King, Charles. A Memoir of the Construction, Cost, and Capacity of the Croton Aqueduct. New York: Charles King, 1843.

mm * iversity of California. FROM THE URHARY < >F DR. FRANCIS L E B E R I , Professor of History and Law in Columbia College, Is ow York. THK GIFT OF MICHAEL REES Of San Francisco, 1373. l^J -- CONSTRUCTION, COST, AND CAPACITY CEOTON AQUEDUCT, COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS: TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIVIC CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTEENTH OCTOBER, 1842, ON OCCASION OF THE …

THE SUCCESSIVE COMMON COUNCILS, WHO HAVE DILIGENTLY, INTELLIGENTLY, AND PERSEVERINGLY CARRIED OUT THIS VOTE TO A SUCCESSFUL AND MAGNIFICENT ISSUE, THIS VOLUME, RECORDING THE PROGRESS AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF AN ENTERPRISE, ALIKE GRAND IN DESIGN AND BENEFICENT IN RESULTS, IS INSCRIBED BY THEIR FELLOW CITIZEN, CHARLES KING. PREFACE IN LAYING this volume before the Common Council …

spirit which, looking beyond the present, is content to endure and labor for remotest generations. In effect, water might have been obtained adequate to the actual wants of the city at very much less cost, leaving to posterity the care of providing for its own need ; but the more generous view prevailed, and, in deciding as the people of New York by their votes did, to …

as well as of the devices for supplying themselves with water in use among the earliest peoples nothing material to the information of the general reader is omitted. The Memoir of the Croton Aqueduct is compiled from official reports and documents, as for the most part is the sketch of the numerous attempts which, from an early day, were made by the citizens of New York, to …

Matthews, in 1834, descriptive of water works in Great Britain, and the exceedingly clever book on Hydraulics and Mechanics, published in our city last year, by THOMAS EWBANK, have furnished or indicated much of the material used in the Essay. To Ewbank's book particular obligation is acknowledged, alike for what is to be found in its pages, and for references they afford to …

unspeakably in this compilation, and saved many a weary hour of fruitless research. A few words as to the style in which the volume is published: It was the earnest wish and desire of the Author, that a book, commemorating so magnificent an enterprise should be sent forth with some luxury of typography, and especially with the illustration of numerous engravings, and he …

First Ward. CALYIN BALIS. HARMON C. WESTERYELT. Second Ward. Second Ward. CALEB S. WOODHULL. GEORGE F. NESBITT. Third Ward. Third Ward. JOHN A. UNDERWOOD. WILLIAM DODGE. Fourth Ward. Fourth Ward. ROBERT MARTIN. DAYID T. WILLIAMS. Fifth Ward. Fifth Ward. ROBERT JONES. WILLIAM ADAMS. Sixth Ward. Sixth Ward. CLARKSON CROLIUS, JR. RICHARD H. ATWELL. Seventh Ward. Seventh Ward …

WATER, as one of the elements alike of animal and vegetable life, has always been an object of man's attention. In the early ages, indeed, it was reverenced as the substance of which all things were supposed to be made, and the vivifying principle that animated the whole hence rivers, fountains, and wells were worshipped, and religious ; feasts and ceremonies instituted in …

Shaw, in his History of the Province of " that heathen customs were much practised among the people, such as Moray says, pilgrimages to wells, and building chapels to fountains.At the present time, in some parts of England, remains of well-worship are preserved in the custom of performing annual processions to them r decorating them with wreaths and chaplets of flowers …

In all ages and countries, from the most remote periods, a supply of the indispensable article water has been an object of solicitude, and various were the means by which it was obtained and diffused. In Asia, the original home of the human race, where rain seldom falls, and rivers and running streams are rare, wells were early devised. The antiquity, indeed, of this mode of …

On this supposition only can we account for many of them being perforated through rocks, some of the oldest wells known, being dug entirely through that material and to a prodigious depth.* " The Jews," as by the Abbe Pleury, in his Manners of the justly remarked ' is " Ancient Israelites,' owing to their numerous herds of cattle, set a very high value upon their wells and …

Numerous wells of great antiquity are still to be seen in Egypt, and among the ruins of Ninevah, a city of which the foundation was laid by Ashur, the son of an antediluvian, is a remarkable well which supplies the peasants with water, to which they ascribe many virtues.! It was a common practice in those Eastern countries, to, erect stations and place guards for the …

It was in digging a well in 1711, that the long buried ruins of Herculaneum were discovered, by the accidental striking upon some pieces of marble and statues, which subsequently proved to be part of a temple, situated in the midst of Herculaneum, buried by an eruption of Vesuvius, 1630 years before and it is a fact interesting in itself and ; not foreign to our subject, to …

It is excavated of these dimensions through solid rock to the depth of 165 feet, where it is enlarged into a capacious chamber, in the bottom of which is formed a basin, or reservoir, to receive the water raised from below, for this chamber is not the bottom of the well. On one side of the reservoir, another shaft is continued 130 feet lower, where it emerges through the rock …

"A spiral passage way is cut through the rock, from the surface of the ground to the chamber, independent of the well, round which it winds with so gentle a descent, that persons sometimes ride up or down upon asses or mules. It is six feet four inches wide, and seven feet two inches high. Between it and the interior of the well, a wall of rock is left, to prevent persons …

To erect of granite a flight of "geometrical" or " well-stairs," two or three hundred feet high, on the surface of the ground, would require extraordinary skill r although in the execution every aid from rules, measures,, and the light of day, would guide the workmen at every step ; but to' begin such a work at the top and construct it downward, by excavation alone, in the …

