The Thirlmere water scheme of the Manchester Corporation : with a few remarks on the Longdendale Works, and water-supply generally / [James Mansergh].

  • Mansergh, James
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Thirlmere water scheme of the Manchester Corporation : with a few remarks on the Longdendale Works, and water-supply generally / [James Mansergh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was stoutly opposed by parties interested in the river Etherow, which is a stream that does not pass through Manchester, but further to the east, through the town of Stockport, and the result of that opposition was that the Corporation were obliged to apply to Parliament in the following session for powers to secure an extension of the gathering- ground area, and to construct additional reservoirs. Compensation Water. The quantity ultimately fixed upon for discharge into the river— technically described as “compensation” water—was something over 17,000,000 gallons a day. This quantity was afterwards reduced to 13,600,000 gallons per day by purchase from the millowners. After delivering this quantity, the Corporation were then at liberty to take to Manchester all the rest of the water that they could obtain from the watershed by the works authorised under their several Acts. * This “ compensation ” water is passed into the river Etherow below the Bottoms Reservoir, and is measured by passing through suitable orifices; and the millowners are further enabled to check the quantity by means of large chambers of known capacity, into which, by means of simple apparatus, the water can be turned, and the time they take to fill accurately registered. Discharge-Pipe. The discharge-pipe from the bottom of a reservoir is one of its most important details. In many of the early works this pipe was laid right through the deepest part of the bank, just as a water-pipe is laid in a street, bare and unprotected. This, no doubt, was a very faulty mode of construction, and gave rise to leakages and subsidences, and in some cases to the total failure and destruction of reservoirs. Now the approved plan is to drive a tunnel in the solid ground round one end of the embankment, and to lay the discharge-pipes in it, passing them through a watertight “ bulkhead ” or “ stop ” in the tunnel, and commanding them by means of valves and proper gearing. Precautions have, of course, to be taken to prevent the water,