OLD AND NEW WATERWORKS OF CHICAGO.
Great Pumping Plants, Tunnels, and Cribs.
Chicago has an up-to-date water system, which has cost from first to last well on to $36,000,000, some of which stands for money not as well laid out as it might have been. Its annual water receipts represent about ten per cent, upon that outlay. The number of miles of water mains in service at the end of 1900 was 1,872,356-1-5,280; of meters to-day 6,396; of valves, quite 14,862. The source of its water supply is lake Michigan, and the water is taken from five cribs through thirty-seven miles of tunnels. The number of stations is eleven, with a total daily capacity last year of 528,650,000 gallons. There are thirty-seven pumping engines, supplied from eighty boilers, available for service, and to keep these going calls for 350 men, whose daily wage amounts to over $800; the consumption of coal every day is 260 tons; and the annual cost of fuel is $350,000. The daily per capita supply is about 177 gallons, and the daily pumpage about 360.000.000 gallons. Under such conditions, it would seem as if, except in the line of distributing and service pipes, the system calls for no further extensions for years to come. That, however, is not so, as will be shown hereafter.
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