It would seem no stronger, in proportion, than sheets of pasteboard placed on edge, to support one end of the stairs of a modern built house, for it must be borne in mind, that the massive roof of the spiral passage next the well, has nothing but this film of rock to support it, or to prevent such portions from falling as are loosened by fissures,, or such as from changes in …

Van Sleb, who visited Egypt several times in the 17th century, says some of the people in his time thought it Avas digged by spirits ; and he adds, " I am almost inclined to believe it, for I cannot conceive how man can compass so wonderful a work." Some writers believe this well to have been the work of a more scientific people than any of the comparatively modern possessors …

To complete this notice of wells, it may be added that in our own country, ac- " From the cording to Mr. Flint, ancient wells have been found. highest point on the Ohio, to St. Charles on the Missouri, and far up the Upper Mississippi and Missouri, the more the country is explored and peopled, and the more its surface is penetrated, not only are there more mounds brought to …

The excessive labor and inconvenience of this practice, led to the formation of vast tanks for the collection of water, from which it might be conducted in open channels to the points proposed. In comparison with some of these tanks, our largest " In the Carnatic, reservoirs sink into insignificance. it is recorded, that there are tanks eight miles in length and three in …

A long bamboo with a large weight of earth at the extremity, is fastened to the end of the Jantu next the river, and passing over the gallows before mentioned, poises up the Jantu full of water, and causes it to empty itself into the gutter. This machine raises the water three feet, but by placing a series of these one above another, it may be raised to any height, the water …

puddled earth are made to receive the contributions of each bucket. The average lift of the Swape is seven feet, and by a series of these, one above the other, the water is finally delivered on the summit of the bank, thence to irrigate the vast plains beyond. The chain of pots is also seen side by side with the Swape, and is the more efficient mechanism, by delivering the …

used now in an improved form on board ships of war. The ordinary pump, or sucking-pump, as it ^vas at first called, though evidently known to the Greeks and Romans, and used in their ships, does not seem to have been much employed by them for domestic purposes. It was not till the fifteenth and sixteenth century that pumps became common and superseded the more ancient devices …

vacuum, and demonstrated that the rising of water in the chamber of the pump, was produced by atmospheric pressure. As human beings were aggregated into larger societies, and the progress of civilization and refinement produced new and artificial wants, all the known modes of obtaining water from wells, springs, fountains and rivers, were found insufficient, and it became an …

that their aqueducts, such as those built by Pisistratus, at Athens, that at Megara, and the celebrated one of Polycrates, at Samos, mentioned by Herodotus, were rather conduits than ranges of buildings like the Roman aqueducts. But, at a period antecedent probably to the construction of these Grecian aqueducts, King Solomon, one thousand years before the Christian Era …

These pools are three in a row, one over the other, and so disposed that the water of the uppermost may descend into the second, and from the second into the third. They are quadrangular, and of an equal breadth, viz., about 90 paces but in length they differ, the first being ; 160 paces, the second, 100, and the third, 220. All three are of a considerable depth, well walled …

" At about 140 paces from Solomon's pools, is the fountain from which principally they derive their waters. This the friars believe to be that sealed fountain to which the Holy Spouse is compared, [Cant. 4, 12,] and in confirmation of this opinion, they pretend a tradition, that Solomon shut up these springs and kept the door of them sealed with his signet, to the end that he …

You find here four places at which the waters rise from these separate sources ; it is conveyed by little rivulets into a kind of basin, and from thence is carried by a large subterranean passage down into the pools. In the way, before it reaches the pools, there is an aqueduct. of brick pipes which receives part of the stream, and carries it by many turnings and windings …

These stones are let into each other with a fillet, framed round about the cavity to prevent leakage, and united to each other with so firm a cement, that they will sometimes sooner break (though of a coarse kind of marble) than endure separation. This train of stones was covered, for its greater security, with a case of marble stones laid over it in very strong mortar. The …

It here winds round the side of these hills, and is afterwards carried through the plains to Jerusalem, on a level with the surface of the ground. * * * little beyond this place, we came to the pools of Solomon, as they are commonly called, for there is a tradition that these were made by him, as well as the aqueduct, which seems to be confirmed by a passage in Josephus, who …

The aqueduct is built on a foundation of stone, the water runs in round earthen pipes about 10 inches diameter, which are cased with two stones hewn so as to fit them, and they are covered over with rough stones well cemented together, and the whole so sunk in the ground on the sides of the hills, that in many is to be seen of it." places nothing It seems, however, to have …

Ducts of water according to Vitruvius, were of three kinds channels of masonry, leaden pipes, or tubes of fictile ware, according to the following rules when channels ; are used they should be made as solid as possible, and the bed of the stream should have a descent not less than half a foot in 100 feet, and they should be arched over, that the sun's rays may not touch the …

This disposition is established, because by the tax on the water carried to private houses, the State keeps the aqueduct in repair. But, should mountains intervene between the city and the spring head, a subterranean passage is to be dug through the earth, having the declivity of one part in two hundred, and should the soil be either gravel or stone, a channel is to be cut …

pipes are not to be less than ten Roman feet in length, and were named from the breadth of the lead before it was rounded into a pipe. The manner of conducting water by pipes is thus regulated ; if the spring head had a sufficient current to the city, and no higher hills intervened, the interval is, by walling, raised to a proper level, as mentioned in the description of …

In the venter, also, columnarics. are to be raised, through which the force of the vapors may be dissipated. These columnariae are supposed to have been always open at the top, and to reach above the level of the aqueduct. It was not unusual, when the level from the spring head to the city was obtained, to erect a castellum at every 200 actus* distance, that if damage should …

But when it was required to conduct water at less expense, tubes of earthen-ware were made, having a thickness of not less than two inches, and these tubes were so formed that one end being tongued, the one entered the other then the joints were cemented with quick lime, tempered with oil. In the descents, level with the venter, a stone of the red kind is to be placed at the …

