NEW MODE OF CONSTRUCTING RESERVOIRS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 265, 24 May 1867, Page 2

NEW MODE OF CONSTRUCTING RESERVOIRS.

The following simple plan of constructing reservoirs appeared in the Melbourne Argus, and is from the pen of Mr W. Lockhart Morton. After some introductory remarks, he savs ? " What I wish to make known is a simple and economical mode of constructing the embankments of such reservoirs. I would cons'ract sre'a embankments merely by the aid of common plough and a pair of horses. A pair of horses in ploughing an acre of land with a fur- ! row six inches deep remove about £OO cubic | yards of soil. There is no other process known I by which anything approaching this quantity of i material can be removed with so small an ex* pendituro of power and money. It would net, | be necessary that the embankment should be ! more than five feet high, and one of this elevation could be easily thrown up by a plough. "A level spot should be selected, say from I live to ten chains in diameter. By ploughing round this area" always throwing the furrow outwards, or, what would be better, " gather- i ing up " the furrows a sloping and evenly- constructed embankment would be formed in a few \ days. Having tint selected a sitj for such a rjservoir, it will then have to be determined where the storm water is to lie collected from. Even if it has to be brought from higher ground some miles oil', it is bettor to consruet an aqueduct in the same manner as" the embankment, than to be compelled to use mechanical means to raise the water. Thus by a system of mutual accomodation, each farm or holding might have its reservoirs tilled by the storm waters from another. |gln constructing reservoirs raised above the natural surface, the expense of pumping water for stock would of course be avoided in tho usual way by laying a pipe under the embankment. This discharge pipe might be ma.de selfacting in a much more simple manner than some which have been recently published. All that would be required would he a throttle valve in a chamber at the outer end of the discharge pipe, acted upon by a small lever and float in the receiving trough. " A reservoir five chains square, with an embankment five feet high, would have about 20,000 cubic pards of capacity. The embr.nkment sloping on each side at an angle of twenty degrees, would require about 4,000 cubic yards of material- Mow, to excavate this quantity of material from below the surface in the usual way, at one shilling per cubic yard, would cost £2OO, and this measurement would represent the capacity of the reservoir or tank so excavated. The advantage of embanking instead of excavating is thus as five to one, even it hand labor is employed ; but if, this simple suggestion of using only a common plough were followed, a reservoir. with a capacity of 20,000 cube yards could be finished, on a rough calculation, by a man and a pair of horses in two weeks, costing £l2 instead of £200."