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fillets plugged to the walls, and with narrow skirtings, as shown in the illustration. This arrangement involves the additional advantage that the floor under would have to be properly finished, and the walls would have to be plastered, cemented, or

finished with tiles, &c., to agree with the room. If this method of covering the apparatus is adopted, there will be found a further incidental gain, in that | the closet can be at once converted into a slop sink or urinal by throwing back the seat.

Some persons will object to the china pan, &c., being visible, but those who have not seen a closet fitted in this way will be surprised to find how little the apparatus shows. In a proper apparatus there is nothing visible that is really objectionable, and if the appearance of the white pan is disliked by some, it can be supplied by the makers printed with æsthetic designs to please the most exacting. Though, as one of the canons of good taste insists that all objects should be, above all things, appropriate to their use, there would seem to be little to object to in the clean white pan.

I give up the usual mahogany lid and frame entirely. It answers no useful purpose; it encumbers the closet and engenders in the minds of many an idea of safety which it cannot possibly satisfy.

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I have confined my remarks to the fittings necessary for a 'valve closet,' because those who wish to use a wash-out' apparatus can purchase a w.c. of this kind, which is already supplied by the makers with a seat hinged at back, and resting upon two iron corbels, and the pan of which is ornamented with the intention that it should be fixed independently of any other woodwork.

There are at least two w.c.'s in the market of the kind I refer to, namely, Doulton's 'Lambeth Combination Closet' and Twyford's Unitas Closet.' Both of these closets have front outlets, and those who desire to use 'wash-out' closets cannot do better than to inspect these goods before determining upon their purchase; although, personally, I deprecate very much the use of raised floral ornament upon the pans, as being decidedly out of place, and as giving a multitude of unnecessary surfaces for the retention of dust, &c.

So far I have spoken only of w.c.'s, as being the most important of sanitary fittings, but the same arguments will apply, with more or less force, to all others, and it would be easy to show, on some future

occasion, how the same principles may be applied to them.

The subject of my remarks may appear to be a trivial one, but a careful consideration will, I believe, show that it is only by serious attention to such small details, that anything like real perfection of sanitary work can be attained.

THE REGULATION OF THE SUPPLY OF WATER TO CITIES AND TOWNS.* By WILLIAM KEY,

Gas Engineer, Tradeston Gas Works, Glasgow.

THE subject of the more economical distribution of the water supply to cities and towns is admitted by all those who have given the problem any study to be one of the very highest importance, and it has afforded many engineers the opportunity of cracking one of the hardest nuts they have ever encountered in attemping to solve the difficulties pertaining to it.

The number of hydraulic engineers of experience who have made this problem a special study, and designed apparatus with the view of attaining by such means the object to be desired, and with results more or less successful, proves the general acknowledgment that some contrivance to be applied to the mains is necessary.

Such an instrument to be adequate must be selfacting, and receive the water from the main at its inlet, under great and ever-varying pressures, and shall pass the water on at a reduced, but more uniform pressure into the mains carrying it onwards.

The difficulty attending the regulation of water under heavy pressure in its passage along the mains, as compared with gas, is due chiefly to their physical differences as fluids, the gas being exceedingly elastic, while water is not.

Before I proceed to explain the design and action of the instrument, as shown by the diagram, which has been found to perform all the functions requisite for the perfect control and regulation of the flow of water, I will make a few remarks leading up to the reasons why such an instrument is necessary to the proper control and distribution of water.

Cities and towns are generally built on sites having within their boundaries districts differing greatly in level, and, when the water is led on, the elevated and low districts draw their supply from a source common to them both. Thus the pressure necessarily increases and accumulates excessively as it reaches the lower levels; and this is found to be the case more especially at night, when the consumption is least. Sometimes the pressure becomes double, or even more than treble, in the lower districts than what is actually required for an adequate supply in the higher districts.

A water supply distributed in this manner seldom gives unqualified satisfaction, for, whereas abundant pressure is found at the lower levels during the heavy withdrawing or consuming hours, the high levels too often have little or no water, or a supply and pressure adequate for their purposes only reaches them when the residents are preparing to go to rest for the night. The steady supply remains with them while they slumber, but with the early ringing of bells, sounding of horns, and blowing of whistles in the morning, the pressure steadily and surely disappears.

* Read at the meeting of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, December 19, 1884.

This is not as it ought to be, for in a residential district we all know what it means, when our most approved system of sanitation depends wholly on water carriage and a regular and abundant supply.

