On the water supply of Edinburgh : being a paper read before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, 23d November 1863 / by Alexander Ramsay ; extracted from the Transactions of the Society ; with a map.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the water supply of Edinburgh : being a paper read before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, 23d November 1863 / by Alexander Ramsay ; extracted from the Transactions of the Society ; with a map. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    persons who consider how much the health, comfort, and general prosperity of the community, depend upon a sufficient supply of pure and wholesome water. I have only to add, that of the whole delivery of 780 cubic feet per minute during the past week, fully 590 was spring water, brought in in under-ground pipes direct from the sources of the springs, and that the remainder, under 190 feet, was burn water, and subjected to filtration before being brought to town. I have thus endeavoured to give a brief outline of the history of the introduction of water from the country, from the time when the first supply was brought in, in 1681, to the present month. I have shown the extent of the avail- able supply at different periods; the successive additions which have been made to that supply, and the quantity per head per day thereby afforded, from time to time, to the population. I have endeavoured, also, to show, by a comparison of the consumption per head in certain towns in England, where an abundant supply on the system of constant service is furnished, that the great increase in the consumption per head which within recent years has taken place in Edin- burgh, Leith, and Portobello, is due in great part to bad apparatus and wilful waste ; and that, if used only with moderate economy, the water at present available is suffi- cient to supply a vastly increased population. I have, on the other hand, suggested, that if excessive waste is continued, it will be necessary, sooner or later, to seek for increased supplies, probably at a great distance from Edinburgh, the additional cost of which must alike fall on the inhabitants, whether the diminution in the rates be merely postponed or altogether defeated by a system of waste of such extent as to render it necessary to make any considerable increase in the quantity of water already within the command of the Water Company.