The water question : a letter, addressed (by permission) to the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Derby, K.G., explaining a proposal for the supply of the metropolis from the higher sources of the Thames in conjunction with the storage of surplus waters / by J. Bailey Denton.

  • John Bailey Denton
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The water question : a letter, addressed (by permission) to the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Derby, K.G., explaining a proposal for the supply of the metropolis from the higher sources of the Thames in conjunction with the storage of surplus waters / by J. Bailey Denton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The covered duct would be eight feet deep by ten feet wide. The mean fall would be nearly twenty inches per mile. From Lechlade to the Meadows neiir Oxford the distance is 29 miles, and the fall 48 ft. 6 in. From tills point to a point above Wallingford, the distance is 23 „ „ ft- ^ in. From thence to Hampton, the distance is . 75 „ „ 121 ft. 6 in. Total length 127 miles. Fall 210 ft. 6 in. These works on the upper Thames would be extended to the necessary conduits connecting the unpolluted portions of the tributaries with the receiving main, and would include the con- struction of reservoirs, the purchase of the special mills affected, and compensation to landowners, &c. On the Lea, of the lower Thames, a similar, though reduced system of works would be carried out. The cost of the whole may be estimated at £4,500,000, including interest on money expended and attendant expenses. To place the present project, however, on the same footing as those which are designed to take their supply from the mountain ranges of Wales and Cumberland, it is right to state that the promoters of these distant schemes propose to deliver their supply at a height sufficient to command a high and constant service for nearly the whole of the metropolis, whereas, in the present instance, it is simply intended to deliver the water collected to the existing Companies and leave it to them, or a central body, to distribute, with the existing machinery and appliances. Against the annual cost of lifting the supply to existing reservoirs, the expense of rearranging the whole system of service piping will form no inconsiderable set off. Though the advantageous effect of these works would be coextensive with the whole system of the Thames, their multi- form character will subject them to the adverse remarks of those who advocate undertakings of more imposing dimensions. Englishmen have not been unfrequently twitted by reference to the grander works of other countries, and those of ancient times have been pointed out as examples for Engineers to follow. The aqueducts of Rome—the Aqua Virgo, the Aqua Alsietina, and the Aqua Claudia, and the more colossal remains of the Anio Novus—have been pointed out, and illustrating, as they do, good judgment in selecting the pure water of fourteen different springs, in preference to the ])ollutcd waters of main channels, they are especially deserving the attention of modern municipal authorities.