Aqueducts of tubes have this advantage if any damage happen, any person may rectify it, and water from earthen tubes is far more wholesome than that from pipes, as the use of lead is found to be pernicious. We should not, therefore, conduct water in pipes of lead, if we would have it wholesome. The taste also of that from the tubes is better, as is proved by our daily meals …

of the under one, as a tenon into a mortice, or a box into the lid ; these pipes ought to be laid even with quick lime, quenched and dissolved in oil. The least level to carry and command water up hill from the descent is 100 feet, but if it be conveyed by one canal only, it may be forced to mount 240 feet. As touching the pipes by means whereof the water is to rise aloft …

From this description of the mode in which the Roman aqueducts were constructed, it is obvious that the principles and precautions, which, as is sometimes supposed modern science has discovered and applied to such structures, were known and used at that early day. The declivity given to the channel was indeed greater than that usual in more modern conduits, but in other …

Pipes of cast iron are now the only ones used for mains, or large distributing pipes. These may be made of almost any diameter, by duly increasing the quantity of metal contained in them. The largest pipes laid down in this city, are of three feet internal diameter, and in lengths of nine feet, weighing from 3,500 to 3,800 Ibs. The largest diameter of leaden pipes used by the …

Or, boiled in a like vessel, and left to cool, if, when poured off, there shall be neither sand nor earth left at the bottom, it may be deemed good. Again, if vegetables boiled in it be rapidly cooked, it is an indication that the water is pure and wholesome."* For 441 years after the building of their city, the Romans were content to use the water furnished by the Tiber, (the …

They were attended outside of the city by two lictors, two slaves, a secretary, Frontinus, on his appointment, very sensibly concluded, and other followers. " as he tells us at the outset of his treatise, that, considering in this as in other affairs of life, that the first thing was to know and understand what he had undertaken," he set himself about collecting and noting …

Owing to some intrigue, however, of Appius, Plautius resigned his station before the expiration of two years, and Appius alone, therefore, enjoyed the honor of giving his name to the aqueduct, and to another noble work, which, by prolonging his censorship unlawfully, and through various artifices, he was enabled to complete, the Via Appia, from Rome to Capua. The Aqua Appia …

The expense of this great work was defrayed out of the spoils of the Pyrrhic war. The Senate created Decemvirs to complete the aqueduct, naming Curius who had commenced it, and as his colleague, Fabius Flaccus. Curius died soon after the appointment, and the glory of terminating the work accrued to Fabius alone. The Anio Vetus began above Tivoli, at a distance of 20 miles from …

and to ascertain if some new supply could not be obtained. This led to the construction of the Aqua Marcia, of which Pliny thus speaks : " Of all the waters in the world, that which we call the Marcia, in Rome, carrieth the greatest name by the general voice of its citizens, in regard both to its coldness and salubrity, and we may esteem this water for one of the greatest …

This water, the most wholesome of any conveyed to Rome, was drawn from springs, in the neighborhood of Subiaco, on the Anio, 20 miles above Tivoli, in the mountains. These sources were 36 miles from Rome, on the Yia Valeria. The whole length of its course was 60 miles and 710 paces, of which 54 miles 247 paces were subterraneous, the restbeing carried over arches as it …

Long ago," com- " we of Rome have lost the and plains this writer, pleasure commodity of those rills, through the ambition and avarice of some great men, who have turned away the waters from the city where they yielded a pu bl ic benefit to the commonwealth, and diverted them for their own profit and delight, into their manors and houses, to irrigate their gardens, and to …

After collecting a number of little tributary springs, at the distance of seven miles from the city, they flowed on towards Rome, each in its own channel, but over the same arches. The Julia was the highest, the Marcia the lowest of the three. About thirteen years afterwards, the same Agrippa brought to Rome the Aqua Virginis, so called from the circumstance, as related by …

which, having followed up, they came to a copidus supply of water. In a little temple built on the spot, a picture is suspended, commemorating the event. The springs thus found were surrounded with a brick wall, and in their course augmented by several small streams, and the united waters were carried to Rome by an aqueduct of about fourteen miles, of which about three-fourths …

This was the water-course, afterwards adjusted by Trajan, into which he introduced a new stream from the lake Sabbatinus, now the Lago Bracciano, and then the name of Alsietina was changed to Sabbatina. It is now the Aqua Paola, and supplies the fountains of St. Peter's and the Vatican. Some remains of the original work of Augustus (as is most probable,) may be seen without …

The source of the Aqua Claudia was from two fine springs called Cseruleus and Curtius, at a distance of thirty-eight miles from the city, on the Via Sublacensis, 300 paces within on a path to the left. The Aqua Claudia was next in quality to the Aqua Marcia. The whole length of this wonderful aqueduct was 46 miles and 406 paces, of which 36 miles and 210 paces were …

Finally, to complete the account of Frontinus, the Anio Novus (also brought by Clau- It was, as the name dius) took its rise on the Via Sublacensis, at the 42d mile-stone. implies, a portion of the river Anio. This river, traversing a rich and highly cultivated region, was mixed in times of rain with a quantity of the soil. On this account a purifying piscina or reservoir was …

Claudia, the Julia, the Tepula, and the Marcia ; the waters of all these five aqueducts could, however, be conducted to every part of the city. The Anio Vetus was in the sixth rank, as to level, though from the height of its source, it might have been conveyed to the loftiest parts of the city. The Aqua Virgo, and Aqua Appia, of which the sources were " The desert which * T7ie …

At length when a dreadful succession of Lombards, Franks, and Saracens destroyed the houses, pavements, drains, crops, plantations, and cattle which had protected the Campagna from mephitism, it then returned to its own vicious propensity, for both the form of its surface and the order of its soil promote the stagnation of water." [Forsyth, p. &H ] 18 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. in the …

