From the service reservoir the water is conveyed by one or more main pipes into the district of supply. These pipes are gradually reduced in diameter as they pass through the district, the water which they convey is taken off by other main pipes branching from them, and finally enters the service pipes, which are usually from five inches to three inches diameter, and are those from which the consumers' communication pipes are taken. The service pipes should in all cases be controlled by valves, so that the water can be shut off from them without interfering with the flow through the main pipes. Consumers' communication pipes are not generally allowed to be attached to pipes of greater diameter than five inches, and where a pipe of six inches diameter and upwards is carried along street, another pipe of three or four inches diameter (preferably the latter size), and called a ryder pipe, is laid alongside to receive the attachments of the communication pipes. The ryder pipe is divided into lengths of from 350 to 400 yards, each of which is controlled by a valve at its junction with the main pipe. Hydrants for use in case of fire are attached to the ryder and other service pipes throughout the district at a distance apart not exceeding 100 yards. Except in streets where the houses are small and not high, it is desirable to lay the service pipes of not less than four inches diameter, not because a smaller pipe would not suffice to meet the requirements of the domestic consumers, but in order to ensure an ample supply of water in case of fire. When determining the sizes of the main pipes to be laid throughout a town, the engineer commences with the pipes most remote from the service reservoir, and gradually increases the diameter according to the probable number and magnitude of the supplies to be taken from them. Pipes of cast iron having sockets run with lead and set up with a hammer are mostly used for waterworks purposes, but in some instances turned and bored joints put together without lead have been used with success, but these are only suitable where there is an unyielding foundation. I remember a case in Yorkshire, where turned and bored pipes were, much against the advice of the engineer, used for the distribution of gas in a colliery district, with the result that in a few years nearly every joint was leaking; fortunately the engineer had anticipated that result, and had laid the pipes with sockets in addition to the turned and bored joints; consequently, by opening the ground at each joint and running the joint with lead, the leakage was stopped without necessitating the relaying of the system of pipes. The main pipe of forty-four inches diameter, conveying water from Rivington to Liverpool, passes for several miles over a coalfield, and the ground has in places subsided over the coal workings as much as four feet without interfering with the supply of water; the ground having been opened at the pipe joints, the lead, which had been partially drawn from the joints, was forced back by hammering, and the joint was again made sound. In some countries, where the cold is intense, water pipes have to be laid at a depth of from 10 feet to 12 feet below the surface of the ground to protect the water from frost, but in the United Kingdom a depth of from 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet has been found to be sufficient even in very severe frosts. Water, especially when soft, causes the interior of cast-iron pipes to become incrusted with nodules of iron, which reduce the effective diameter of the pipe and so diminish its capacity. This action is greatly retarded and in some instances entirely prevented by the application to the pipes, soon after they have been cast, of the coating introduced many years ago by the late Dr. Angus Smith, a process now nearly always employed. It was at Southport that I witnessed the bursting of a main pipe, the only occurrence of the kind that I have seen during a period of forty years, of which a considerable portion has been spent amongst waterworks. Owing to the introduction of a new supply of water, the original main pipe was charged with water at a higher pressure than it had been intended to bear, with the result that several fractures occurred. I happened to be standing on one of the roads at a little distance from the town when I heard a sound, and looking in the direction whence it came, saw in a field near by a black column rise vertically in the air for about forty feet in height. A girl who happened to be working in the field put her hands to her ears and fled, probably thinking she had seen Satan himself, but the column soon became clear, the black colour having been caused by the peat carried up with the water. Having traced the water from its source to the door of the consumer, we now enter into another branch of the subject. Up to this point the water has been entirely under the control of the company or local authority by whom it is provided, but from the moment it enters the consumer's communication pipe, or where the communication pipe is the property of the water supplier, from the moment the water reaches the premises of the consumer, it comes under his control, subject only to such regulations and surpervision as the Legislature has given the water supplier power to make and to exercise. When water was supplied on the now almost obsolete intermittent service,' under which a town was divided into a number of districts into each of which in succession the water was turned for only one or two hours a day, the water suppliers paid but little attention to the fittings within the houses of the consumers, because, however great the quantity of water wasted through defective fittings, the waste could only last for the short time during which the water was turned on in each district, and it ceased altogether during the night. About the year 1831 the system of 'constant service,' by which is meant a supply of water available from the pipes of the water suppliers at any moment throughout the day or night, was introduced into this country by the late Mr. Thomas Hawksley, at Nottingham, and it soon became evident that if a constant service was to be maintained the fittings within the houses of the consumers must be adapted to the new conditions and be placed under regulation and supervision. Suitable regulations were therefore formulated, and have since been improved and modified to meet modern requirements. These regulations, which are mainly directed to the use of proper pipes, taps and other fittings, and to service cisterns so constructed as to prevent a continuous flow and