HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Book I.

5-48

then called, to the top of the tower, 120 feet high, and in this condition the works remaineduntil the parliamentary inquiry of 1821, when it appeared that 29,516,333 hogsheads ofwater per annum was supplied to 32,071 houses, which paid a rental for the same ofS5,358/.

Smeaton also erected an atmospheric engine of ten horse-power to assist the wheels atneap tides.

It is greatly to be regretted that no arrangement was then or has since been madeby the proprietors of small tenements for supplying their tenants with water ; there is anatural objection on their parts to pay the usual demand of the companies, which tothem would be a considerable item ; but if it were rendered imperative that every smalldwelling should be supplied, there can be little doubt that the companies would lessen theircharge, and the landlord would be indemnified by an increased rent of a few shillings,which would not l>e felt by the occupants ; and efficient drainage for the surplus shouldalso be provided. The increasing luxuries of the middle classes require this attention tothe necessities of those who compose the next grade in the social system, and it is surelynot too much to ask for them the means by which the first claim to personal respect,cleanliness, can be secured, and without which frequently the intellectual and moral healthis ruined.

Minor works were established during the seventeenth century for the supply of variousdistricts : the Merchants’ Waterworks had a windmill in Tottenham Court Fields, an over-shot wheel worked by the common sewers in St. Martin’s Lane, and another by that inHartshorn Lane. Each of these had 6-inch mains, from which smaller pipes branched off’tothe neighbouring houses.

At Shadwell, a horse-wheel was put up in the year 1660, and two atmospheric engineswere subsequently erected, which drew water from the Thames , and supplied it to theinhabitants of that district through two mains of 6 inches in diameter. To the originalprojector succeeded a company, which was incorporated in the reign of William and Mary .Two of the earliest manufactured engines by Bolton and Watt weie put up at these worksand in the year 1808 they were purchased by the East London Company.

The York Buildings Water-works were established at the bottom of Villiers Street, inthe Strand, in the year 1691. A horse-wheel was first employed to pump up the waterfrom the Thames ; one of Savory’s engines was afterwards introduced, for which one ofNewcomen’s was substituted. About 1804, the company erected an engine of 70 horsepower, took up all the wooden pipes that had been previously used for the distribution ofwater, and laid down east-iron. Newcomen’s engine is said to have raised daily 356,000gallons to a height of 102 feet, or 3,137,000 barrels per annum.

West Ham Works, established in the year 1743, obtained their water from the river Leaby means of a fire-engine of 6 horse power; they now form a portion of the East London.

The Banks-eud Works, in Southwark, or Old Borough water-works, were founded inthe year 1756; and when London Bridge was rebuilt were purchased hv Mr. Edwards,and became the foundation of the present Southwark Water Company. Other works wereestablished at Rotherhithe, where a wheel was turned by the tide water collected in theditches, and at Lea Bridge, which were called the Hackney water-works.

The Lambeth Water-works were established in 1785, and in 1805 the South London were commenced.

At present the metropolis is chiefly supplied with water by the New River, theChelsea, the Grand Junction , the West Middlesex, the Southwark, and the East LondonWater Companies. The power made use of is universally the steam-engine ; and if we con-sider what is effected by the most economical of these engines, we shall not be surprisedat the quantity daily distributed in London . Taylor’s engine at the United Mines is saidto have raised, in 1841, 92,500,000 pounds weight of water 1 foot high by each bushel ofcoal consumed, and in the following year nearly 100,000,000. The bushel of coals weighed94 pounds, so that a pound of coal raised 1,000,000 of pounds or 16,000 cubic feet ofwater, 1 foot high. It would require either a man to labour 4^ hours or a horse ^ of anhour to perform the same quantity of work as a pound of coal so applied.

The A ~ew River Company is now the oldest remaining in the metropolis; to it was trans-ferred by an act of parliament the London Bridge water-works, when the old bridge wasdemolished. This work, projected and carried out by one individual, Sir Hugh Middleton,as before observed, was commenced by an open canal 40 miles in length, into which wascollected various springs which rise near Ware and Amwell, in Hertfordshire . The dis-tance of these springs from the metropolis is not more than 20 miles in a straight direction,but the circuitous way by which they are conducted was preferred in order to obtain afall of 3 inches per mile throughout their whole course.

The timber aqueduct over the valley at Bush Hill, 660 feet in length, was removed inthe year 1785, and an earthen embankment substituted in lieu of it ; the same change hastaken place with the open wooden trough at Hornsey and other places. After the waterhas arrived at Stoke Newington, it is conducted for more than 200 yards by a subter-