Year: 1872

EDITORS APPEAL-Will you allow me
to add a supplement to your article of
Sunday on the water-works, partly be-
cause L see some errors which, though
perhaps unimpOrtant, might give some
impressions that will be easier corrected
now than at q future time. The ques-
ton of pipe and machinery for filing
them, though of great interest and i'm
Qortance to the citizens Of Memphis, is
question purely mechanical and scien-
titic. The fact that both have been re-
peatedly done by the contracting parties,
that neither have ever failed to fulfill
their enterprises, and that the same class
Of machinery which is 10 be used here is
already III successful operation in over
thirty other cities and villages, together
with the fact that the Holly Company
and that of the city are identical, rem
ders it unnecessary either to anticipate
failure or imperfect success.


The real question is not whether the
water can be handled successfully, but
whether it can be got to handle. 1t is
this question which has, in a great man
ner, hindered the erection Of works be-
fore. Previous engineering surveys have
predicated the necessity of obtaining
W djGI uOUl uiNLdllb SOuItGSs dL jill GllOT-
nous cost. 1t is partly owing to the OBJ
tanning of water by different means, at
nearer points, having been successfully
accomplished In other places, and partly
to the superior advantages which the
Holly system affords, that a supply now
shows itself attainable at a cost of less
than quarter of previous estimates; a
fact which not only assures the supply
ing of necessity which seems to
stranger to have been unaccountably
leftundoneso long, which assures equally
a successful pecuniary Investment TO the
company and city and an ability to
place the water at the disposal of even
the poorest family, at q cost within their
reach. 1t is in the description of the
pumping works that some errors have
been made which may be best corrected
now-perhaps by q brief description of
them.


Underlying the site of the works is a
vast bed of sand and gravel, of un-
known extent, but evidently much
greater than can ever be called into use.
Here we have filter provided by ma
ture, proverbially prodigal in her gifts
to those who know how to use them.
The use of this great deposit of gravel
dilO StuU ~, UdbuFdl ulbtI doSuItb. bll6
city OF an ample supply of clear water,
Notwithstanding the discoloEatioB which
exists for 50 great part of the year in
the source from which it is taken.
When it is borne in mind that the Wolf
river, when discolored by rains, carries
but about one-fifteenth the amount Of
deposit that the Mississippi does, guam
tity for quantity, the reasons which
show clear water supply, so easily at
tainable, are more easily understood.


In a large building on the bluff is to
be placed machinery OF about double the
power indicated, which will show an
engineer more readily how so vast
quantity Of water as that indicated can
be moved. The forty-foot weD, which
is already described, is situated in this
building, and in 1t are placed the
gang Of lifting pumps, while by its
side are placed the great rotary
pumps, whose Office it is to raise
the pressure OF water to any desired
amount when required for fighting fire.
On the bank of Wolf river is placed the