Description of the Water-works at Richmond, Va.

Description of the Water-works at Richmond, Va.

1830年，里士满市，人口为16,060人，通过公民的投票决定建造水劳动。市议会与费城居民的阿尔伯特·斯坦（Albert Stein）订婚，准备了一项计划和估计工程成本。必须对城市进行简要描述，以清楚地了解情况。里士满在潮水的詹姆斯河上。该地点的地形大大变化，包括一系列的山丘和山谷，高度不同155英尺。从潮水的头部，河道沿着一张岩石床迅速上升，在一英里和四分之一的距离内，水的高度高于平均潮汐。此时，詹姆斯河和卡纳瓦哈运河的一部分是在詹姆斯的北岸建造的，其水面在潮汐上方八十三英尺。此时，斯坦因先生选择了一个泵房的地点，并建议将詹姆斯河运河中的水用作电源，该运河的表面位于拟建地点的上方约40英尺处。随后更改了计划，并从河的一个小前湾获得了水，与运河平行并在其下方平行，长约500英尺。这个前湾通过木制水坝提供水，建在岩石壁架上并提供十英尺的头。

Here Mr. Stein erected a pump-house and pump. The water wheel and pump was furnished by William Kemble of New' York. The wheel was a low breast wheel, and worked a double-acting horizontal pump of 400,000 gallons capacity in tw'cnty-four hours. From the pump-house an eight-inch water main was laid under the canal to the reservoir, situated on a hill 24(0 feet distant, and 160 feet above the pump. The reservoir was 194 feet by 104 feet, by 10 feet 8 inches deep, and was divided into two equal compartments by a brick wall; the enclosing banks were clay, and its capacity was 1,000,000 gallons. In one compartment a filter bed, 32^ feet by 16 feet, and 3 feet above the bottom of the reservoir was constructed. The bed consisted of layers of coarse gravel at the bottom, the finer gravel and sand on the surface. The water, by means of the pipe arrangement, was to be forced upward, and finally find its way over the division wall into the distributing compartment. For the purpose of cleaning the bed it was so constructed that w'ater could be admitted from the surface and wasted through the pump main by means of a waste branch into a ravine. Mr. Stein stated at the time that this was the largest filtering bed in the United States; also that he was doubtful of its proving successful. The surface of the water in the reservoir was eight feet higher than any point in the city, and water was conducted to the city by means of a supply main, ten inches in diameter, 6175 feet long. This main was estimated to deliver 400,000 gallons in twenty-four hours or, according to Mr. Stein’s calculations, furnish water for 4000 families, computing the daily consumption to be 100 gallons per family. From the terminus of the ten-inch main, numerous distributing pipes of small diameters were laid, and five hydrants put in at convenient points. The total cost of the works—pumps, reservoir, pipes, etc., exclusive of the dam and fore bay, was $76,S6o. The works were accepted by the city February 17, 1832.