Therefore, the first aim when water has been brought within the limits of a city should be, how to distribute the precious fluid, so that all levels would have at all times a supply abundant for the many uses for which it is required.

I believe much more water is now used than formerly, in our city and suburbs, during the spring, summer, and autumn months for the purpose of laying dust, than which a more subtile and perfect carrier of disease would be difficult to find; also, great volumes are used daily through hose pipes to

This statement brings me to a question that now very naturally arises. Can a moderate supply of water be given to every customer under proper pressure, in such a way as to enable all to have a fair share without in any way disturbing existing property fixtures, or seriously desiring to restrict the volume of water used, and only as far as possible limiting the volume of water wasted?

It can, and to do so, our efforts toward an efficient distribution of water in cities, should only in the meantime tend to the stoppage of waste. And under this head, we are apt to ask, Does our system of charging for domestic water supply at so much per pound of rental conduce to negligence and waste?

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thoroughly scour back areas, &c., and probably this is at once the cheapest way of maintaining the health of a great city, as it is without doubt the quickest method of cleansing and getting rid of the impurities inseparable from city slums, areas, and closes.

We have now for all these and other purposes a weight of water delivered for each individual, equivalent to a consumption for every man, woman, and child within the area of supply of 500 pounds' weight of water daily; this being equal to a supply to each dwelling of a weight of our pure Loch Katrine water, delivered in the enormous quantity of over twenty-four cwts. daily.

We know it does; we observe it daily. A charge of so much per pound of rental per annum presents no inducement to save; so the habitually thrifty have to pay for their share and a proportion of the waste of those who are thoughtlessly careless of our glorious water supply.

There is no other commodity we know of that can be bought and sold in the same way; but then, you say, water is a necessity to our health and very existence, and ought to be free to all to use as they please. I might with as good argument and reason say gas light has also become a necessity to our very existence, and this argument carried with it con

siderable weight, and materially assisted in legalising the transfer of gas works to corporations.

Hence, as both the supply of gas and water are in the hands of the citizens, and as it costs to bring 1,000 cubic feet of gas, or 1,000 cubic feet of water within the reach of the customers-probably a sum very nearly alike—the rule by which the one is sold on a rate of so much per pound of rental, ought to stand equally good for the other. If it were so, there would still exist those who would use or waste from 100 to 800 times more than enough of either commodity, and still desire to pay no more than those who used their privileges with comfort and discretion, without waste or abuse.

This being the case, there is no disputing the fact that, if water was sold by meter for domestic supply-as gas is now sold-the result would be a greater esteem for the boon we enjoy in our Glasgow water, and there would be greater thrift and less waste. But the time has not yet arrived when the Legislature will be called upon to pass a 'Sale of Water Act,' although there is little doubt in the future the compulsory sale of water for domestic supply by meter will become law. Any arrangement of domestic water supply by meter, while certainly preventing waste, would require consumers to pay for the volume they had actually used. Such an arrangement although appearing equitable and right, we are in the meantime not quite prepared to take advantage of as a method of reducing waste. It would lead to endless trouble, it would conduce to neglect of proper cleanliness of the house, of the clothing, and of the person, together with a stinted use for private stairs and courts. Thus the consumers willing to pay for being comfortably clean, both in person and surroundings, would be affected by neighbours who stinted their use of water, and would be endangered by risks of epidemics from the proximity of the uncleanly. Our sanitary authorities would have more trouble, and the extra expense of examining and cleaning many more places of the city than presently visited, together with the risk of an epidemic which no estimate could ever value, would entirely outweigh all the saving to be effected by a supply of water for domestic purposes by meter.

Thus, I conclude, that the volume of water should not be stinted, but it ought to be so controlled or governed, that the pressure in a given district during any hour of the twenty-four should be no higher than what has been found to be quite adequate during the hours of greatest consumption in that district. To accomplish this, streets and districts would have the supply governed by the fixing of a contrivance for the purpose, and which must be self-acting. And the leading main pipes would carry forward the high pressure to the high districts.

A section of the apparatus employed is shown in the diagram on page 506. It is entirely self-acting, and comprises a valve chamber provided with an inlet and outlet pipe, and having a dividing web or partition fitted with or forming a seat or casing for an open annular equilibrium valve, through which the water passes, the arrangement being actuated by the pressure of water on a piston, connected directly to the valve. The piston is weighted to balance the internal pressure on it, and to correspond to the maximum pressure at which it is intended the valve should remain open, and allow the water to pass freely. When the pressure of the water is greater

than and overcomes the opposing weight on the piston, the valve rises, and is partially closed, and the supply of water passing through the valve is diminished; and when the water pressure is less than, and is overcome by the opposing weight on the piston, the valve opens, so that a greater supply passes through it. The piston is open directly to the discharge side of the valve, and can be so loaded or regulated as to correspond exactly with the rate of consumption.