consequent waste of water, do not in any way limit the use of water by a consumer, who is at liberty to take as much as he requires whether by day or by night, nor does their strict enforcement inflict any hardship on the consumer, to whom good water fittings kept in a proper state of repair are in the end more economical than cheaper and inferior fittings requiring the frequent attendance of the plumber. About five years ago, I had occasion to obtain statistics relating to the consumption of water in sixteen towns (including Southport) in England, containing an aggregate population within the district supplied of rather over five millions of people, and found that the average quantity of water consumed in those towns for domestic purposes was 181 gallons per head per diem, showing what can be effected by good management and a careful observance of proper regulations for the prevention of waste without imposing any restriction on the quantity of water legitimately used. The figures which I have quoted as water for domestic purposes include the unmetered trade supplies and that comparatively small amount of waste which cannot be prevented, but do not include the water supplied by meter for trade purposes, the amount of which varies greatly in different towns, but being paid for by the consumer according to the quantity used may be disregarded when comparing the management of waterworks undertakings. Some soft waters, more especially those derived from moorlands, have an injuricus action on lead pipes and lead-lined cisterns, and are liable to cause lead poisoning in sensitive persons drinking the water, but this action is now commonly prevented by bringing the water into contact with lime before distribution. In certain instances of public supplies, the hardness of the water is reduced by one of the several softening processes now in use, but it more frequently happens that the softening is effected by those consumers who require soft water for boiler or other trade purposes. A few words with regard to the water supply of the town in which the Meeting of the British Association is now being held may not be out of place, the more especially when it is borne in mind that the rapid growth of its population during the last half century could not have taken place but for the introduction of a supply of good water. The Southport Waterworks Company, by whom water was originally brought to Southport, was established under the authority of an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1854. Water was first obtained from a well sunk at Scarisbrick, about five miles south-east of Southport, a source which was practically superseded by another well which was a few years later sunk at the Aughton pumping station near Ormskirk. As the population to be supplied increased in numbers, the Company subsequently sunk a third well, and constructed the still larger Springfield pumping station near Town Green, about nine miles south-east of Southport, and it is from the Aughton and Springfield wells, both sunk into the Bunter Beds of the New Red Sandstone formation, that the present excellent supply of water is derived. At each pumping station the water is raised by a pair of beam rotative steam-engines into two covered service reservoirs situate on the summit of Gorse Hill, near Ormskirk, at an elevation of 260 feet above ordnance datum, or in other words, above the mean level of the sea. From this reservoir the water is brought through two main pipes to Southport and Birkdale, which places have from the commencement of the undertaking had the advantage of a constant service. The late Mr. Thomas Hawksley acted as engineer to the company from its formation until his death in 1893, and I subsequently acted in that capacity until the transfer, under the powers of the Southport Water (Transfer) Act, 1901, of the undertaking of the company to the Southport, Birkdale, and West Lancashire Water Board, consisting of representatives of the Corporation of Southport, the Urban District Council of Birkdale, and the Rural District Council of West Lancashire. The advances in recent years in chemical science, and the application of the science of bacteriology to the examination of water, have led to the condemnation of waters which a few years ago would have been deemed to be perfectly suitable for a town supply. Whilst fully appreciating the advantages to be derived from the most careful examination of water supplied for domestic consumption, I cannot but think that we are sometimes unnecessarily alarmed by the results obtained. Taking a broad view of the subject, and looking to the healthy condition of towns which have for many years been supplied with water from sources now regarded with suspicion, I venture to think that the teachings of chemistry and bacteriology are as yet but imperfectly understood, and that in the future it will be found that some waters now considered of doubtful character are perfectly good and wholesome. I am well aware that the expression of these views may call forth the indignation of some of my friends amongst eminent chemists and bacteriologists to whose opinions on such subjects I feel bound to pay deference. A Royal Commission has recently recommended that a Government department be established and endowed with enormous powers of interference with the action and discretion of the bodies entrusted by Parliament with the responsibility of the administration of water supplies, and it behoves those bodies to give careful consideration to that recommendation, and to take such steps as may be necessary to check any attempt to give effect to a proposal which may result in committing them to the carrying out of unreasonable requirements, possibly involving needless expenditure, at the bidding of a Department from whose dictum they may have no appeal. Although a matter only indirectly connected with water supply, I think it may be of scientific interest to this Section to have brought to their notice the case of the River Rede in Northumberland, which takes its rise in the Cheviots. At a place called Catcleugh, about four miles below the source of the Rede, its waters are diverted by the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company for the supply of their district. The gathering-ground above the point of diversion is about 10,000 acres in extent, and the quantity of water taken is ascertained by means of a gauge, and registered continuously by a recording instrument. An inspection of the diagrams taken during periods in which there was no rainfall shows a daily variation in the volume of water flowing down the river. For example, during a period of eight days (June 9 to 16, 1899) without interruption by rain, the gradual rise and fall of the river was almost regular, day by day, the maximum flow occurring about 9 A.M., and the minimum about 9 P.M., the difference between the two amounting to nearly 10 per cent, of the total quantity passing down the river at the time of minimum flow. Various suggestions as to the cause of this phenomenon have been made, but I am unable to give any satisfactory explanation. It occurs in winter as well as in summer, and may take place daily throughout the year, though it cannot be observed except during dry periods. It may well be that a similar phenomenon occurs in other rivers, but has escaped observation owing to the absence of recording gauges. The following Papers were read: 1. King Edward VII. Bridge over the River Thames between Brentford and Kew. By CUTHBERT A. BRERETON, M.Inst.C.E. 2. Illustrations of Graphical Analysis. By J. HARRISON. