The Omaha Illustrated
Bee
NTJMEB 329.
Entered Second Class at Omaha FostofSce Published Weekly by The Bee Publishing Co. Subscription, $2.50 Per Year.
OCTOBKlv 1, 1P05.
The Omaha Water Company and Its Up-to-Date Plan! at Florence
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Everything Is Provided to Meet the Enlarged bemands of the Inhabitants of Our Rapidly Growing City and Its Adjoining Suburbs that Are to Become Greater Omaha
How the Supply ot Water for Omaha F
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TWENTY MILLION GALLON
iITC XT th. knurl ft o man tnn
1 even for a second hie lite sues
Is no less vulnerable than a man.
It. -tOO,
has Its heart which
pulsates ceaselessly, night and day. Every
second it Is throbbing, sending Its llfe-iflv-Ing
current through Its v. Ins. Should It
cease operation for a brief time, the metrop
olis of Nebraska, with its 13,000 people,
would, under certain conditions, perish.
Omaha's heart Is made of brass and
steel. The fluid It forces through the veins -and
arteries Is water. , Sixteen beats to the
minute Is Its record, and at every - one
more than lS.oOO gallons rushes through '
Iron network of pipe which penetrate to
very portion of the city. It Is a wonder-'
ful heart. For over fourteen years this
on has been beating with scarcely a rest.
Sometimes It stops, but before it does, an
other on takes Its place, and the city1
lives on.
The magnificent water works system, of
which this Immense steel heart Is the cen-'
ter, will soon pass Into the possession of
the city. If all goes smoothly. The city
has begun proceedings to acquire the plant
under the original contract, and the ap
praisers have nearly finished the valua
tion. It la not boast to say that as a water
riant Its like does not exist In the country
today. Perfect In every detail, adequate
with the new additions made In the last
five years, to supply the needs of Omaha
for years. It Is a marvel of the architect's
and designer's art. Concededly the finest
plant of the kind In the world, Omaha may
point to It with the usual "pride" so fa
vored by the political platform.
HesTam In ISSfl.
The original plant was begun In the year
18S0.
at which time Omaha had a popula-
tlon of only about S0.00O. The system was
completed In 18S3 and when the pumts
started In the house at the foot of Burt
street, they forced water through twenty
eight miles of mains. Today the mains.
If placed end to end. would extend 232
miles. The consumption of water In' 1886
was 8,000.000 gallons a day. Now It has
grown to 18,000,000. Addition after addition
has been made to the plant, as the needs
of the service required, and the year 1905
finds It strictly up-to-date In every re
spect. ' '
It was In the latter part of the 80 s that
the company officials arrived at the con-
elusion that the little pumping station on
the river bank was all right. In Its humble
way, for the time being, but that. If the
future of the city was to be considered,
another station of unlimited capacity would
be needed.
. Pumping Missouri river water Is not tha
MSlest operation in the world. Indeed, to
take the Big Muddy's fluid, separate It
from Its sand and sediment nd purify it
sntU It Is fit for drinking purposes, Is ex
tremely difficult. Besides, the river Is as
Sckle as a summer girl, and as will be
recalled In .the case of Nebraska City, Is
liable at any time to change its course
tnd leave the Intake pipes sticking Into
the air instead of the curren of the river
unless restrained by rock and riprap bonds.
Inspected Hirer Bank.
It was with no little degree of care,
therefore, that the officers of the company
Inspected the entire river bank, from the
Burt street station to a point some miles
above Florence. When the examination
was complete, one valuable bit of knowl
edge had been . gained. At Florence was
the only point on the river where a per
manent station could be erected, with any
assurance that it could be maintained there.
The company at once bought a large tract
of land and began the Installation of the
present magnificent plant. i
The pump house was designed to be built
of cut stone, situated near the river, and
cspable of being added to as time should
require additions to the plant. The river
was riprapped along the west bank to pro
tect it from eddying currents. On the hill
great reservoirs were laid -out.
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Complete In 1888.
All these Improvements were completed
la 18f9, and August 1 of the same year, the
new pumping station was thrown open to
the public. If It was handsome then It Is
perfectly handsome now. No smoke haa
dimmed the dressed stone from which It la
built. The floors are Just as clean today
as they were sixteen years ago; the brass
work shines -even more brightly, the
grounds have been beautified until they
have put many a city park to shame, and
the machinery la the station Is a marvel
to all those who see It. Hydraulic engineers
of repute say It has net equal la the world.
