A Salt Water Filter Plant.

A Salt Water Filter Plant.

The Field Force Pump Company of Leckport, N. Y., has secured a contract to construct a salt water filter plant for the Castle Garden Aquarium in New York, and the company are now busy at work on the same, and will have it completed in a few days. The intention of the park board is to get a collection of salt water fish, which is quite rare, if, indeed, any such collection can be found in any other city.

The central tank in the building is to be eighty feet in diameter and will contain a whale. The outer circle of tanks, which are of glass, will be supplied with all the rare varieties to make it the largest and most attractive aquarium in the world, plans having been made for a large coilectien of fresh water fish also. The filters for salt water are made of bronze, are six feet in diameter and seven feet high, of which there are two with a capacity of xoo.ooo gallons each in the twentyfour hours, and the fresh water filters are of steel, of which there are also two each, four feet in diameter and six feet high, having a capacity of 55,000 gallons each. The bronze filters are now being polished by special machinery made for the occasion that the large tanks may correspond with the finely polished pipes and fittings with which the plant is to be equipped. While this is not as large as some filter plants by which some city supplies are filtered, there is no question that for the quality of metal and expensive fittings it will be the finest filter plant in the world. As in the filters for the sea water all stay bolts, rivets, dipes, gate valves and fittings with which the water comes in contact are either of bronze or gunmetal, and when complete, ready for the filtering materials, will weigh about two and one-fourth tons each. The water will be taken from New York bay through a bronze pipe running out to a distance to insure deep water at the lowest tide, and will be encased in a box, the wood of which will be filled with creosote, twelve pounds of creosote to the square foot of plank, or three inches in thickness, and the box to be filled around the pipe with cement and bolted together. The pumps for supplying will be of the Worthington pattern, driven by steam, by which the building will be warmed in winter. Tbe city means to put in something that not even the World’s Fair will attempt to outdo.