Next to the fact of the instrument being a most satisfactory controller of water supply, the important feature of the design is that, should the pressure from any cause on the inlet side of the valve fall below what the outlet had been set for to be maintained, the valve immediately falls full open, allowing all the water coming forward to pass full bore through the valve, and remains so until the outlet pressure rises higher than the valve was set for, when the extra pressure acting on the piston at once raises the valve, and cuts off from the outlet side the excess of pressure above what it was originally set to maintain; or, generally, when the pressure on the outlet is sufficient to overcome the load by acting on the piston, the equilibrium tubular valve is raised and shuts off the water, falling again, and allowing the water to pass whenever the outlet pressure falls below the point the governor was set to maintain.

I do not claim for this valve any of the offices of a stop-cock, or to govern a supply to be counted by drops. An essential feature of the valve is that the main leading from the valve is constantly kept charged with water, and, when shut, leaks sufficiently to maintain the outlet pressure that may be desired. It is extremely simple. The moving equilibrium annular valve gives neither wear nor tear in its action. It is compact, and adaptable to any situation. Once set, it requires no further attention. It is durable. It cannot go out of order. The exceedingly small range of travel of the piston in order to give full area of the connecting pipes gives very tile tear and wear of the cup leather, and this is helped by the piston cylinder being lined with brass. An almost equable pressure would be maintained over the whole city. A better supply would be given to residences and factories situated at the high levels. All excess of pressure above what is found to be effective and sufficient during day for the streets and districts governed would be held back and concentrated in the leading mains through every locality. This would be a great advantage for purposes of extinguishing fire: the entire pressure would be concentrated in the high-pressure mains, and available for hose-pipes. The adoption of this system would constitute a

constant service' in

every meaning of the word, the present so-called constant system being more intermittent than constant, as the pressures in the mains vary every hour of the day. And in many cities the large volume of water that would be saved would not make so urgent contemplated new works which are presently absolutely necessary, to keep up existing leakage, and the looking out for additional sources of supply would be indefinitely postponed.

Before concluding I shall quote the opinion of the engineer for the Loch Katrine water supply, Mr. Bateman, in his report. On June 6, 1860, three months after the introduction of Loch Katrine water, Mr. Bateman made the following report. I must draw attention to the present consumption of water, which is increasing so rapidly as to be

really alarming, and quite warrants the apprehensions I felt, and the pains I took to guard against it, when writing my report on the city piping, 1858. Referring then to the habits of waste which existed, and to the imperfect state of the fittings, I observed that should the same state of things continue under a constant supply, and at high pressure, the waste would be enormous, and even Loch Katrine would be found inadequate to meet it.'

At the same time I wrote this the consumption on the north side of the river was little under 13,000,000 gallons a day. In November last, eighteen months later, it had increased to 14,000,000, and in the beginning of March of this year, after the whole city on this side was supplied with the Loch Katrine water, it was 15,000,000 gallons per day. It has gone on increasing since then, till it now amounts to 18,000,000 gallons per day, being an increase of 3,000,000 gallons per day in three months. The consumption by the city was measured at the Mugdock reservoir every hour for twenty-four hours consecutively in the beginning of this week. The greatest draught is about one o'clock in the day, when it is at the rate of 22,000,000 gallons a day, and the least at two o'clock in the morning, when it amounts to 14,000,000. At this time of the night nearly the whole of this quantity must be wasted. The total consumption of the city from Loch Katrine and Gorbals together is 22,000,000 gallons a day, being at the rate of 50 gallons per head, and just twice, in gross quantity, as much as Manchester and Salford take for a larger population.

Upon this statement Mr. Gale, the resident engineer, was instructed to institute such an examination as would lead to the discovery of the cause of the excessive waste of water. He found that, from badly-constructed and leaky taps alone the waste amounted to 7,200,000 gallons per day, equal to 20 gallons per head, the value of which, if sold for trade purposes, would have been about 50,000l. per

annum.

