CERTAIN IMPROVED PROCESSES OF OBTAINING WATER, OF STORING IT IN THE EARTH, AND OF REGULATING IRREGULAR SOURCES OF SUPPLY
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Marie Trémaux at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th October 1872.
I, JEAN MARIE TRÉMAUX, of Alger, and of Paris, 37, Boulevard
Bonne-Nouvelle, in the Republic of France, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVED PROCESSES OF OBTAINING
WATER, OF STORING IT IN THE EARTH, AND OF REGULATING IRREGULAR SOURCES
OF SUPPLY, "to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a process of seeking subterraneous waters,
of storing or preserving them in the ground, and of regulating their
flow. This process is intended mainly to be applied to new or old
sinkings for water for the supply of towns, villages, country houses, or
manufactories, and for irrigation; but I would have it distinctly
understood that I not only propose to claim its use for the applications
specified, but for every analogous purpose.
My process differs from all previously known, in that it for the first
time joins to various means hitherto only used separately, an entirely

page_text: new system of preserving or storing water in ground submitted to the
the action of wells, trenches, or galleries.
Its advantages are:-1°. That it permits the correction of the inter-
mittence of springs. 2°. That it creates new springs or fountain-heads
with regulated supply in all water bearing strata given by a hydro-
graphic basin. 3°. That it permits the renewal in the earth during each
winter of a store of water equal to the quantity drawn therefrom during
the year. 4°. That it avoids the necessity of constructing large and
costly reservoirs in masonry or brickwork.
To enable others to usefully apply my process and to obtain therefrom
the results and advantages above enumerated, I deem it necessary to
enter into certain details by way of preamble before setting forth the
method of proceeding in the application of my system.
Preamble: A long experience in seeking water supplies has taught
me that springs are the more variable in their supply the nearer they
are to the hydro-graphic basin or watershed which feeds them; these
kind of springs are termed intermittent. Their supply relatively
considerable in winter diminishes to nothing or almost nothing in
summer, that is to say, that their supply is in inverse ratio to the
elevation of the temperature, when it would be more desirable that they
should yield in direct ratio to satisfy the requirements of all kinds which
are greater in summer than in winter; but it is the contrary that takes
place, and yet the water bearing basin upon which they are depondent
is rarely exhausted before the return of the rainy season; it is on the
one hand that the arrangement of the rocks or other strata adjoining the
spring gives too much permeability, and permits the water filtering
thorcon to run off too freely, and on the other hand that the water
bearing strata furthest from the spring are isolated from it by ridges of
rocks or other strata which will not allow of an easy flow of water
towards the point where the spring rises, although this be below them i
and this leads naturally to the penetration of these rocks or strata by
trenches or galleries to meet the insufficiency of the supply from the
spring towards the end of the dry season. By this means an increase is
obtainable, but it must also be stated that such increase is year by year
gradually lost. This arises from the exhaustion of a reserve which does
not renew itself, and thus great works are executed without attaining a
satisfactory result. This system of seeking a water supply good in itself

page_text: is incomplete, it is made without sufficient study, and without making,
during the execution of the works certain observations of the highest
importance by which it is possible to fix the right moment when the
work should be stopped, although the supply may be greatly less than
that desired. This conclusion might appear paradoxical did I not prove
its truth by the following enumeration of the means to be employed for
seeking water. preserving or storing it, and using it at will.
I. Assuming that I am in presence of a hydrographic basin feeding
a water bearing basin giving rise to a spring, the intermittence, or
irregularity of which is in the ratio of 1 to 10 for example, and I know
that in summer the ground above the point of emergence of the spring
is still saturated with water.
2°. If the water bearing land is regularly stratified and perceptibly
horizontal, seek by soundings, by wells, or by one or other of these
means to ascertain the upper level of the sheet of water as well as the
impervious "thalweg" which holds it, and to this I direct my trench
or gallery. If the stratification of the water bearing land is inclined
towards the spring, or vice versa, I lead the gallery between banks.
Further, if the spring emerges or wells up by the bank trench I direct
my gallery in the most advantageous way to the point which appears to
mc most suitable for pushing branches across banks, so as to submit
the greatest possible mass of water bearing land to the action of the
galleries; it may happen that the stratifications of the land are jumbled
or discordant; in this case it is necessary to penetrate in a mass beneath
the "thalweg" of the superficial valley where the wells cost less sinking,
and are better placed to receive the pluvial waters.
In most cases the shafts or wells should be from 40 to 60 metres
apart to ensure the ventilation, facilitate the extraction of the material
excavated from the gallery, and permit the infiltration at high pressure
of the waters in the surrounding earth.
3°. When I have fixed the starting point of the gallery and the
direction in which it is to be driven by means of the shafts or wells
previously sunk down to water, and that I know by soundings if
necessary, the position of the impervious stratum, I can begin the
gallery, and directly I meet water I note daily, or at least weekly, the

