Of acetate of soda a 100th part of the water is a prese: Of arseniate of soda 12,000th " Of phosphate of soda 30,000th " Of hydriodate of potash 30,000th " Of muriate of soda 2,000th Of sulphate of lime 4,000th " Of nitrate of potash 100th rvative. 1…

the city of Lowell. The first examination was made from a sample of water taken from the source or spring-head before it had entered the leaden pipes, when the specific gravity was found to be 1,000,18. The pint, on evaporation to dryness, yielded 2.…

oxidation of the lead. These * Containing 4.05 grains of solid matter to the gallon, or about one 18,000 part. 147 pipes have been highly recommended by our first chemists, and other men of sci- ence, as furnishing an effectual safeguard against the …

may be momentarily assuaged by wetting the mouth, or holding a thin fluid in it — yet it can only be effectually relieved by conveying into the stomach a quantity of fluid sufficient to supply the deficiency. This supply is termed dilution, from the …

of the country, is to be found in the impure water, with which the former are so generally supplied, and we may confidently predict, that in consequence mainly of the introduction of the Croton River into the City of New-York, no city in the world of…

we shall not consider its intro- duction purchased at too dear a rate, even were the expenses attending it increased to double the actual amount. We need not attempt to specify in detail the benefits which are likely to accrue to the city of New-York…

The Old Croton Aqueduct Rural Resources Meet Urban Needs The Hudson River Museum of Westchester The Old Croton Aqueduct figure 1: Section of the Aqueduct with Iron Lining, c. 1837-39. ink and watercolor on paper Courtesy Jervis Public Library, drawin…

Dr. Jeffrey A. Kroessler, School of General Studies, Adelphi University, and History Department, Queens College, CUNY; Dr. F. Daniel Larkin, Professor of History and Chairman of the Histo- ry Department at SUNY Oneonta; and Roger Panetta, Professor o…

island, without regard for such topo- graphic features as hills, swamps, streams, springs, or natural drainage. Conspicuously absent, of course, was any provision for public parks, and it is truly one of the triumphs of the 19th century that the City…

The epidemic of 1798 took the lives of 2,000 New Yorkers. Writing to Noah Webster, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill, one of the City's leading men of science, blamed urban conditions for the outbreak: "New York tliis time has a plague indeed. The scourge is ap…

enveloped by it, and the backyard privies in the adjacent neighborhood leached their noxious contents into the soil, contaminating the rainwater that filtered through and drained into it. In 1809 a canal was dug to the Hudson to drain the Collect and…

char- tered obligation to supply water to all citizens who wanted it.^^ The company quickly confirmed the worst fears of its critics by abandoning plans to tap the Bronx River and, instead, drilling a well at Reade and Center Streets in a densely pop…

revenue should be derived. But to the poor, and those who would be content to receive it from the hydrants at the corners and on the sidewalks, it should be as free as air, as a means of cleanliness, nourishment and health. In the hands of any other …

Canal Street. Between 1820 and 1850, the population density had intensified from 157 persons per block to 272 per block (those figures would pale compared to the terrible overcrowding of the late 19th centu- ry), and those people were using the same …

Progress (New York: The A. S. Barnes Co., 1896 [1877]), p.747. 20. Francis, p.70. 21. Greene, pp.185-7. 22. Rosenwaike, p.37; Duffy, Appendix I. 23. Oliver E. Allen, New York, New York: A History of the World's Most Exhilarating and Challenging City …

but successive drilling was less promising. Finally when mineral water was brought up from one of the wells, the Disbrow scheme went the way of all the others. By then, at the end of the 1820s, the City's fire department was adding its support to the…

the Legislature's height requirement. The huge stone structure was a major contributor to the enormous jump in the final cost of the Aqueduct to $9.5 million. When Douglass took over as chief engineer of the Croton project in June 1835, his first tas…

system. Another was the nearly 40-mile-long tunnel needed to carry the Croton water from the Dam to the Distributing Reservoir on Murray Hill, between 5th and 6th Avenues, from 40th Street to 42nd Street (figure 16). Douglass proposed that the tun- n…

works, a masonry structure with the waterway lined with cast Iron. In suggesting the design for the Sing Sing Aqueduct Bridge, Jervis revealed early in 1837 the approach he would take in plan- ning the building of the other major structures of the Cr…

the Water Commissioners would have general administrative overview of the project as a "Board of Directors," Douglass divided ten of the remaining eleven "specifica- tions" between the responsibilities of the Engineering Department and the particular…

a day. During the winter months when most construction activities ceased, Jervis, ever mindful of economy, reduced the size of the staff in each division. The organization of the Engineering Department that was used on the Croton Aqueduct served as a…

Manhattan. The system was designed for a population of 450,000 people using 20 gallons per day, which would give the requirement of 9 million gallons to be delivered by the Aqueduct. It is interesting to note that this appeared to be perfectly adequa…

the aqueduct from the Croton river to the north bank of the Harlem River 33 miles, and determined the grade of the aqueduct at about 13' /4 inches to the mile. It was, in the main, well located. In regard to plans of work, he proposed a cross section…

designing a new dam with a much larg- er spillway capable of taking a larger quantity of flood water, Jervis was forced to build the Dam, in part, on a gravel bottom since the rock ledge did not extend across the river valley. Even though Jervis desi…

gates. Aqueduct bridges Where major water courses crossed the line of the Aqueduct it was necessary to build something larger than a culvert, and Jervis was forced to consider aqueduct bridges along the length of the Aqueduct between the Croton Dam a…

Bridge at Sing Sing (plan and elevation), c. 1837-39, watercolor and ink on paper Courtesy Jervis Public Library, Rome, NY, drawing #317. Photo: G. R. Farley figure 28. below left: Elevation of a Higli Bridge for Crossing Hariaem [sic] River, c.1839-…

great acclamation from the citizens of New York City. The High Bridge was not completed until 1848. Notes 1. Charles King, A Memoir of the Construction, Cost, and Capacity of the Croton Aqueduct (New York, 1843), p.220. 2. See selected bibliography o…

largely owned, by the tenant farming families who had appeared as a landowner along the line of the Aqueduct, near Indian Brook in Mount Pleasant (today Ossining); Oscar Irving and his uncle Washington Irving had their neighbor George Harvey re-model…

place [Yonkers] whom I met today, expresses the greatest cordiality and good feeling.^ In general. Douglass boasted "that a better disposed or more rea- sonable set of landholders than those on the line of the Croton Aqueduct is very seldom found. Ve…

Water Commissioners characterized as "unreasonable demands ... by a portion of the inhabitants of Westchester" stymied the project. By law, engineers could not begin work on any lands not purchased or appraised. Anxious to get the work started and wi…