The Tiber itself, at Rome, was 91.5 feet above the level of the sea.* It appears from these statements of the elevation of the different conduits, that the earlierRomans conducted the water on lower levels than their successors, either from ignorance of the mode of ascertaining and preserving the exact level, or as a precaution whereby they were enabled the better to conceal …

A modern engineer who measured some of the remains of these buildings, in order to determine this point, states that he found the mean fall of the ancient aqueducts from the purifying piscinas, or reservoirs, to the point of distribution, to be about 1 in 663, and that from the source of the stream to these reservoirs, the mean fall was about 0.132 of an English inch to the …

The piscinas or reservoirs, to which reference has been made, were placed at a certain distance from the city, and there the waters deposited their sediment, and there also the quantity of the supply was determined by a register ; six of the aqueducts were thus emptied into piscinas; three of these, the Julia, Marcia, and Tepula were conducted from the purifying reservoirs to …

Indeed, the Anio Vetus was rarely free from discoloration, but as it flowed on a low level it could not affect the other waters, but the Anio Novtis being of a lofty level and unfailing in its stream, was occasionally used, when the other aqueducts were falling off in their supply, to make good the deficiency, and hence all were more or less contaminated even the Marcia, which …

He then caused the water from the Anio Novus to be drawn from the lake itself, instead of the river ; and either because the stream supplying this lake ran over a rocky bed, or that from the depth of the lake, the water was purified by depositing an earthy matter, it issued thence cool and bright, so as to equal in appearance and taste the Marcia, which it greatly surpassed in …

Virgo, 2,504 " Julia, 1,368 " 7008 Claudia, 4,607 17,567 17,567 quinariae 24,575 The quantity of the Alsietina is not given, but it was computed to deliver about 400 quinariae making altogether, 25,000 quinariae.* * The quinaria is equivalent to about 2000 cubic feet, of about 7 gallons each. 20 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. But of this immense abundance, not three-fifths, according to …

The distribution of the water along its course, as well as throughout the city, was regulated with scrupulous care. Besides the piscina limosa, or purify ing reservoir usually placed at the mouth of each aqueduct, there were frequent castella, or wells along the line, which both aided in the process of purification, and permitted water to be drawn occasionally along the route …

breadth, whose vaulted roof rests upon forty-eight immense pillars, disposed in rows, so as to form five aisles within the edifice, and sixty arches." The castellaMvere of three kinds, public, private, and domestic.}: The public castella which received the water of the aqueduct, were such as have already been described, and from them distribution was made 1st., to the …

distributions, or extraordinary grants, to places or individuals. Castella Prlvata. When a number of individuals, living in the same neighborhood, had obtained a grant of water, they clubbed together and built a castellum^ into which the whole quantity allotted to them collectively, was transmitted from the castellum publicum. These were termed privata, though they belonged to …

But as even this permission opened a door for great abuses, from the fraudulent conduct of the aquarii, who damaged the ducts for the purpose of selling the aqua caduca, a remedy was sought by the institution of castella privata, and the public were henceforward forbidden to collect the aqua caduca, unless permission was given by special favor (beneficium) of the emperor. The …

The smaller pipes which led from the main to the houses of private persons, were called punctoe ; those inserted by fraud into the duct itself, or into the main after it had left the castellum, fistula, illicitce. The erogatio was regulated by a tube called calix, of the diameter required, attached 22 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. to the extremity of each pipe where it entered the …

On examination of the stream that issues from the hole, it will be found to taper off considerably at half an inch from the distance of half the diameter of the hole. If a short tube of the same diameter be inserted in the hole, the discharge of water will be greatly increased, and if at the distance of not more than two or three diameters, this tube should be made to flare …

short bent tube of brass or bronze, that formed the communication between the castellum and the leaden pipe for the supply of private houses, which pipe, by a Senate decree, was required to be of the same diameter as the calix, for the distance of fifty feet from the castellum.J The proportion in which the prodigal water of the Roman aqueducts was distributed, is given with …

Lead was universally used for the supply-pipes from the castella, and notwithstandof health, we find in ing Vitruvius speaks of this metal as objectionable on the score Frontimis no allusion to any evil from its general employment. The liability of these gigantic works to injury and decay, especially in the portions above ground, is forcibly dwelt upon by Frontinus. The …

Various causes of dilapidation are enumerated by our author ; the cupidity of individuals through whose lands the aqueducts passed, and who, for the sake of irrigation, or for domestic uses, were tempted to enlarge any holes through which the water (Aqua Caduca) oozed out ; the violence of tempests, the imperfection of the work, especially in the more modern structures, and …

every kind in the vicinity.* All work of repair, was however, as much as possible suspended in the summer season, as then the free use of the water was most needed and agreeable.t The spring and autumn were the working periods. Moreover, a moderate temperature was deemed advantageous, as permitting the masonry to be laid with the degree of humidity deemed essential to its …

These at first numbered 250 but at his death he bequeathed them to Augustus, who transferred them to the public. Claudius established another company of fountaineers, to about 460 persons, divided into differduring the erection of his aqueduct, amounting ent classes, and with distinct duties. There were the comptrollers, the keepers of the castellum, inspectors, paviours …

D. 535, Rome was besieged by the Goths under Vitiges, Procopius,l the historian of the Gothic war, records that fourteen streams flowed into the city. It was of course among the means employed by the barbarian invaders to induce submission, to cut off the accustomed supply of water, and Rome, in her 1289th year, and after enjoyof her fountains and aqueducts, was again ing for …

