London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1883
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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The numbers in this table relate to 100,000 parts of the waters, but may be converted into grains per imperial gallon by multiplying them by 7 and then moving the decimal point one place to the left.
| Name of Company. | Temperature in Centigrade Degrees. | Total Solid Matters. | Organic Carbon. | Organic Nitrogen. | Ammonia. | Nitrogen as Nitrates and Nitrites. | Total combined Nitrogen. | Chlorine. | Total Hardness. | Proportional amount of organic Elements, that in the Kent Company's Water during the 9 years ending Dec., 1876, being taken as 1.. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.9 | 27.12 | .156 | .030 | .ooo | 193 | .223 | 1.5 | 19.1 | 3.1 | |
| West Middlesex | 12.7 | 27.76 | .184 | .033 | .ooo | .206 | .238 | 1.5 | 19.7 | 3.7 |
| Grand Junction | 12.2 | 28.07 | .164 | .034 | .ooo | .199 | .233 | 1.5 | 19.9 | 3.4 |
| 12.1 | 41.71 | .050 | .015 | .ooo | 470 | .484 | 2.6 | 28.0 | 11 | |
The Water Examiner's Report.—I turn now to the
Annual Report of Colonel Sir Francis Bolton, R.E., which
contains much information of general interest relating to the
water supply.
Sir Francis Bolton, it should be mentioned, makes monthly
inspections of the Metropolitan waterworks, filter beds,
reservoirs, &c.: he examines the quality of the water, both at
the intakes and after filtration at the works, and he reports
monthly the results of such inspections and gives all other
necessary information and particulars respecting each of the
water companies. One of the most important of his duties is
to ascertain whether or not the requirements of Section 4 of
the Act of 1852 are complied wiih, viz., that " every Company
shall effectually filter all water supplied by them within the
metropolis before the same shall pass into the pipes for distribution."
The effectual filtration of river water depends,
he says, upon—
1. A sufficient area of properly constructed filter beds, constantly clean,
and fresh sanded from time to time as the original thickness is reduced.
2. The rate of filtration being controlled and limited to a certain speed.
3. The water delivered into the filter beds having been previously stored in
subsiding reservoirs, and the capacity of these reservoirs being such as
to avoid the necessity for the intake of turbid and muddy water during
the time of extraordinary and heavy floods, which tend to foul and
choke the filters.
The rate of filtration should not exceed 540 gallons per
square yard of filter bed each 24 hours, or 2£ gallons per