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The Chelsea Company in May. 1885, wert: giving constant supply to 1,183
houses (increase during the past year 095), out of a total of 33,300; and
are fully prepared to extend the system as required. Judging from
the few applications made for constant supply, there appears to he no
desire on the part of the public authorities, or private individuals, in
any of the districts, for the continuous service; but all new lines of
streets are being so supplied. The Chelsea Water Company is the only
one of the eight Metropolitan Water Companies which has given no
notice of its intention to substitute a constant for an intermittent
supply under the provisions of the Act of 1871.
By way of contrast, and to show how backward the Western Companies are
in the matter of constant supply, as compared with the Companies in
the Bastiof London, it may be mentioned that the East London Waterworks
Company now give constant supply to 125,138, out of a total of
147,080, houses supplied by them, and containing an estimated populalation
of 1,069,537 persons. Considerable advance was made during
the past year in London as a whole in extending the constant supply :
278,951, out of the total number of 684,654 houses supplied being now
on constant service.
The number of miles of streets containing mains constantly charged, and on
which hydrants for fire extinguishing purposes could at once be fixed,
in the districts of the local Companies are, West Middlesex, 92½; Grand
Junction, 74; and Chelsea, 71½. The Companies are ready to affix
hydrants on the mains whenever required to do so. In the Metropolis
there are now fixed only 7,206 hydrants, the total length of mains
being 977¾ miles; the increase, in mains, during 1884 being 61¾ miles,
and in number of hydrants, 651.
Deterioration op Water in Dirty Cisterns.—The Local
•Government Board some time ago, addressed a circular letter to
Nuisance Authorities in the Metropolis, stating that the Water
Examiner had drawn their attention to the serious deterioration
which water frequently undergoes, after delivery, by being kept
in impure cisterns, and they sent an extract from one of his
reports on the examination of the water supplied by the Companies.
Sir Francis Bolton's observations were directed (1) to the deterioration
of the water by the dirty and uncovered condition of the
cisterns; (2) to the need for frequent cleansing of cisterns, and
(3) to the misplacing of the cistern, where there is but one, and
that one not only situated over a water closet, but also having
communication with the drains by means of the waste-pipe.