This barbarian interruption of these accustomed and hitherto unfailing streams, cutting off not only the luxuries of the baths, and of the fountains in all their daily and hourly uses for domestic purposes, in the gardens and the pools, necessarily changed at once the whole internal economy and arrangements of the city. Perhaps, among the causes which mark the final decay and …

Of the Anio Vetus, Frontinus merely relates, that it was built from the spoils taken from Pyrrhus and of the Marcia, he says, the Senate appropriated by decree. " Sestertium mille octingenties," equal in our money to $3,240,000. But whether this sum sufficed to complete the undertaking, or whether slaves or the soldiers were employed on such works } does not appear. Concerning …

It is also remarked by Frontinus, that so " admirable was the equity of our ancestors, that when on the line of an aqueduct, any owner of lands was unwilling to sell the portion required for the public work, the whole farm was bought by the State, and after taking what was requisite, the rest was resold."]: At subsequent periods, it would seem, from a Senate decree, to be …

In the earlier period of the aqueducts, all the water was for the use of the people, " that except what overflowed from the fountains or pools and it was expressly enacted, ; no private person should divert any water, other than that which overflowed." Even II this surplus of waste water was appropriated to baths, fullers, dyers, &c., and for it * Frontinus, p. 160. t Liv …

On the latter point particularly he states, that the Curule .ZEdiles were required to select two persons in each street from those who inhabited it, or owned property in it, who should determine where the public fountain, or hydrant should be placed. Another strong proof of the regard paid to the comfort and wants of the people, in respect of the use of the waters, is …

aqueducts are in other respects so copious, has left no record of the rate of this tax, of the principle on which it was assessed, or of its productiveness such a table at this period ; would have been both curious and instructive. A grant of water for private use was in all cases personal, and ceased with the life of the grantee. The residents of the same neighborhood united …

Experience having proved, that frequently, when essential and speedy repairs were needed on portions of the aqueducts passing through private property, difficulties and delays arose from the opposition of the owners of the neighboring soil, to any passing through their lands, or deriving materials therefrom, for the work in hand, the Senate passed a law, declaring that as …

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informer the other to go into the public treasury. j Another decree also forbids the sowing any grain, or cutting any hay, or feeding cattle, within the specified limits. The magnificence of the Romans, in these peculiar and most beneficial structures, was not confined to Rome, for few cities of any note in their extended dominions, appear to have been without one or more …

The cement used in building the work is as hard as the stones themselves, and, such is the tenacity of that which coated the water channel, that where flakes of it of 100 feet in length have fallen from the wall, they lie unbroken. The conduit is 6 feet high within, and 4 feet wide, "arched to a point" says Stuart. At Ariana, about four miles from Tunis, other remains of this …

Flattered by the attentions of the citizens, Agrippa made their city his place of residence, and he adorned it with new city walls and magnificent baths. Those who suppose that the object of the aqueduct was to conduct water to the amphitheatre only, instead of being appropriated to the domestic uses of the inhabitants, have not regarded with attention the peculiarities of its …

To avoid this^it was brought from the mountains, excluding all communication with the waters of the country through which it passed, and where it became necessary to pass the deep valley in which the river Garden runs, it was conducted across that valley by a bridge of two stages of arcades, at a height of 150 feet above the ordinary level of the river, that is, measuring to …

Although an adventitious addition, it is clearly Roman work, probably of a much later age. The length of this aqueduct, as far as discovered, is about six French leagues, or 15 miles, in a direction resembling a horse-shoe, and derives its water from the spring of Eure, and Airau, near the village of Uzes. The Pont du Garde is in the middle of its course the greater part of …

The Pont du Garde, is that part of the aqueduct of Nismes which traverses the deep valley in which runs the Garden or Garde, between the mountains near Vers and St. Bennet. This considered even alone, is one of the grandest erections made by the part, Romans in Gaul. The first row of arcades, beneath which runs the Gardon, is composed of six arches ; the second row has eleven …

16 feet on the second, 10 feet on the third ; this forms a considerable offset on each stage ; the five piers of the first range of arcades were formed with salient angles or bees. The division of the arches on the first and second stories is the same ; the middle arch of the first range, under which the river passes, and which is the centre of the entire aqueduct, is70 feet …

As the two mountains forming the valley of Gardon are not of equal height at the points in the line of aqueduct, that on the left side of the river being lower than the level of the aqueduct, while the right side is more elevated, the conduit on one side is carried onwards by continuing the third range of arches, and on the other side, the range terminates in the side of the …

The inside facing of the walls, and the bottom hollowed in the form of an arc of a circle, were covered with a coat of cement about two inches in thickness, composed of quicklime, fine sand, and pulverised bricks. This cement is at the present day of a consistence equal to that of the hardest and most compact stone, and without the slightest crevice or flaw to be any where …

The aqueduct has been constructed with the same care throughout its great length, the only difference being that, in the parts exposed, the aqueduct was covered with slabs, and in the subterranean portion it was covered with a semi-circular arch, of a species of rubble roughly squared in the joints, nearly two feet in thickness. In examining the water channel, a strong …

the Duke de Rohan, in order to make a passage for his artillery, perforated the piers of and by some other operations directed to the same end, the Pont du the second arcade, Garde was rapidly falling to pieces. Considerable rents in the walls, and deviations from the perpendicular, exciting public attention, the provincial States took the matter into consideration, and by a …

The oldest, that erected by the troops of Marcus Antoninus, drew its waters by two branches, from the group of hills, called in modern times, Mont d'Or : this stream having been found inadequate for the proper supply of even the highest division of the city, a second aqueduct was constructed, which drew its water from the Loire. The third aqueduct was formed under, to conduct …

