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Companies:—Chelsea, 14; West Middlesex, 8; Grand Junction,
4. It must he mentioned, however, that the Grand Junction
Company's resource, during floods, of pumping from the gravel
beds adjoining the Thames is practically equivalent to an addition
to their provision of storage reservoirs. For sake of comparison
it may be added that the East London Company has capacity
for 16½ days' supply. The same Company is stated to be conspicuous
by its advance in work for improving the water supply
of its district in other respects.
Dr. Percy Frankland continued in 1887 his biological experiments
by the process known as gelatine-plate cultivation,
from which it appears that the average reduction in the number
of micro-organisms present in the unfiltered water of the
Thames, effected before delivery to the consumers, amounted to
96.7 per cent., a striking evidence not only of the importance,
but also of the efficiency of filtration as practised by the several
Companies.
The following particulars with respect to the local Companies
may be of interest:—
There has been no extension during the year of the subsiding reservoirs
belonging to either of the Companies. The Chelsea Company has constructed
a new intake at West Molesey, and provided additional pumping
power there. The West Middlesex Company has increased and
proposes to still further increase its pumping power. The Grand
Junction Company is constructing a storage reservoir for filtered
water at Ealing to contain 51 million gallons, an amount equal to
three days' average supply for domestic and other purposes. This
reservoir will be opened in August of the present year.
Constant Supply.—I have no means of ascertaining to
what extent constant supply has been extended to houses in
this parish, but the following facts with reference to the several
districts may be acceptable:—
The West Middlesex Company is giving constant supply to all new estates
and buildings, and where new services are laid down constant supply