| Introduction | Historical Background | Chronology | Geography | Biography | Technology | Ownership and Financing | General Bibliography |
Technological developments were a major factor in the widespread adoption of of water-works. These include major elements such as pipes and pumps, as well as others such as valves, meters, fire hydrants, filtration, and disinfection.
| Pipes | Pumps | Meters | Per Capita Water Consumption | Motors | Standpipes, Tanks, Tower, and Architecture | Filtration | Disinfection | Artesian Wells | Electrolysis | High Pressure Fire Systems | Other Technologies Used in Water Works | General Technical References |
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| Water Treatment - From Reservoir to Home (click to enlarge) |
Pipes
The common element in every waterworks system is that water is delivered
through a piping network, which is almost always underground.. The
pipes and the forcing mechanism are the major elements in waterworks
technology. Water has to be forced through distribution pipes to
overcome friction and deliver water to upper floors of buildings and for
fire protection. This was always done using gravity until Birdsill
llolly introduced a direct pressure water supply system in 1863. In
1888, 81.7% of American waterworks used gravity, while the remaining 18.3%
relied on direct pressure.
Reliable piping technology was perhaps the major obstacle in developing early waterworks systems. Although reliable pipes were developed by the end of the Nineteenth Century, many pipes installed at that time are reaching the end of their service life, creating financial concerns in many communities.
Notable long aqueducts in American water works.
Water distribution pipes have been made from a wide variety of materials:
1701 An engine of great service to bore elms or other trees to make pipes to conveigh water, and for other uses, by Isaac de Caus, from New and rare inventions of water-works,
1858 "Wooden Pipe Superseded," Syracuse Daily Courier, April 18, 1860, Page 2. Bituminous gas pipe invented in Paris.
1861 "Gutta
Percha Service Pipe," American Gas-Light Journal 2:348 (May
15, 1861).
This material is superseding lead in some places, owing to its freedom
from impurity, and from the effects of cold weather, and corrosion.
1871 Cope & Maxwell Manufacturing Company steam pumps and boiler feeders
1872 Cope & Maxwell Manufacturing Company steam pumping machinery
1873 "Water,
Water-Pipes, and Water-Filters," The New York Times, April
20, 1873, Page 5.
Mentions laminated wood pipe.
1873 US Patent 143,922, Improvement in the Manufacture of Asphalt Pipe, Adolph Müller, of Jersey City, New Jersey, September 20, 1873.
1874 The civil engineer's pocket-book, Third Edition, by John C. Trautwine | 1881 edition |
1883 Pocket Companion, Containing Telegraphic Code, Tables of Standard Dimensions of Wrought Iron Pipe, Tubes, &c, by National tube works company
1886 "Water Pipes," by A. H. Howland, Read December 4, 1886, Proceedings of the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia 6(1):55-69. (December, 1886). Howland developed many water works in the 1880s and 1890s.
1886 Water and Gas Works Appliances Manufactured by R.D. Wood & Co
1887 "Water Pipes," by A. H. Howland, Read at the Engineers Club of Philadelphia, The American Engineer 13:136 (April 20, 1887) | Part 2 | Part 3 | Reprint of 1886 article.
1888 "Welded Steel Tubes," by Thomas J. Bray, Proceedings of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania 4:6-12 (January, 1888)
1888 Catalogue of Gate Valves and Fire Hydrants: Manufactured by the Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company
1890 Facts about Pipe, Second Edition, compiled by Edmund Cogswell Convers, National Tube Works Company [partial copy]
1895 Facts about Pipe, Third Edition, compiled by Edmund Cogswell Convers, National Tube Works Company
1897 Report on Relative Merits of Wrought Iron & Steel Pipes to the National Tube Works Co, by Henry Marion Howe
1899 Catalogue and price list of valves, fire hydrants, etc, Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company
1907 Water Supply: A Treatise on the Sources, Distribution, and Consumption of Water for Commercial and Domestic Uses, and Modern Practice in the Construction of Water-works and Purification Plants, Frederick Eugene Turneaure
1909 Public Water-supplies: Requirements, Resources, and the Construction of Works, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged, by Frederick Eugene Turneaure
1914 "Manufacture and Uses of Steel Pipe," by James S. Harvey, Jr., Thesis for the degree of mechanical engineer, Armour Institute of Technology.
1917 Pipe and the Public Welfare, by Robert Crockett McWane
1921 "National" Modern Welded Pipe: From Iron Ore to Finished Product, by National Tube Co
1922 "Some Observations Concerning Wood Pipe," by J. W. Ledoux, Journal of the American Water Works Association 9(4):549-569 (July, 1922)
1945 Principio
to Wheeling 1715-1945: A Pageant of Iron and Steel, by
Earl Chapin May
Pages 192-199: Chapter 26: Hearne Originates Welded Steel Pipe
(1888)
2017 "$300 Billion War Beneath the Street: Fighting to Replace America’s Water Pipes," by Hiroko Tabuchinov, The New York Times, November 10, 2017.
2018 The Water in the Wood, by Jason King
Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association, includes several reference books about cast and ductile iron pipes that can be downloaded
Pumps
Many water systems are able to take advantage of an elevated water source
to allow gravity to force water through the distribution system.
About one-third of known systems in 1888 were able to take advantage of
favorable local topography to establish a sufficient difference in
elevation for water distribution, eliminating the need for any
pumping. The remaining two-thirds relied on pumps to force water
into an elevated reservoir, tank, or standpipe, from which is could be
distributed to customers by gravity. Although these concepts were
distinct, systems often used a combination of gravity and pumping to to
insure reliability and to serve more elevated portions of a distribution
network.