The body of the work, that is, the arcades that carried the aqueduct across the valleys, is built of masses of rubble stone and cement, faced, as has been stated, with the opus reticulatum. In this instance, this kind of work is supposed to have been formed by laying a bottom of brick, of two, three, or four layers, then a caisson of wooden sides was applied to it,- and fixed …

One can conceive, says a learned antiquary, how a careful beating together of these materials had the effect of creating so binding a cement, since we know from our own practice, that puddling earth, fine gravel, and water together, form a lining for a canal, that becomes impervious to water when once settled, and it was probably from this puddling, and not from any secret as …

The utmost breadth of the piers of the aqueduct of Chaponost, which carried a canal of three feet broad, by six feet high, is not more than six feet, while the breadth of the aqueduct which passed over the river Baunan, arid which has no canal, is 24 feet broad, consisting of two piers, each five feet, supporting an arch 14 feet in diameter. M. Delorme,in his account, (Seance …

Where smaller bridges would serve, and where they could carry the waters over a bridge by a rectilinear canal, they always built up bridges to that level, but where that would become too high, and yet where a bridge was necessary, they built bridges of a height sufficient to carry the water over in syphons of easy curvature. The sources of supply of the aqueduct of Mont de …

The ninth is in a very deep and wide bottom, on the heights of Soncieu. The aqueduct, when it arrives at this bottom, is terminated with a reservoir at the south edge of the valley of the river Garon. The mode by which the water passed this profound chasm, was by causing it to flow from a reservoir on the one side, in leaden pipes^ bedded in the sides of the valley along part …

It emerges on the north, and flows over a bridge composed of ninety arches, of which more than sixty, in Delorme's time, were remaining. This was terminated by a reservoir, whence the water, in like manner as before, descended by pipes into another valley, and in part passed it and the river Baunan, over a bridge of a reversed curvature, and mounted again on the opposite side …

and its descent from the bridge of the little Varizelle to the Fourviere, is 360 feet. Delorme next describes the nature of these reservoirs placed on each side of those valleys, across which the waters were passed in syphons over a bridge of reversed curvature. The one is for holding up, or receiving, and thence emitting, the waters which are to be conveyed in pipes, and the …

manner, and were inserted in the wall of another receiving reservoir. This receiving reservoir differed from the emitting one only in this, that it held the waters flowing towards the bottom of its basin, and the emitting one poured them out from the upper part, about three feet from the bottom, so that while the water rose in the emitting reservoir to three or four feet, that …

In opposition to this opinion of Delorme, another eminent architect, who examined the aqueduct, thought that the receiving and emitting reservoirs had the same number of pipes, and that the nine pipes which proceeded from the one to the other, preserved the same dimension throughout. Delorme says that the water in the emitting reservoir, was higher by one foot than that in the …

The bottom of the canal had a coat of cement 6 inches thick, and a coat of 1 1-2 inches on the sides, which reduced the intervals between the walls to 21 inches. The angles were formed by the sides and bottom, rounded by cement. The walls were constructed with small rough stones, from 3 to 6 inches in thickness, laid in a bed of mortar, so that no void was left between the …

That on the bottom of the canal, is made of pieces as large as nuts, and in many places the size of eggs the composition was made with lime fresh slaked. ; That which contributed to make good cement, as well as good mortar, in their opinion, both in the one and the other, was the effectual mixing of the ingredients, so as that the mass should be all of the same temper, which …

The entrance of the water into the aqueduct was regulated by a vane, or sliding valve, of a certain dimension, as only a certain quantity was allowed to flow into each branch. This does not appear ever to have exceeded 21 inches of elevation, which was sufficient to fill all the syphons ; without this precaution the volume of Avater, which might have risen to 4 feet, would …

For an opening of 18 feet in height the width is 12 feet, and the piers 6 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 37 feet, sustaining a semi -circular ; when the inequality of the surface did not allow the piers to have an equal height of 18 feet to each opening, the piers were shortened, and the other parts remained of the same general dimensions. The piers of the arches in some places, are …

This kind of masonry was bound, at every four feet of its height, by two courses of "great bricks," each brick being 22 inches square, and two inches thick. The angles of the piers, formed of small square slabs of stone, offered, in many instances, an insufficient resistance to the lozenge masses which they terminated, and their displacement has been apparently the main cause …

The valley between Soncieu and Chaponost is about 200 feet deep. Five ranges of arcades, placed one over the other, for a length of 2400 feet, conducted the water across the valley the valley through which ; the river d'Izeron flows, between Chaponost and St. Foi, is nearly 300 feet deep, and was crossed by a series of arcades having eight ranges in height. The third valley …

This reservoir, fourteen feet long by four and a half feet wide, is seven feet high to the summit ol its arch ; the walls are four and a half feet high to the springing of the arch, and two feet three inches thick. The arch is pierced in the centre by an opening two feet square, which serves as a passage into the reservoir. The bottom is lined with a coat of cement, six inches …

the facing is of reticulated masonry, and being built with black and grey pieces, has much the appearance of a chess-board. However, these open ings having weakened too much the higher piers, the builders were under the necessity of strengthening some of them, by counter-forts of the same sort of masonry. Two arcades in the valley of Bannau fell in 1757, from this precaution …

increase in the number of pipes being made on account of the valley being deeper than that of the Garon, and, as he thinks, as the pressure increases, while the depth is augmented, that the architects multiplied the number of syphons, to divide this force by diminishing their diameter in proportion a circumstance which, if accurate, would clearly decide that the difference …

The emitting reservoirs had an opening at a height of four and a half feet above the level of the pavement, to turn, if required, the flowing water to the bottom of the tower, and to facilitate their cleanings and reparations. The great reservoir of the Maison Angelique, the bottom of which is now buried in the ground, was supported by a series of vaults, separated by …