page_text: advance, mark the position of the fissures or natural conduits yielding
water, guage at the entrance, keep account of the renewal of water in
the wells, the more rapid lowering of the water in the wells nearest the
gallery indicates the extent of its action and permits continuing their
deepening without having- recourse to expensive drawings off, which
give no result upon which dependence may be placed. I also note
extraordinary supplies occasioned by accidental rains during the
execution of the works in order to deduct their product from that drawn
from the reserve.
4°. When the total result of the guagings shall attain a cube of
water about equal to that desired for the entire year, the trenching or
gallery works may be stopped even if the last guagings shall have given
but insignificant yields, as the situation is then that of a person having
put on draught a vintage tub from which he knows what he has
obtained and what he will obtain again by refilling it at the next
vintage. Similarly in prospecting for water, knowing what has been
obtained from the strata submitted to the action of the gallery, we
know that they are capable of receiving an equal quantity each year.
5° The remaining operation consists in closing the gallery by means
of transverse walls, in which an opening is left sufficient to admit of the
passage of a man, this opening is closed hermetically by means of a
panel of metal or of oak, the periphery of which coming against the
rebates in the masonry is furnished with leather or india-rubber; a
bottom plug placed like the panel, up stream, is fitted in the extension
of the trench or gutter, which is usually made on one side of the gallery.
Finally, one or two cocks or regulating clack valves are also placed in
the said partition, a little upward of the plug, and permit the regulation
of the supply.
The partitions will be established preferably immediately below or
down stream of the fissures or natural conduits which have been met
with. Further, as many partitions must be added as may appear
necessary to divide the pressure over the greatest number of points,
and form as many successive dams until the water attains the same
height as before the opening of the gallery.
6°. At the beginning of the rainy season the partitions must be
placed successively from down stream upward; the infiltration wells
will be made to act in the same order until the placing of the down

page_text: stream partition, and the total reserve may be completed. During the
operation of filling the reserve, care will be taken to regulate the
introduction of the water into the wells in such a manner that no
counter-pressure is produced, the partitions being made to resist pressure
from up stream downwards. Care will also be taken both during the
filling and the drawing off, not to infiltrate directly into the compart-
ment from which the supply is being drawn, as otherwise the water
would be troubled. This compartment will be naturally fed by water
from the upper compartiments, the water thus entering it in a filtered
state.
The water to be introduced into the wells should previously pass
through filtering matters, or a curb or brim of very close wire gauze
placed vertically in a chamber at the top of the well. This cylindrical
curb is placed secure from all accumulation of clay or detritus by
permitting the escape level with its base of a part of the water which
circulates between the stone curb and the wire gauze curb, it is covered
and pressed down by the lid which closes the well.
The finishing of the interior work of wells, trenches, gallery, and the
arrangements to be adopted for bringing the waters into the infiltration
wells may be so greatly varied that long details would here be super-
fluous, and I will confine myself to observing that if the hydrographic
basin or watershed is very extensive compared with the water bearing
basin to be fed, only small barriers or dams should be made to direct the
water towards the wells and cover the filtering gauzes, and if on the
contrary, the hydrographic basin is of comparatively small extent,
barriers or dams will be made capable of retaining when necessary, but
momentarily, the heaviest rains which will be made to infiltrate during
the following days. I would further add that supplementary filtering
dams and wells may be established at a distance above or up-stream of
the water-bearing basin; the effect of these is to feed the reserve for
a longer period after the rains.
All these arrangements being made, the waters will be storing during
and after the entire rainy season in the strata submitted to the action of
the gallery, there is consequently no need to feed with the mostly
troubled waters coming from intermittent springs agitated by the
slightest rainfall. Further, the superficial waters being momentarily
arrested up-stream and infiltered into the veritable water-bearing basin

page_text: they will no longer come and feed the too permeable part of the strata
which would cause the intermittence of the supply.
7° I bave stated (6°) that during the formation of the reserve the
partitions are successively placed from up-stream downward; therefore
to utilise this reserve I must proceed in the inverse direction. I begin
by using the waters taken from the cock or regulating clack valve of
the first down stream or lowest partition, and when this valve will no
longer give the required supply I open the panel, remove the bottom
plug, and wash the compartment of this water course with the water
remaining therein; then the filtrations continuing to flow in, I complete
the desired supply by means of the regulating valve of the second
partition, and so on successively to the up-stream or highest partition.
By this method I have during the entire year a fixed or a variable
quantity at will, of clear fresh water, which can but increase and
improve from year to year by the repeated washing of the noxious
matters which might be contained in the strata submitted to the action
of the gallery. It will be understood that the muddy waters resulting
from the emptying and cleaning of the compartments will be thrown out
of the conduit from which the water supply is taken while cach
operation is going on, the operation itself occupying very little time.
8° I have just described the method to be followed in applying my
system to obtaining new water supplies; I have but little to say as to its
application to old sources of supply inasmuch that a great number of
these explorations and works which have been qualified as progress in
winning or storing watersheds or sources, have in most cases given only
greater irregularity of supply as the consequence of this kind of drainage
which facilitates the absorption and more rapid running off of the water
in rainy weather.
For applying my system to old sinkings and works, three cases have
to be considered :— 1° Case in which whatever may be the intermittence
of the supply an average has been obtained sufficient for the year's
requirements; in this case it will only be necessary to fit up the par-
titions and employ regulating valves. 2° Case in which these supple-
mentary works are insufficient to the renewal of the reserve exhausted
by the old works; in this case recourse will be had to the wells for the
infiltration of the waters in the strata of the water-bearing basin. 3°
Case in which the old works completed as I have above stated do not

page_text: give the requisite quantity of water, that is to say, if it is desired to
increase the primitive supply, in this case it will be necessary firstly to
ascertain, as in new works, whether the hydrographic and water-bearing
basins will permit it, and then to extend the trenches and galleries so as
to submit a greater mass of water-bearing strata to their action, and
consequently barriers or dams, and infiltration wells, will be added in
sufficient number.