THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF HEALTH LIBRARY ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE LIBRARY REGULATIONS 1. Books may be borrowed by Fellows, Members and Associ- ates personally or by a messenger producing a written order. The person to whom books are delivered shall sign a receipt for them in a book provided for that purpose. 2. Books may be sent through the post, or by some equivalent means of carriage, upon a written order. All charges of carriage to the Institute shall be defrayed by the borrower. 3. A borrower may not have more than tlH3e& volumes in his possession at one time. 4. A borrower will be considered liable for the value of any book lost or damaged while on loan to him, and if it be a separate volume, for the value of the whole work rendered imperfect. Marking or writing in the volumes is not permitted, and borrowers are requested to call attention to damage of this character. 5. Books may be retained for 28 days. Periodicals may be retained for 14 days. Applications for extension of the loan period must be made in writing before its expiry. No book may be kept longer than 3 months. New books will not be lent until after the expiration of one month from the date of their having been received by the Institute. The current number of a periodical may not be borrowed. 6. Borrowers retaining books longer than the time specified, and neglecting to return them when demanded, forfeit the right to borrow books until the volume or volumes be returned, and for such further time as may be ordered. Any borrower failing to comply with a request for the return of a book shall be considered liable for the cost of replacing the book, and the Council may, after giving due notice to him, order the book to be replaced at his expense. No volume may be reissued to the same borrower until at least seven days have elapsed after its return, neither may it be transferred by one borrower to another. 7. Books may not be taken or sent out of the United Kingdom. 8. Volumes returned through the post must be securely packed in a box, or otherwise protected. Parcels should be addressed : 77- THE ROYAL^SOCIETY OF HEALTH LIBRARY THE ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE LIBRARY 90, Buckingham Palace Road, London, S.W.I. Class No. .. M2q Acc. No This book is returnable on or before the last date Marked below. THE LONDON WATER SUPPLY a IRetrospcct an6 a Sui'pc?. Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive in 2014 Iittps://arcliive.org/details/b20409382 : THE LONDON WATER SUPPLY : E IRetvospect anb a Survey. BY RICHARD SISLEY, DOCTOR OF MEDICINE AND DOCTOR OF STATE MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. Xont)on THE SCIENTIFIC PRESS, LIMITED, 28 & 29, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C. 1899. \J7 WELLCOMF '^'STITUTE Coib w©!MOnr>€C No. m . AUTHOR'S PREFACE. A STUDY of Sir John Simon's book on "English Sanitary Institutions" first proved to me the great importance of the question of the London Water Supply, and a prolonged and careful examination of the evidence given to Lord Balfour's Commission proved that the question was one of great complexity. I was convinced that the only way for me to get a full grasp of the matter was first to understand clearly the details of the method by which London is at present supplied with water. I therefore wrote to the proprietors of the Lancet to propose that I should investigate the present state of the London Water Supply, and the scope of the present work may be best shown by quoting from the letter in which the proposal was formally made : "The things which I think deserve attention in the case ot each metropolitan water company- are • 1. The source or sources of supply. 2. The method or methods of purification adopted. 3. The quantity supplied. 4. The storage capacity of reservoirs ; filter-beds. " With regard to the method of distribution, it would be well in the case of each company to give a plan showing the position of the reservoir or reservoirs which supply the different parts of the area supplied, and a plan giving the chief arterial trunks going from each reservoir. There are some very good maps published in the last report of the Metropolitan Water Supply, but these only give the areas of distribution of the various companies. These maps were expensive and are now out of print. " It seems to me that it is quite necessary to have definite and accurate information on all the points I have mentioned, before any just opinion can be formed as to the present water supply to London. There has lately appeared in the daily papers a good deal of scrappy information written by reporters on various matters connected with the London Water Supply. The editors of different papers seem unfortunately to treat the question of the London Water Supply rather from a political point of view, and propose schemes for the control of the water supply without any accurate know- ledge as to what the water supply is. There are those who think the control of the water should be I VI PREFACE otherwise. All this writing appears to me vested in the County Council : there are those who think questions in which I am concerned or on which I propose beside the mark ; at any rate, these are not is to touch at all in these articles. The questions of present interest, on which there no accurate, ? is the water up-to-date information, are : What are the sources of the present water supply How I to treat treated, and how distributed ? These questions, and these alone, are those which propose ; and they should be treated more fully than they have ever yet been." The proprietors of the Lancet having agreed that articles written on these lines should appear in their journal, arrangements were made to obtain the necessary permission from the metropolitan water companies to visit the works. As might have been expected, facilities were not granted with equal readiness by the managers of all the metropolitan water companies. Some of them, according to their account, had of late been put to a considerable trouble and expense in consequence ot the policy of the London County Council, which had, they suggested, spent a great deal of money in opposing the water companies' bills in Parliament, and in making what they considered unfair attempts to purchase their undertakings below their market value. The County Council had, they suggested, tried to prove that the water companies' undertakings were of little value, and at the same time they had tried to purchase them. Such a policy, it may be pointed out, is not a new one. "It is naught ; it is naught, saith the buyer." Unfortunately for me, the relations existing between the London County Council and the water companies undoubtedly made the task which I had undertaken a more difficult one than it would otherwise have been. In order to give an accurate account of the water companies' undertakings on the lines suggested, it was necessary that all the works should be visited. The officers of some of the water companies, however, appeared to think at first that I might get all the necessary information by the study of a book by the late Sir Francis Bolton ; and at least one of them was so obliging as to send me type-written extracts from this book, which he suggested might serve my purpose. Ultimately, however, it was arranged that I should see all the details of the various undertakings, and I have visited all the places mentioned in the descriptions which follow. For the information supplied as to the pumping arrange- ments, I am indebted to the engineers of the companies. PREFACE vii There were some points on which I should have been glad to have had more full information. It was, however, pointed out to me that I was not a Royal Com- mission. More than one engineer told me that if he appeared before a Royal Com- mission, and were asked the question that I had put to him, he would certainly answer it. The information given on some matters is less full, therefore, than 1 should have wished. My constant desire has been to give an accurate and unbiassed account of the present arrangements for carrying on the supply of water to London, and that the account should be as full as possible. During this prolonged investigation one thing struck me very strongly. As a result of a year's constant work, in which I was in almost daily contact with the engineers and other employes of the London water companies, one impression may deserve to be recorded. I was profoundly struck with the loyalty of all the officers and servants to the companies in whose service they were engaged. There are emergencies in connection with water supply undertakings which cause the greatest anxiety to those whose business it is to carry out the details of the work. In such emergencies, the ungrudging way in which all the employes of the companies work is quite worthy of remark. This is doubtless in great part due to the fact that officers and servants are employed from their early days, and often remain in one service as long as they are able to work. In not a few cases, also, sons work with and succeed to the duties of their fathers. The engineers and other officers of the company are necessarily in almost daily contact with the men, and in very many, it is not too much to say in the vast majority of cases, take a personal interest in the men and in their families.