THE POWER OF WATER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 36, 10 January 1884, Page 3

THE POWER OF WATER.

The power of water under pressure is only partially understood, except by those who are accustomed to manipulate it, as the following account will prove. The Virginia City Water Company get their supply from Marietta Lake, on the Tahoe side of the mountain* The water is carried through a long tunnel, on to the crest of a high mountain opposite Mount Davidson, with Washoe Valley between, It is then carried down the mountain side to the bottom, and crosses the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad track, on the divide between Washoe and Eagle valleys, then up again to the required height in iron pipes. The depression created in the line of carriage is 1730 feet, and the pressure on the pipes is 8001 b. to the square inch. One pipe is 11 inches in diameter, and is made of |-inch iron lap-welded, 18 feet long, with screw joints. There is little trouble from it, but the other, which is 12 inches in diameter, and is rivetted pipe, causes more or lens trouble all the time, The pipu in laid with the seam down, and whenever a crack is made by the frost or sun warping it, or from any cause, the stream pours forth with tremendous force. If the joint is broken open, of course the whole stream is loose, and goes tearing down the mountain, but usually the escape is very small. There was a break a short time ago less than $-inch in diameter, and yet the water was lowered 1J inch by it. and the pressure went down 15 or 20 lb. It had been probably a year in cutting out, and was made by a little stream hardly visible to the naked eve, that escaped through a joint and struck the pipe two or three feet off, eating away the iron until the pressure inside broke it through. When such a break occurs, the noise can be heard for half a mile, and the earth shakes for hundreds of feet around. A break the size of a knitting needle will out a hole in the pipe in half-an-hour. Such breaks are repaired by putting a band around the pipe, pouring in melted lead, and tamping it in. Such a stream bores through rock like a sand blast. The flying water is hard as iron, and feels rough like a file to the touch. It is stated that it is impossible to turn the stream of water with the hand, as it tears the flesh off the bones, so great is its power; and should the fingers by accident get stuck in the stream with their points towards it, the naile are instantly turned back and sometimes torn loose from the flesh.