I may add that since the date of that report, fourteen years ago, the consumption has nearly doubled, having increased from 22,000,000 gallons per day to 40,000,000 gallons per day at the present time. This gives a consumption for all purposes still of 50 gallons per head of population, the population supplied by water being as nearly as possible 796,000. Of this 40,000,000 gallons per day, 36 gallons per head is accounted for as used or misused for domestic supply, and 14 gallons per head per day as used for trade purposes, making up the 50 gallons per head per day. So that, although means have been and are constantly being employed to reduce the waste, there is every reason to conjecture that there is still over the whole area of supply a waste of 20 gallons per head per day, or, say, 15,000,000 gallons wasted daily, being a volume equivalent to the total daily supply of water from Loch Katrine to the north side of the city during the first year of its introduction.

Mr. Gale, the Glasgow Waterworks engineer, is performing a great and valuable necessary work at the present time in subdividing the city into districts for the purpose of approximately ascertaining the leakage during the hours of night, by fixing waste-water meters in these districts.

The information thus obtained forms a guide in the searching for the cause of excessive waste, but is of itself incomplete; the ascertained fact saves none of the water from being run to waste, whereas

by fixing one of these pressure reducers there would immediately be saved a considerable volume of water. And as the expense of opening the street and breaking the water-main, and of fixing both a waste-water meter and a waste-water preventer, would be little more than the fixing of either separately, I would suggest that this be done, and when the leakage had been ascertained by the governor being put out of action, then, by relieving the load from the piston, and regulating the pressure to what may be desirable, a test would at once show what volume of the loss had been recovered by the use of this instrument.

I have every confidence that the result will be very encouraging, and if the whole city be arranged as I have suggested, the ratepayers would get a very good thing. If only one fourth of the loss by leakage would be recovered, this would be equivalent to a saving of water at trade rates of the value of 25,000/ per annum.

Cities supplied at present under the intermittent system could now be put under a constant supply, the only drawback to the old-fashioned so-called constant system having by this invention been removed, as the pressures would now practically remain a constant.

Burst pipes, loss of water, and destruction to property thereby would be unknown.

A city fitted up completely in districts governed by this apparatus would have a complete set of pressure escape valves; the pistons yielding would exhaust the force of any concussion.

These instruments are admirably adapted to serve in place of break-pressure lodges along line of pipe from reservoirs to place of consumption, and if put in in duplicate for this purpose, will only cost about one-tenth of the expense for a service reservoir.

The makers of Key's Patent Pressure Reducing Valves are Messrs. the Glenfield Company, Limited, Kilmarnock.

engineer of the Glasgow Waterworks has placed one [Since this paper was read we understand that the of Mr. Key's governors on a district of 2,100 inhabitants. The results are recorded by a meter. The readings will be resumed after the holidays, and so far as ascertained the saving of water both by day and night is considerable, and the inventor's claims have been more than realised.—Ed.]

NATIONAL HEALTH SOCIETY.-Mrs. Priestley has kindly consented to deliver a lecture for this society at the Parkes Museum, Margaret Street, on Thursday, the 22nd inst., at 4 o'clock P. M. The subject of the lecture will be House Sanitation, and the title Unseen Dangers in the House.' We are glad to know that the National Health Society is endeavouring to instruct women in this very essential branch of domestic education. To the mistresses of homes and families such knowledge is most important.

LIABILITY OF LODGING-HOUSE KEEPERS. -An inte resting point has been decided by the Eastbourne magistrates. A mechanic, who arrived in the town, took up his abode at a common lodging-house, where he died somewhat suddenly. The mother of the deceased, not having the means to meet the cost of the burial, brought the matter before the magistrates. The Eastbourne guardians declined to interfere on the ground that lodging-house keepers were responsible for the decent interment of a lodger dying under such circumstances. The lodging-house keeper disputed his liability, but the magistrates decided that the funeral should be carried out at his expense,

PENNY DINNERS FOR POOR SCHOOL CHILDREN AND COOKING DEPOTS

AT GATESHEAD.

By FRANCES JOHNSON.

[All rights reserved.]

THE better housing of the poor is a problem apparently as far from solution as ever, but the better and cheaper feeding of the poor-a question of equal importance has been satisfactorily dealt with by the Rector of Gateshead. He finds it possible to dine children well for a penny per head, and can give a man an excellent and nutritious dinner for twopence, the profit in both cases being more than sufficient to meet the cost of labour and fuel.

Seven months' experience in providing penny dinners at St. Mary's National School, Gateshead, has proved that it is not necessary to have a large number of children dining in order to make the scheme self-supporting. During the month of August the average daily attendance was not above fifty, yet the average profit was a shilling a day, being more than was needed to pay for labour and

gas.

