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12
So that the proportions of saline matter dissolved
in the water supplied by the Thames Companies
has ranged from 18.88 grains per imperial gallon in
the case of the West Middlesex Company's water, to
19.66 in that of the Lambeth Company. The average
amount of saline matter in the New River Company's
water has been 18.97 grains per gallon; while in that of
the East London Company it has been 20.04 grains,
and in that of the Kent Company 27.21 grains. The
hardness of the water has ranged from 14.6 degrees
to 20.2; and the quantity of oxygen required to
oxydise organic and other oxydisable matter has
been less than the hundredth part of a grain per
gallon of the water derived from the chalk wells of
the Kent Company, and about a tenth of a grain in
that derived from the Thames. The saline and
organic ammonia obtainable from a gallon of water
by Wanklyn's process has never exceeded the hundredth
part of a grain.
Four of the Companies, namely the West Middlesex,
the Kent, the New River, and the East London,
have constantly supplied water free from turbidity,
even when examined in large volume, as in a glass
tube two feet in length; but the water of the Grand
Junction, the Chelsea, the Lambeth, and the Southwark
and Vauxhall Companies has been frequently
turbid. This has arisen from unusual floods in the
river and from a want of storeage capacity in the
reservoirs of the Companies. Provision, however, is