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227
PROFESSOR FRANKLAND'S REPORT.
The Report on the water supply of the Metropolis in
1891, prepared for the Registrar-General by Professor Frankland,
F.R.S., of which I subjoin a brief abstract, sets out
the results obtained in monthly examinations of the water
supplied by the eight Companies, three of which—Grand
Junction, West Middlesex, and Chelsea—supply Kensington.
Reference is first made to the interference with the operations
of the Companies who supply river waters, by dense smoke-bearing
fogs in the early part of the year, and by heavy floods in the Thames
and Lea during the Summer and Autumn, the result being well
founded complaints of the very "undesirable condition" of these
waters. "The storage, subsidence, and filtration plant of these
Companies was quite inadequate to deal with the exceptional pollution,
and water of such bad quality, as regards organic matter in
solution, has rarely been delivered by the Companies during the last
26 years." The organic matter was derived from vegetable sources,
and by reason of it, and of clay in suspension, the water at the times
of maximum pollution, was in some cases "repulsive to both eye and
palate."
The monthly variation in the temperature of the Thames water
was, as usual, considerable, viz., from 34º.9 Fahr. in January to 68º.5
in July, a range of 33°.6; that of the Kent Company's deep well
water being 4º.9 only, viz., from 50°.0 in April, to 54º.9 in July. Thus
this water remains cool and refreshing in summer, and is less likely
to become frozen in the service pipes in winter; whilst river water
at 68° Fahr. "is unpleasantly vapid, and at 34°.9 Fahr. is soon cooled
to the freezing point." The river water is soft by comparison with
the deep well water, which owes its "hardness" to the much larger
proportion of mineral substances which it contains, which, however,
in no way diminish the fitness of the water for drinking. These
substances compose the great bulk of the "solid matters." The
hardness of the water, sufficiently great to materially diminish its
value for washing, steam, and industrial purposes generally, is almost