Horizontal wells : a new application of geological principles to effect the solution of the problem of supplying London with pure water / by J. Lucas.

  • Lucas, J.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Horizontal wells : a new application of geological principles to effect the solution of the problem of supplying London with pure water / by J. Lucas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sarily expensive, and totally inapplicable to the class of houses for the benefit of whose inhabitants they were intended. The Mile-End Vestry, the District Boards of AVorks for TVffiitechapel, Limehouse, and St. Geoige s-m-the-East, have passed resolutions expressing their strong disapproval of the regulations. This wonderful unanimity on the part of the local authorities certainly seems to indicate something more than usually exacting in these regulations ; and if this is the case, the sooner the attention of Parliament is called to the subject the better.1 In Whitaker’s Almanac for 1873 the following occurs, at page 243 : — ‘ Pure Water.—The Reports of Government Medical Officers and others during 1871-1872 lead to the belief that the greater part of the water-supply 0/ the Metropolis is utterly unfit for domestic use. It is generally loaded with animal or other organic matter, arising from its contamination with sewage in the rivers from which it is drawn. Dr. Frankland has invented an ingenious filter, which not only makes the water clear and transparent, but greatly purifies it from organic matter. In the absence of such a filter, water should be boiled and allowed to remain till cold in the open air before used for drinking purposes.’ The Chelsea Waterworks Company have lately been engaged in forwarding a scheme for constructing a large new reservoir on lands belonging to Lord St. Leonards, near the confluence of the Mole with the Thames. Had the Company succeeded in carrying out their scheme, they would have been going to an enormous expense to achieve the storage of the bad or indifferent water now provided by them; and I urge that the same necessity which drives them to undertake this vast work offers an assurance of a safe market to other persons who may contrive any scheme for conveying supplies of pure water into London. The following is a summary of the returns as to the composition and quality of the Metropolitan waters in January, 1873, made by the Association of Medical Officers of Health : — 1 This was written before the publication of the Minutes of Evidence relating to Constant Supply, taken before the Board of Trade, 1873.