He had no knowledge of the reservoir discovered by Delorme, to which it is probable these pipes belonged, and in which they were used for distributing the water to the buildings and gardens of the palace of the Emperor Claudius. The aqueduct of Metz is another of the great works of the Romans, though of what precise date seems uncertain possibly of the period when the legions …

It has two branches which form an obtuse angle with the city. At the commencement of the angle it becomes a grand object. Its two rows of arcades rise majestically above each other, and the spectator is surprised at its gigantic height, and the It has stood 1600 years. lightness of its piers. Nor can we pass by the extensive works at Grenada, though of comparatively modern …

The fountain was in the centre of this magnificent court. Twelve lions support on their backs an alabaster basin, richly decorated, elevated above which was a smaller basin. A great volume of water rose through pipes into the upper basin, which fell into that below, and was thence conducted through the mouth of the lions, to a black marble reservoir, from which, as a fountain …

It is his business to keep them in good repair, and he is responsible for any accidents which may obstruct or diminish the supply. As no time is to be lost to repair injuries, this officer is clothed with great power, and he compels every one to assist in restoring the line of communication. This resembles the corvee of old France in some measure, but is much more oppressive …

sequestered dells, the traveller frequently comes suddenly upon one of these sculptured marble fountains, which adds just enough of ornament to embellish the rural scene. They are frequently decorated with inscriptions, setting forth the greatness and goodness of Providence, and inviting the weary traveller to make due acknowledgement for the same. Unlike our civilized …

Four of these bendts were visited and examined, but there are several others which we did not see. A description of one of the largest will give an idea of the manner in which they are constructed. " A solid wall of marble masonry, eighty feet wide, and supported by two largs buttresses, rises to the height of a hundred arid thirty feet from the bottom of the valley, It is …

They both supply the aqueduct of Batchikeui, which, as has already been stated, furnishes the suburbs of Pera and Galata with water. Beyond Belgrade are other reservoirs which will be elsewhere noticed. These supply Constantinople proper, with water. " In order to a clear idea of the direction of these various convey hydraulic works, it may be advisable to follow each singly …

The precise epoch of the construction of this aqueduct is not known, although it is commonly attributed to the Emperor Justinian II. This aqueduct receives also water from two others, the principal of which is known under the name of Solyman. This is sixteen hundred feet long, and eighty feet high, and consists of two stories of fifty arches each. It is a Turkish work. Another …

" We will now return to the aqueduct of Batchikeui, and follow the direction of its waters. These are carefully brought round the heads of the valleys in covered canals, in which there are at certain intervals, sudden breaks or alterations in the level, which answer the double purpose of agitating the water in contact with air, and of precipitating its impurities. It likewise …

Notwithstanding all these expensive works, it sometimes happens, after long droughts, that the supply becomes scanty in the suburbs and ; during my residence here, I have known water to be sold at Pera and Galata at from two to six cents a pail-ful. This, however, never occurs in the city itself, which is abundantly supplied at all seasons of the year. " Where a be crossed …

" They form a striking peculiarity in Turkish scenery, and it was some time before the principle upon which they were constructed was apparent. The water leaves the brow of a hill, and descending in earthen pipes rises in leaden or earthen ones, up one side of this pillar, to its former level, which must be, of course, the summit of the pillar, or sooteray, as it called by the …

The stone basin on the summit is covered with an iron plate, to prevent the birds from injuring the water. This is connected by a hinge, and, upon lifting it up, the basin is found to be divided into two parts by a stone partition. Several holes are made in this partition near its upper edge. The water from the ascending pipe is allowed by this means to settle its foreign …

As they are from three to five hundred yards apart, the cost is probably much less than by any plan which could be devised, where, in addition to the cost of a canal or series of pipes, we should be compelled to raise it again, by the expensive agency of steam or some other costly apparatus. The frequent exposure of the water to air and light at the summit of these sooterays …

" After a deliberate survey of the various hydraulic contrivances for supplying Conwith water, one is at a loss to know which to admire most, the native stantinople good sense which pointed out the necessity and importance of furnishing the capital and its suburbs with pure and wholesome water, the ingenuity displayed in conquering almost invincible obstacles, or that wise and …

I went by chance into a house from which there was a descent into a cistern, and embarked in a little skiff on its waters. The master of the house having lighted torches, rowed us to and fro between the pillars, which lay very deep in the water. He was very intent upon catching fish, with which the cistern abounds, and speared some of them by the light of the torches. A faint …

Walsh, whose travels in Turkey are so late as 183-, visited this subterranean reservoir, and confirms the account of Gyllius. Modern Rome is almost as bountifully supplied with water as the ancient city, notwithstanding the destruction or decay of the old aqueducts. But the Romans of this day are but a handful perhaps 150,000 to the populousness of the elder time; and this …

At this period, the three channels by which water of the restored conduit arrived at 46 PRELIMINARY ESSAY. Rome, were conducted into, and distributed from, a reservoir without any architectural ornament. Clement XII. began its decoration on the side of the modern Palais ^Conti, from the designs of Nicolo Salvi. This beautiful monument and masterpiece of its author, was …

This water follows a course approaching to that of the Aqua Marcia and Aqua Claudia, but is on a lower level than either, as its sources are not so high up as the Anio. All the waters of which the Aqua Felice is composed, were united by Urban VII. in one immense reservoir, and several smaller ones, whence they were conducted into the conduit by an aperture named fistola …

In 1694, the Cardinal Orsini, having proposed to the Papal government to bring water from the Lake Bracciano (anciently Alsietinus) to Rome, in the ancient channel of the Aqua Alsietina, the architect, Paglia, examined the levels, and stated that a sufficient quantity of water could be obtained and directed into the channel as projected by the Cardinal.Permission was …

