itone-sixth with parts of steel andtcop- Eper. There are in the gates, large ttvalves and cocks of the system. 2,0OO,- 1000 bronze castings and 450,00O bronze forgings. The total bronze fittings cost $1,O0O, ,000. gian plumb ling! Very few defects developed in
 the big castings; none at all in the big forgings. The weaknesses in the smaller wrought fixtures have been
 traced to imperfect "foundy prac- (sficeE'' 1
 What is meant by ''big'' valves and fittings involves not pounds but tons, Eas here set forth:
 ta Tons Yeast steel dome on top of drain
 E age shaft, Hudson tunnel .-... 46.25 ERronze section valve, City tura-
 ss DDl, 66-inch ....... ..s.. 20.5 EBronze riser valve, City tunnel,
 l 72-inch 2l.4 t;Bronze riser valve, City tunnel,
 f..fs
 Sys 48-inch 9.4 EBronze shaft cap, City tunnel,
 6a 72-incn ......... ll.s Esl 48-fnch .s...i.,. ....... AS How important is tre dependability E0f even the lesser equipment of the EAaueduct may be imagiled-the task ,f01 unwatering any section for repairs
 being so vast. For example, the en- [ tire tunnel system must not only car Ky it's great flow of water, but have ikpaces and facilities for inspection. If .sAnythjng happens that. calls for the
 Mnwatering of, say, the Rondout pres F;aure section, it. means that 30,000,0 900 is&a1lons of water have to be lifted 500 s4eet. To pump out the tunnel that l1tps under the Hudson river the wa UT must be lifted from LILA feet be- 1Iw sea level In such work a 15-ton l1ioat Or boat is to be used, equipped with high-powered electric pumps, and telephones to the surface in case
 of danger to operators. The float is let down through a vertical tube till
 1t rests on the water. Then it pumps
 the water from under it's keel at the
 rate of 5,0O0,000 gallons daily. The
 pumps and machinery may be remov-
 cd and remounted on other boats at Whatever point. needed.
 x The wonder of the Catskill aqueduct
 will endure through ages. | Up to date
 the expenditure and obligations on it's
 behalf have amounted to about $14O,- zQdO, ,0O0-fhe total estimate being
 $x77, ,00O, 900. Construction has been
 &cuve1y under way eight and one-half
 fears. Contractors forces have rang
 xd from 9 minimum of 500 to a maxi 1 mum of IT, ,243, counting only the men
 Actually and directly at work on the fitys structures. To these must be
 Added men engaged upon incidental York for the contractors, the men in
 damp but for one reason or another 4ale on any given day, and the large
 nrmber of men tn9cement, metal and
 9ther manufacturing establishments, widely scattered over the country, en- HH8ed on the production of materials, l NdNfpment and supplies for the work. 3c in addition to the contractors s forcee, and the 1900 men on the staff of tn eoffices of the water supply
 board the number of persons indirect Y employed upon this undertaking of
 the city of New York reaches the maximum total of 25,0O0.
 eg After travelling over a hundred miles the new tunnel water can be de- nyered in lower Manhattan at an e1e- yat1on cf 26o feet above the tide level and in Brooklyn about 24O feet above 4fde level. That is, its own force car- ries 1t up one-third the height of the : Woo1wcrth tower. Starting in a Cat- skill ya1lsy, with the first reservoir, Aehokan, 59o feet above New York ! tide water, the tunnel dips under sev- | Sn or eight streams and rivers, fnc1ud- 1n8 the Hudson, the East river, pierces
 through hills and mountains and
 czo&ses the harbor at the Narrows to
 staten Island where ths 12O-mile sys- tenn ends in a reservoir 223 feet above
 ids. Under Manhattan, in places. the funnel lies 7S0 feet below the surface. and nowhere in the city limits much
 1ess than zz5 feet down, quite out of
 fhs TAy of any future traffic tunnels railways, Each vertical shaft connect. ] ing with the eity's water mains near the surface is itself highly complex work with it's great riser valves and chambers.
 From the reservoir at New York city line tt@ high pressure water tunnel is beFsd through the solid rock of Man. batfah--ths largest rock tunnel in the wsriA. Vertical shafts were sunk from ffs susfaGs at twenty-five places. SfeRa these the lateral befings were Aaad0 for ths tunnel itself. F.hrouet,