ADDITIONAL NOTES ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES. 231
wooden pipes, about 400 miles in extent ; but every year, from one cause or
another, it became necessary to take up such as were injured or defective, and lay
down new ones, amounting to an average of twenty miles, so that in the course
of twenty years the whole range was entirely removed."
Then the bore of the wooden pipes varied for the most part
from three to six and seven inches, though a few near the
reservoirs might be ten or twelve inches. This small size
obliged the use of several lines of these pipes to afford a supply
of water to places at a considerable distance from the reservoirs.
Thus we learn, p. 67 :—
" In 1810 nine trains were laid, side by side, along one street ; and as various
causes produced fractures which permitted the water to escape, when an accident
of this kind occurred, it was often very difficult to ascertain the line that
contained the broken pipe, or the precise place where the injury was sustained.
Hence it sometimes happened that a leakage from a single pipe occasioned the
examination of a great length of the whole range, so that it occupied the labour
of weeks before the defect could be discovered. Besides, during the progress of
these operations, the usual supply of water being interrupted, it generally gave
rise to serious complaints. Instances have occurred of two or three hundred
yards of a street being taken up, and several weeks elapsing before the workmen
could discover the leaking place ; which, exclusive of the loss of water, and every
other consideration, occasioned an expense of £30 or £40 to the company. The
quantity of water lost by fractures, &c., was estimated at about one-fourth of the
whole that entered them from the reservoirs."
Hence, also, when a good supply of water was needed to
extinguish a fire, it was seldom obtainable from wooden pipes.
Our author is inclined to think that the introduction of iron
pipes for gas-lighting probably led to their general adoption for
water supply, though they had previously been used, to a very
limited extent, for carrying water. As to the dates at which
they came into general use, we are told (p. 68) :—
" Although previous to the year 1810 the New River Company had placed
in the earth wooden pipes, several hundreds of miles in length, yet during that
period and 1820 the whole were taken up, and others, made of iron, substituted
through the entire range of their district."
This change was "a very costly one, but our author remarks
that the greater strength and durability of iron pipes will cause
them seldom to require either change or repair ; and the
disturbance of the streets, caused by the use of wooden pipes,
be very greatly lessened. Thus, much annual expense will be
saved by the Water Company, and much inconvenience and
annoyance be escaped by the public.
It appears that the engineer of the Grand Junction Water
Works thought highly of stone pipes. They were adopted,