The Pope having directed new experiments and observations to be made, it was found that although the level of the lake was about one and a half palms above the surface of the ancient reservoir which fed the aqueduct, that this additional head was insufficient to produce the velocity to furnish the supply which was considered to be desirable. To obtain this velocity, a weir or …

The quantity of water furnished by this aqueduct is estimated at about 94,184 cubic metres in twenty-four hours. Thus, from the three modern aqueducts not less than 180,500 cubic metres of water are daily introduced into Rome ; yet the want of cleanliness is remarkable in every street and corner of the city. The water is not conveyed by pipes into the upper floors of the …

But although in their houses the modem Romans profit little by their abounding supply of water, in their public fountains they excel all other cities. We shall be excused for quoting the fino account of them, given by Eustace in his classical tour. FOUNTAINS. obelisks, we pass to the fountains, because they are generally employed in " From the the decoration of the same …

Such are in general the fountains and cascades that adorn public walks and palace gardens and such the so much celebrated water- ; works of St. Cloud, Marli, and Versailles inventions which can be considered only as pretty play -things, calculated, like a theatrical decoration to act an occasional part, and to furnish a momentary amusement, but too insignificant to be …

The number of these towers anciently, as well as of the towers springing from them, must have been prodigious, as Agrippa alone, if we may believe Pliny, erected one hundred and thirty of the former, and opened one hundred and five of the latter, and adorned them with three hundred brass and marble statues. The modern Romans, though inferior in numbers and opulence to their …

Alban, or rather Tusculan hills, and conveyed to Rome by channels under, and aqueducts above, ground, some of which are ancient, and some modern. It discharges itself through a rock, under an Ionic arcade built of white stone, and faced with marbfe. It is adorned by several gigantic statues, the principal of which represents Moses striking the rock whence the water issues. On …

They then roll down the side of the mountain, turn several mills as they descend, and supply numberless reservoirs in the plain along the sides of the river, and even beyond it, in the Campus Martius. The lofty situation of this fountain, renders it a conspicuous object to all the opposite hills. The trees that line its sides, and wave to the eye through its arches, shed an …

forth in torrents from all sides, roar down the clefts of the crag, and form a sea around its base. In the heats of summer, they overflow their usual limits, fill the whole marble concavity round the fountain, and rise to a level with the square, where, after sunset, the inhabitants of the neighboring streets assemble, to enjoy the united freshness of the waters and of the …

In fine, it cannot be denied, that the superstructure is, in all three, too massive for the order, and too much encumbered with coats of arms and other supernumerary decorations. Yet, notwithstanding these faults, and they are not inconsiderable, while the spectator sits on the marble border of the basin, and contemplates the elevation of the columns, the magnitude of the …

length, and 178 high divided into three stages with numerous and long tunnels, lighted and ventilated from the depth of 250 feet, by conical shafts of 50 feet diameter at bottom, and four feet at top, and others of inferior note, we select for more special description and detail, the chief water works of England, and of France, and the magnificent aqueduct of Lisbon. London …

Clement's well, may be esteemed the principal, as most frequented, both by scholars from the schools, and youth from the city. when in a summer's evening they are disposed to take an airing." The antiquarian, Stowe, who published his " Survey of London," in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, gives this account of the source and supply of water to the city : " Anciently, until the …

" The first cistern, castellated with stone in the citie of London, was called the great conduit in Westcheap, which was begun to be builded in the year 1235."* The water for this cistern was derived from Paddington, and ran a distance of 1100 rods, or about three and three quarter miles, through leaden pipes, this being the first record of such a mode of distribution. This …

An act of Parliament, in 1544, invested the mayor and commonalty of the city of London, with ample power " to enter into the grounds and possessions of the king, as well as every other person and persons, bodies politic and corporate, where they shall find or know any such springs to be, or may be found, (so that it be not under their houses, gardens, orchards, or places …

and vaults, and them to amend, repair, translate, and do all things necessary and convenient, as well for the finding of new springs, as for the conveyance of any water or springs now found, or hereafter to be found, to the city and suburbs aforesaid, without interruption, let, or impediment, of the owners of the ground, their lessees, assigns, or ministers, or any other …

Lambe's Conduit, was constructed at his own cost, by a gentleman of the name of Lambe, who belonged to the chapel royal of Henry VIIL, and who thus conferred great advantage on the populous neighborhood of Snow Hill. Numerous other conduits were established, from different spring heads, and at different times. These conduits were for the most part small, circular buildings …

horseback, and having the diversion beforehand, of hunting the hare the ladies following in wagons, to partake in the sport and all assembling afterwards in the true spirit of corporation enjoyments, at a good dinner.* Like the Arabian fountains in the Alhambra, too, these conduits were made to promote moral instruction, by short sentences inscribed on them. We annex one or …

The desire of this convenience, and of a more abundant supply, led in 1581, the 23d of Queen Elizabeth, to a grant by the Lord Mayor and Commonalty, of a lease for 500 years, to a Dutchman named Peter Morice, who undertook, by machinery constructed under the first arch of London Bridge, to force water above its level, into a reservoir that should distribute it into the upper …

There were then three water wheels, each operating upon 16 pumps. The wheels and machinery were fixed in a strong frame of oak, that rose and fell with the tide, which, whether ebbing or flowing, imparted motion to the wheels. The whole yield of all the pumps was 1954 hogsheads per hour.* The lease and management of these works, continued in Morice's family till 1701, when …

The disadvantage under which this company labored, in competition with the New River Company whose distribution was through iron pipes still The company, therefore, dragged feebly on, till the further diminished the returns. building of the New London Bridge, in 1822, entirely annihilated their works. The region they supplied is now furnished by the New River and the East …