The cooking-apparatus, specially devised by the rector for the purpose of economising labour and fuel, is a cylinder-shaped upright boiler, taking up very little room. The sides and lid are coated with a non-conducting material, so that nearly all the heat is retained, and it is possible to cook for two hundred children at an expenditure of not more than fourpence or fivepence in gas. Very little labour is required. The cooker being a sort of huge Warren's | pot a boiler within a boiler-the food cannot be burnt, and once placed in the apparatus, it may be left to take care of itself. The continual watching and stirring and attention to the fire that is needed in cooking with the ordinary boiler is saved. Most food is improved by being cooked very slowly; the use of the inner tin insures this. Where rapid boiling is necessary, as in the case of puddings, the inner tin is removed. The cooking is done by two of Fletcher's atmospheric gas-burners.

The Board Schools throughout Gateshead have adopted the scheme, and are working on exactly the same lines as St. Mary's Schools, with perfect success. They use Mr. Moore-Ede's cookingapparatus, which takes up so little room that in several cases a disused coal-cellar has been converted into an admirable little kitchen, quite large enough for the cooker, the cook, and all culinary operations. The dinner being served in the schools, there is no rent to pay either for dining-room or kitchen. The teachers take it in turn-one from each department-to attend at dinner, to keep order and assist—not a very arduous duty. It is seldom that the same teacher is called upon oftener than once a week. The only voluntary helper is one lady for each school to order the dinner, check the stores, and keep accounts. The scheme is worked entirely by the school staff, thus avoiding that irregularity which so often attends work dependent on outside voluntary helpers. Only children of widows, or those whose parents are out of work or on short time, are allowed to dine at school. These are very inadequately fed at home, and are thankful to secure a good mid-day meal for a penny. The scheme has enabled the Relief Committee at once to grapple

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with the distress-so far as the children are concerned-which at present exists in Gateshead. The teachers and School Board officers know the number of destitute children, whose parents are quite unable to feed them at home or provide a penny for the school dinner, and the Relief Committee issue weekly to each school the number of dinner-tickets needed. In this month of December 1,200 free dinners are allowed daily.

The effect of good food soon shows itself in the children both physically and mentally. From being white. listless, and dispirited, and slow at their schoolwork, they become bright, vigorous, alert, both in mind and body, and so full of spirits tha their teachers sometimes threaten laughingly to 'dock their dinner allowance.'

Undoubtedly the scheme is also a strong civil. ising and humanising agency. The neatly-laid tables, the white cloths, the shining pewter spoons and mugs, have already brought about a more decent mode of eating and better manners generally. The lad who used to eat the 'figgiest' bit of his own pudding and then force the rest on to a smaller boy's plate, sending up his own for a fresh supply, understands now that it is unfair, and 'bad manners.' It is no longer considered the thing to throw bones, fat, and other rejected morsels under the table, or deposit them surreptitiously on your neighbour's plate. boy who is caught in the act is immediately pounced upon by the next lad, and held up to scorn as' a chap as knows no better nor chuck his bones under the table. The children are evidently ambitious to behave well, and pleased to be taught.

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The dinners are also a humanising agency. Formerly many of the children, especially the bigger lads, would rush home famishing after the morning school work, ravenous as young wolves. There would be a fight for the largest share of the insufficient meal, and they would be driven out again by the worried mother with their hunch of bread, and a scolding or a blow for being so hungry. The bettertempered ones would try to forget their unsatisfied cravings in play, but others would prowl about in a sullen, half-famished condition, ready to snatch the bread from a younger child, or do anything for food. It was a terribly hardening process.

These lads first came to the dinners looking anxious, watchful, distrustful-ready to fight for their share if necessary. When they at last realised that each would be helped fairly in his turn, and might have as much as he could eat, they became altogether different boys, so softened and humanised. They flock in now, smiling and confident, tuck their little bare feet safely out of harm's way under the forms, and speculate in delighted whispers as to what there will be for dinner, and how many helpings they think they can manage. Relieved from the one passionate absorbing anxiety as to whether he will get enough to eat, the boy is no longer the mere hungry animal full of selfish ways and fears; he develops into the human social being, with a kindly interest in his fellows, alive to anything humorous that is going on, and, better still, alive to the wants of others. The penny-dinner scheme is of enormous value to children who are inadequately fed and cared for at home. They are benefited physically, mentally, socially, and morally, and assuredly their lot is brightened. The comfortable dinner-table, the warm appetising food, the unstinted helpings, accompanied by kind words, and occasionally a little quiet fun-these do certainly make one

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