Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

194 ENGINEERING WONDERS OF THE WORLD. spreading like an underground network in all directions, to hundreds of thousands of build- ings. As mere numerals fail to convey an adequate idea of the quantity supplied, we may add that it would fill a canal 113 miles long, 20 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. To carry it, would be required a train of 203,600 trucks, occupying more than 800 miles of track, each truck containing five tons’ weight of the liquid. A year’s supply would form a lake about miles square and 36 feet deep—of sufficient area and depth to give anchorage for all the battleships in the world. The early history of London’s water supply is naturally very vague and indistinct. Occa- sionally there come to light pieces of the lead or earthenware pipes which, Early History many centuries ago, distrib- of the London Water Supply. uted water within the walls of Roman Londinium. In those days plenty of clear, unsullied streams flowed through the area now covered by the great capital, and the inhabitants had no need to go far for their supply. Such also was the case as late as the reign of Henry II. ; but when Edward I. was king the burgesses began to bo exercised by the increasing pollution of the streams. In the middle of the thirteenth century leaden pipes were laid down between Tyburn springs and various points of delivery to the public in the city. A great conduit was built subsequently from the same source, through Charing Cross and the Strand to Fleet Street. As the pipes were in many places above ground and exposed to the air, they were often damaged by frost and acci- dent, and left plenty of work to be done by the professional carriers who drew water for sale from the river. The first attempt to give London a reliable and organized supply seems to London Bridge haye maje a forejgn Water Works. J & engineer, whose name was Anglicised into Morris. He had the sagacity to realize that the ebb and flow of the tides a The New River Scheme. through the arches of London Bridge might be made to turn wheels and work pumps. The London Bridge Water Works, started by him in 1582, and developed gradually until the destruction of the bridge in 1822, proved so lucrative as to have the inevitable effect of raising up rivals to share in the profits of watermongering. In 1609 the Common Council granted to one Hugh Myddleton, a burgess of London and jeweller by trade, powers to tap the Lee near Hertford, and lead water through an aqueduct about 40 miles long into the heart of the city. Myddleton lost no time in getting to work upon the construction of the New River, the name which, the aqueduct then received, and which has clung to it ever since. Th© so-called “ river ” was, as a matter of fact, an open conduit of the Roman type, with a water surface following a uniform hydraulic gradient from end to end. For a large part of its' length it took the form of an ordinary canal ; at some points it ran through wooden troughs supported on wooden arches. The engineer had to face difficulties of the same nature as those which, many years later, overtook the first constructors of railways —owners of land objected strongly to the passage of the river through their proper- ties, fearing evil consequences from outbreaks of water and the subdivision of their fields. It looked at one time as if Parliament would repeal the powers granted to Myddleton, whose anxiety was aggravated, after a year’s work, by the exhaustion of his funds and the projection of a scheme to tap the Lee at Hackney. Feeling himself in a very tight corner, Myddleton applied directly to James I. for help. The king agreed to make him- self responsible for half the expense and to take half the profits, while leaving the prac- tical direction of affairs in the hands of his partner. Possibly even more valuable to James I. assists.