Water pumps have been driven by a variety of prime-movers:
1869 Hydraulic motors. Tr. from the French Cours de mécanique appliquée par M. Bresse ... by F.A. Mahan ... Rev. by D. H. Mahan
1873 Houghton's system of raising water in dwelling houses, green houses, hotels, and other places where it has been pumped by hand, by the automatic house pump or water elevator : patented February 7, 1871, March 5, 1872, June 4, 1872, and July 29, 1873 by Charles Houghton
1879 Clapp & Jones Manufacturing Company : builders of steam fire engines, hose carriages, tenders, etc.
1880 The "Haggas water elevator," for supplying locomotive tenders with water, by William Gooderham, Jr.
1880 Ericsson's New Hot Air Pumping Engine, Manufactured by Delamater Iron Works
1895 "A
Phonograph Describes the Trouble with a Pump," The Engineering
Record 32:290 (September 21, 1895)
An interesting instance of the diversified uses of which the phonograph is
capable is afforded in a recent experience by the Knowles Steam Pump
Works. of New York City. The company had put up one of its large pumps for
the Ricks Water Company at its pumping station at Elk River, Cal. After
several years of use something evidently went wrong with the pump and in
the letter of advice to the works regarding the trouble, which took the
form of a phonograph cylinder, advantage was taken of the cylinder to
record the sounds of the pump in running, precisely as the stethoscope is
used by the physician in examining the action of the heart or lungs of the
human body. The manager of the water company spoke into the phonograph
receiver, describing the symptoms of the ailing pump, and then moved the
receiver so that the pulsation of the pump would be recorded on the wax
roll. When the cylinder is put into the machine in New York the voice of
the Californian is heard first giving in a clear, precise, and distinct
way the symptoms of the pump, and then he asks the listener to pay
attention to the pump's action. The experiment proved absolutely
successful, and by means of the roll the disease was diagnosed. The proper
remedy was suggested. and the pump is running once more, and the time and
expense of sending an expert from the works to California was saved.
1896 The
"Smith-Vaile" Steam Pumps, Pumping Engines, and Artesian Well
Machinery, April 1, 1896.
Pages 132-136: Water works using Smith-Vaile pumps.
1897 Clapp & Jones Manufacturing Company, Hudson, N.Y. : builders of steam fire engines, improved water works machinery, tenders, hose carriages, fire department supplies, etc.
1899 The "Smith-Vaile" Steam Pumps, Pumping Engines, and Artesian Well Machinery, January 1, 1899. (partial)
1901 The Windmill: Its efficiency and economic use, Part I, by Edward Charles Murphy. USGS water supply paper No. 41.
1901 Public Water-supplies: Requirements, Resources, and the Construction of Works, by Frederick Eugene Turneaure, Harry Luman Russell, with a chapter on Pumping Machinery by Daniel Webster Mead
1905 Goulds Manufacturing Company, pump catalog. Seneca Falls, New York.
1907 Pumping engines for water works, by Charles Arthur Hague
1919 Pumping Machinery: A Treatise on the History, Design, Construction and Operation of Various Forms of Pumps, Second Edition, Revised, by Arthur Maurice Greene
1924 "Choosing
a Waterworks Pumping Engine," Henry Foster Dever, Doctoral
Dissertation in Electrical Engineering, Northwestern University | Curve
of Daily Load Variation for Evanston Waterworks - 1923 |
A study of pumping engines with special reference to the requirements of
the City of Evanston.
Birdsill Holly and the Holly Manufacturing Company
Other technologies used in water works::.
High
Pressure Water Delivery for Fire Service.
The Bell Waterphone (used to detect leaks)
1882 "The
Waterphone," from Engineering News 9:213 (June 24, 1882).
1883 "The Waterphone," by Thomas J. Bell," Scientific Proceedings of the Ohio Mechanics' Institute 2(1):42 (March, 1883)
Trenching Machines
1904 "Buckeye
Steam Traction Ditcher," by Frank C. Perkins, Scientific
American 91(11):177-178 (September 10, 1904)
1917 "Some Experiences with a Trenching Machine," by George W. Batchelder, Journal of the New England Water Works Association 31:486-489 (September, 1917)
1926 The Buckeye Traction Ditcher Company, petitioner, v. The Austin Machinery Company. Petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit submitted by Mr. Wilbur Owen for the petitioner. 13 F.2d 697,
1988 Buckeye Steam Traction Ditcher, Hancock Historical Museum Association, Findlay, Ohio, August 5, 1988
Standardization of Fire Hose Threads
1928 "Standardization of
Fire Hose Threads," by J. H. Howland, Journal of the American
Water Works Association, 19(6):679-681 (June, 1928)
2014 History
of Fire Hose Coupling Thread Standardization in the United States
Water Closets and other water
appliances
1884 Water-closets.
A historical, mechanical, and sanitary treatise, by Glenn
Brown
1992 "All the modern conveniences: American household plumbing, 1840-1870," by Maureen Ogle, Doctoral Dissertation in History, Iowa State University
1996 All the Modern Conveniences: American Household Plumbing, 1840-1890, by Maureen Ogle
1979 "The Plumbing Paradox: American Attitudes toward Late Nineteenth-Century Domestic Sanitary Arrangements," by May N. Stone, Winterthur Portfolio 14(3):283-309 (Autumn, 1979)
Patents
1874 Subject-matter
Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States from 1790
to 1873, inclusive. Volume I
1874 Subject-matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States from 1790 to 1873, inclusive. Volume II
1874 Subject-matter Index of Patents for Inventions Issued by the United States from 1790 to 1873, inclusive. Volume III
Dictionary of American Tool and Machine Patents
United
States Early Inventions and "X" Patents
© 2016 Morris A. Pierce