PUBLIC OWNERSHIP demands for its proper con sideration, from the economic standpoint, ac curate detailed figures of expenses and revenue, on a comparative basis. Such figures are rarely available.
The sanitary interests of a community, de pending as they do largely upon police meas ures, are generally considered to be safer where water-works are under public rather than private control. The course of public ownership in this country during the past century is shown below in the table giving the number of works at the close of each half decade: The water-works of the cities of Western Asia, Greece, Carthage, Rome, and the European conntries nnder Roman dominion all depended gravity for the delivery of the water, and were notable chiefly for their aqueducts. :Most of the latter were of masonry. ( See AQuEoucTs.) The water within the cities was conveyed by means of lead, wood, and more rarely bored stone or baked clay conduits. (See PIPE.) Some of the earliest pumping works for city supplies, notably those erected at the London Bridge in 1562 by Peter :Maurice, are described in the article on PUMPS Ami PUMPING MACHIN ERY. In 1613 water was brought into London from a distance by Sir E ugh :Myddleton. who with others secured a eharter for the New River Company in 11E9. The most notable feature consisted of a water-supply canal about 40 miles long, which brought in water from springs distant, in an air line. about 20 miles. The canal was about 18 feet wide, 5 feet deep, and had an average fall of some 4 inches per mile. Valleys were crossed, for the most part, by means of timber flumes, lined with lead. Sub sequently the flumes were replaced by earth em bankments. A sale of some of the stock of the New River Company, which for many years shared with seven other companies the profits crf supplying the Sletrnpolitan water area, brought a fabulous sum, a few years ago, as compared with the original par valne.
The first public water supply in America was introduced in Boston in 1652 by the Water Works Company. It consisted of a reservoir about 12 feet square, to which water was con veyed through wooden pipes froni neighboring springs and drawn upon for both domestic and fire purposes. The second American water-works plant was built at Bethlehem, Pa. It was begun in 1754 by a Danish millwright named flans Christopher Christiansen zuld was finished in 1761. Water from a spring was piped fur 350 feet to a cistern, or well, from which a wooden pump, live inches in diameter, forced it through bored hemlock logs to a wooden tank in the vil lage square, 70 feet abort. the pumps. In 1761 Christiansen and others built larger works, in cluding three simple-acting iron force pumps, four inches in diameter and with a stroke of IS inches, driven by an undershot water wheel. The new pipe from the pump to the tank was of gum wood, and the distributing pipes were of pitch pine. In 1769 the latter had to be re newed and in 1786 lead pipes were substituted for both the force pump or force main and most of the distributing pipes. In 1813 iron pipes
were introduced, with leather-packed joints, clamped together with iron. The pumps installed in 1761 were used for seventy-one years, when they were supplanted by 5 X 36-inch double acting pumps, which were in use as late as 1897. Steam was not substituted for water power until 1S68. In 1871 the borough bought the works from their private owners, the Bethlehem Water Company.
To the elose of the year 1800 there had been built in the United States 16 water-works plants. All but one of these were originally owned by private companies, but during the nineteenth century 14 of the 15 remaining cities changed from private to public ownership. The names of the 16 cities, the dates the original works were constructed, and tire years of change to public ownership are as follows: BIBLIOGRAPHY. Consult: Fanning, Hydraulic Bibliography. Consult: Fanning, Hydraulic and Water Supply E ngi necring ( New York. 7th ed., 1S89), for many years a recognized standard tech nical work; Turneaure and Russell, PublielVater Supplies (ib., 1001), a comprehensive technical work, with good bibliographies at the close of the most important chapters; Folwell, IVatcr Supply Engineering (ib., 1900), less technical than Fan ning; Godell, Water-Works for Small Cities and Torus (ib.. 1899), somewhat elementary, but con taining numerous- citations from scattered papers and articles by able engineers: Burton, Water Supply of ToU'lrg (1.011,1011. 1894), technical gen eral treatise; Gould, Elements of Water Supply Engineering (New York. 1899), relates chiefly to the flow? of water in pipes; Billings, Some Details of 14:r/ter-Works Construction (ib., 1893), prac tical points on pipe-laying, etc.; Mason, Water Supply (ib., 1896), principally from It sanitary standpoint ;" Fnertes, Water and Pub lic Health 1897), a brief study of tire tion between pure water or the reverse and ty phoid fever; I Ziellards and Woodman, .1 ir, Water, and Food (ib., 19(i))), a popular work, combine,0 with carefully prepared instructions for making analyses of water; Whipple, The Microscopy of Drinking Water (ib., 1899) ; Percy and Grace Frankland„llicro-Organisms in Water ( London, 1994 ) ; Ila fter, ilierosropical Examination of Potable Water (New York, 1892) ; Baker, Pot able Water and .Methods of Detecting Impurities ( 1899), brief and popular; Meyer, Witter. Waste Prercntion (ib., 1885), a brief account of inspection and the use of meters as preven tives of water waste; Hazleton, Towers and Tanks for Water-Works (ill., 1901) ; Pence, Standpipe Accidents and Failures (ib., 1S95) M. N. Baker (editor), The Manual of American Water-Works (ib., 1897), deserilws all the water works plants in the Cnited States and Canada, about 3400 in all, at the close of 1996, and gives statistics of extent of works. receipts and expen ditures; also see bibliographies in articles under See AQUEDUCTS; DAMS AND RESERVOIRS; FIL TER AND FILTRATION; PIPE; PUMPS AND PUMP ING MACHINERY; WATER METERS; WATER PURI FICATION; WATER SUPPLY; WINDMILL.