TYPICAL BRITISH COLUMBIA WATERWORKS
Specially written for FIRE AND WATER ENGINEERING.
1886年3月6日,温哥华的城市,b . C,佤邦s incorporated, and on the 13th of June of the same year was entirely wiped out by fire. The ashes were hardly cold, however, before the sound of the hammer and saw were again heard, and the present flourishing city began to rise from the ashes. In the fall of 1886 a body of Victoria gentlemen, foreseeing that at no distant date Van eouver was destined to become a large and thriving town, acquired a charter from the Provincial government to build and operate a waterworks system for the supply of the city. The Capilano river, a mountain torrent on the north side of Burrard inlet ami emptying into it at the first Narrows, was decided upon as the source of supply. This stream flows through two canons between the intake (a point six and a quarter miles up the stream and 418 feet above tide-water) and the Narrows, and, as the tops of these canons are several feet higher than the intake, it was neees sary either to blast a ledge along the rocky face of the canon for 400 or 500 feet or to drive a tunnel through the hill. T he latter was decided upon. .T he scheme necessitated the pipe being carried across the Narrows, which at this point is about 1.400 feet wide at low water, with an extreme depth of sixty-two feet and a maximum current of between eight and nine knots an hour. Soundings having been taken, it was found that the banks had a fairly regular slope, and, a passage free from boulders having been located, it was decided to lay a twelve in., flexible-jointcd, cast iron pipe. The project caused at the time a great deal of discussion amongst engineers, and all sorts of arguments were advanced against the practicability of the scheme. Of these the strongest appeared to be the difficulty of laying the pipe, and the danger of its shifting in the terrific current of the tide-way. The engineers in charge, however, George A. Keefer and II. 1¾. Smith, maintained that the scheme was practicable, and proceeded to demonstrate it by carrying out the undertaking. The pipe was put together in a trough, which sloped gently down to the water, and, after the jointing was completed, a cable was run through the pipe and buckled up tight, to keep the. joints from pulling apart, when the pipe was drawn across. Cables were then attached to the pipe at intervals lo equalise the strain, and a shoe was made fast under the end of the pipe to keep the end from cutting into the ground, and. with some heavy blocks and a capstan. the pipe was successfully drawn across. Since that time four other twelve-m. pipes have been laid, and no difficulty has been experienced in the laying of any one of them, LTp to the present time a 22-in. steel-riveted main from the intake to the Narrows, four 12-in., flexible-jointed, cast iron mains across the Narrows, and a 22-in. steel main to the reservoir in Stanley park have supplied the city. This year a byelaw was passed to provide $750,000 for extensions, and it is proposed to increase the size of the pipe from the intake to the canon to 36-in, and install a separate high-level system to supply the higher parts of the city and for fire protection, and, also, to provide a 25,000.000-gal. reservoir for the high-level system. When this reservoir is completed, our storage capacity will be 50,000,000 gals., or about six days’ supply. In 1892 the city purchased the works from the Vancouver Waterworks company, and has operated them successfully ever since, having had a very considerable surplus each year for some years past, in spite of large reductions in the rates from time to time. At the present time we have about 140 miles of pipe of all sizes, ranging from 2-in. to 22-in., most of the distribution pipe being of cast iron. Last year a few thousand feet of wire-wound, wood-stave pipe -was put in as an experiment, and, so far, has proved most satisfactory.
