The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-05-17
No City WaterwOrks System
Here Prior to 1881.
FIRST WELLS NOT A SUCCESS
Private Concerns Have Little
Trouble Getting Supply.
City Has Not Made an Intelli-
gent Attempt To Do So.

l1lC Pl CoChl lell &C plant AlOAAA tAAC OeNJ
when all the water Topeka obtained
was drawn from wells and cisterns or
was hauled from the river; a detailed
account of the steps of appalling mis-
management and hopeless inefficiency
which has pervaded the direction of
the affairs of the water department,
making it what it is now; and an opin
ion as to just what is the matter with
the plant. the three main reasons why
the plant is unable to furnish the re-
quired amount of water needed for
consumption in the city, are developed
in an article written by II. K. Good
rich, of $40 Lincoln street.
According to Goodrich. first tubular
wells instead of dug wells. should
have been used; second, the pumps are
placed too high; and third vertical
pumps instead of horizontal pumps
should have been installed.
Has Had Much Experience.
Goodrich has been in the well dig
ging business for forty years. He
helped dig the first city we'll back in
1891. For forty years he has had ex-
perience in civic business as an erect
ing engineer, operating engineer and
as superintendent of an electric light
plant. He assisted in digging the first
artesian well at Memphis. Tenn.
r Goodrich has written an article for
the State Journal that is a detailed ac-
count of the history of water in To-
peka. From back in the days when
the city was supplied from private
wells, dug. and driven; cisterns
equipped with filters; and when water
service was furnished by a negro who
hauled it up from the river in a tank,
has traced its history up to the present
day when city authorities are still
struggling with the problem of fur
nishing an adequate supply.
Goodrich's account follows:
History of Topeka Water.
| >Prlor to 1881. Topeka was actually sup
! piled with water by private wells. dug and
! driven; cisterns equipped with filters and
water service provided by colored man
| who hauled a barrel tank with span of
mules from a well near Third and Quincy
| streets. and delivered water for 10 cents
| per tank.
| from cisterns, filled with water pumped
| by portable fire engine, from the Kaw
river.
A storage cistern at Second street was
! the first of a system of three. the second
was at Seventh street and the third at
| Tenth street, all on Kansas avenue. The
| engine. stationed at the river, pumped the
/ water into cistern No. thru rubber hose.
! then the engine was taken to Second street,
| where it, was similarity pumped to
Seventh street, where the same operation
was repeated and the water driven sue
/ ceSSIullX 10 IenIn street
| During 1881 Topeka capitalists organized
| the first waterworks company. VIM. b.
Strong, at that time president of the A T.
X 5: f. railway, was elected as the first
! president of the corporation. After secur-
| ing franchise from the city. boilers,
pumps and machinery were installed at the
| foot of Harrison street. less than 100 feet
! from the river. and Immediately opposite
| FelitZ Island. which was separated from the
mainland by twenty-five feet of running
water.
| - we'll seventy five feet in diameter and
| fifty feet in depth was sunk upon the
| island, and connected with the pumps by a
| fourteen-inch suction pipe. The water was
| then connected with the newly installed
system of service pipes that ran thru the
| principal portions of the city and included
| th1rty-one fire hydrants.
| The plant was completed by July of that
year and test then made was thOroly sat
The well was regarded as fine piece of
workmanship. 1t had been walled by con-
| structing a crib of brick and cement This
was IN the nature of an impervious ring.
1t was sunk by digging out the sand be
| meath it when it dropped down by its own
weight. The walls Of the crib had another
addition built upon its temporary top and
I'M. process continued until the required
| lmpenetrable, water-tight sides and a bot
| tom of sand
This bottom extended twenty five feet
below the sandy bottom of the nearby
river.
First Trouble Comes.
Everything worked lovely for about a
{
| installed the entire eight pumps could not
handle the supply; now six were suf-
| ffcient.
Wherever considerable amount of
| water was pumped from the well, the sand
rose from the bottom, in the not unnatural
| etfort to rise to the level of the surround
ing sand. This caused constantly dimin-
lshlnS water supply; as the number of feet
OF SAND SAND Increased in the well, the number
| supply was greater than would be estimat-
/ ed alone by the decrease of depth of the
H. n no nGf Flour
| point in the sands.
The third year after the installation of
| the plant witnessed so serious a decrease
| IN the supply that second well, 80 feet
| in diameter but of similar construction
was sunk within % feet of the first well.
| rms second well gave a repetition of the
history of the first. A third well-then a
| fourth-were followed by the same results
| A satisfactory supply upon completion
| then filling with sand and a decrease of
| water.
Following the fourth unsatisfactory well
! came the transfer of the company to a
syndicate of English capitalists.
| The city council at this time became
| fearful of the contamination of the water
by the newly constructed asylum sewer,
ana requested the company to move its
plant above that point. The site then Sc
/ dected Is still the source of our supply.
| The water company began the construction
| OF a system of tubular wells.
Wells Not Large.
| A tubular well is from to "a inches in
| diameter and Is made by driving an iron
| tube down into the water bearing sand.
The place of egress of water is exactly
| opposite that of dug wells.
The latter have impervious walls and
receive their water from the open bottom
A tubular well is either sunk until rock OF
other impervious stratum is reached OF
| had plugged bottom. Then a strainer
| or mot containing a large number
of rats or slots is inserted inside the
| driven pipe. When holes are punched in
the strainer, they may have as great a
diameter one-half inch. Under this sys-
tenn, the strainer has been previously
wrapped with heavy fiber cloth, that
| admits the water but excludes all sand
| coarser than quicksand.
When a system of slots is used, they
are made extremely narrow. with n view
| to the same exclusion that afforded by
\ the fiber cloth.
Proper solution as to size is always fol-
! lowed by satisfactory results-ths only
| exception heing when quicksand is en-
eountered. This Is so fine that 1t renetrates