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. The following Papers and Report were read : 1. The Equipment of the Manchester Municipal Technical Institute. By J. H. REYNOLDS. 2. Report of the Committee on the Resistance of Road Vehicles 3. Improvements in Locomobile Design. By T. CLARKSON, 4. The Problem of Modern Street Traffic. By Lieut. Col. CROMPTON, C.B. The author points out that this is the question of the day, that the roadways in large cities are increasingly congested in spite of relief being given by shallow and deep underground railways, by great extensions of tramways, and by much costly widening and straightening of winding streets. Heroic proposals are made to cut wide thoroughfares through London-in fact to Haussmannise London. A Royal Commission is sitting to investigate the whole question of the communications of London. The paper does not discuss these larger schemes, but draws attention to the great extent by which traffic regulation would ameliorate matters. The author suggests the formation in every large town of a traffic department, possibly under the control of the head of the police. This traffic department should be empowered to make rules for regulation of traffic and for diverting the heavy traffic out of main thoroughfares into side streets; and would be the expert authority to deal with all traffic, rail and trade, proposals coming before Parliament or the county councils. Chief cause of the congestion of traffic is the mixed nature and varying speeds at which it is carried. Fast and slow traffic ought to proceed in different streets. The proposed traffic department would, in the case of London, require increased powers being given to the police; hence the careful consideration and sanction of Parliament; and this will take time. Some of our large towns have already obtained in their private Bills considerable powers for dealing with street traffic. Nottingham, for instance, has taken up the matter of regulating the heavy traffic. It is believed that the present paper may be of use to those dealing with traffic matters. In ideal conditions of traffic the lines of vehicles are all parallel to the kerb, and under favourable conditions, with vehicles of approximately the same speed, the streets have an enormously increased capacity. The extent of this is shown by a table in which the ordinary London omnibus is taken as a typical vehicle. The table shows the number of passengers that can be carried by fully loaded omnibuses past a given point per hour at various speeds and with various intervals between the omnibuses. This table is prepared from the following formula:Where V is the speed of the omnibuses in miles per hour, and Then D the interval between the omnibuses in feet. S the time-interval in seconds. N the number of passengers. N=137,280 V/D S=D/V. 681 A very useful regulation would be one dealing with stopping vehicles, defining in certain thoroughfares the time which vehicles may be allowed to stop. It is suggested that a great many goods which are required for the regular supply of a neighbourhood may be delivered between certain hours, other than those when traffic is usually most congested. Great relief would be given to traffic by the removal of stopping vehicles altogether from the streets. This could be effected by some modification of the court and porte-cochère system so largely used in continental cities. In this case many offices or places of business could open into one court into which visiting vehicles would draw out of the public thoroughfare. A much larger proportion of the message and business visiting of our large towns could be carried on bicycles (which is probably the vehicle most economical of space of those which use the roadway) if facilities could be given for storing them near the places of business. This could be arranged in the proposed courts. Motor vehicles also could be stored in sub-basements by the use of lifts, and in this way a considerable proportion of the vehicles bringing passengers into the business quarter in the morning could be stored there all day and thus avoid the necessity of a daily double empty journey. Relief can also be given to traffic by regulations as to returning empty carriages. These, in many cases, need not return by the most direct and busiest routes. The author points out that one great cause of congestion is due to cross traffic carried on the same level. Sir John Wolfe Barry has suggested bridging our main thoroughfares and carrying cross traffic over or under them. The successful widening experiment at Hyde Park Corner has shown, however, that if considerable widening is carried out at crossings-in fact, if something like Regent and Oxford Circus were introduced at each important crossing-great relief would be given to traffic. The widening of both the main street and the cross street for a certain distance on each side of the crossing is probably the most economical and efficient way of increasing the capacity of a street for any given expenditure of money. Next comes the speed question. Most of the attempts to deal with modern traffic have been unsuccessful in decreasing the time required to get from one part of the town to another. Electric tramways, from which much was hoped, practically do not exceed the old omnibus speed of seven miles an hour. A good deal is to be hoped from automobiles, especially electric automobiles. These vehicles can be run through traffic at 50 per cent. greater speed than horse-drawn vehicles. It is to be noticed that speed is desirable as for a given amount of traffic the number of vehicles required to carry it is inversely proportional to the |