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LOW-SERVICE PUMP AT FLORENCE.
although It Is now being extensively
copied.
The Mlnne-Lusa pumping station, as it
has been named. Is one of the favorite re
sorts of Omaha's citizens on Sundays and
holidays. The interior of the building la
cool and scrupulously clean. The grounds
are marvels of the landscape gardener's
art.
Although there are 107 acres In the com
pany's plot. It Is kept with the same care
as the millionaire's lawn. Flower beds
may be found here and there over the
smoothly mown lawn, adding a bit of
brightness to the expanse of green sward.
Trees, trimmed with ' the moat exacting
care, dot the lawns.
Fine Views Possible.
On the reservoirs may be had one of
the finest views In this part of the country.
Away to the south arise the bluffs, while
the "Big Muddy" is tumbling along below.
To the north lie more bluffs, though one
can see far up the winding river. On the
west is the pretty little city of Florence
with her wealth of trees. And down In the
valley, close to the river, stands the pump
house from which comes the soft musical
throb of the monstrous engines which
send Omaha her water supply. In a solid
stream three feet in diameter and six miles
long.
There Is a history to the reservoirs, and
as ono stands at their sides, one little
realizes that it almost cost several men's
lives to wrest from nature the secret of
purifying water without the aid of chemi
cals and niters. As one looks at the five
Immanse storage tanks, with the water
gently flowing from one to the other In
thin sheets over what seem to be mlniatura
falls, one wonders why this form of con
struction is used. The question may be
answered- , the language of Captain
Frank Reynolds, the late chief engineer of
the company.
How . the Plan W mm Discovered.
"More years ago than I care to remem
ber, I was a sailor. The season to which
I refer I was on a sailing ship, and when,
we got among the Terra del Fuego islands
the good ship went ashore.
"There were many of our men thrown on
the rock's, and although we had managed
to obtain some food, death in a horrible
form stared us In the face. There was no
water on the Island fit to drink. At least
that was the way It seemed to us. True,
tumbling down the rocky side of the moun-
tain close by was a limpid stream of
sparkling water, but there were thousands
of birds which nested on that rock and
their tilth polluted the water. .
"It was maddening. We lay In the shade
and watched that water fall all around us,
when we could not drink a drop. Some of
the men made little water wheels with their
Jackknlves, and In order to amuse them
selves took broad rocks and directed the
course of the filthy stream from one to
the other in the shape of tiny waterfalls.
Thus It turned one wheel and then an
other. . t
"At last I could stand the torture no
longer. I went to where the water di
verted from the main stream, fell from
the last rock and, stooping down, tasted
It. It was fresh and sweet! We all drank
heartily, and in time were rescued. Later
I began to wonder why that water had
purified lt.ielf and how. At last I discovered
the secret. In flowing over those broad
rocks it had broken itself up, been
thoroughly aerated and made sweet and
pure.
"When I came to Omaha to take charge
of the water plant, I determined to try
the same principle with the Missouri river
water. We made the experiment, and it
Is an unqualified success. Flowing over
the
weirs in thin sheets, the water Is
thoroughly purified, and where some cities
have to use filters, we use nothing at all
but a system of miniature dams, or weirs.
I learned that secret In a contest with
death, and death almost won. too.".
PnmplasT the Water.
The water is taken from the river and
pumped direct Into the first - rescrvbir.
which has a capacity of 15,000.000 gallons.
Here It settles thoroughly. The bottom
of this reservoir, and, in fact, all of them,
Is provided with a mud gate, through
which to flush out the precipitated matter.
That this is a. very necessary precaution
will be understood' when It la stated that
there are 100 tons of sand a day pumped
Into this flrpt reservoir with the river
water. Were It not emptied freouentlv. tha
reservoir would become filled In a few days.
From the first reservoir the water flows
Into the second, also of lfi.000.0ut gallooa
Consumers is Brought from the
Missouri River, Filtered and
Then Distributed
VIEnV OP FLORENCE BASLNS TAKEN FROM THE TOWER OF THE
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capacity; thence to the third of the same
capacity. Here It passes Into No. 4 reser
voir, which holds 20,000,000 gallons, and
finally into No. 6, of equal capacity, from
whence It is drawn Into the great thirty-
1 Y Inch mnln M thu iltv tVhn t h A uratpr
hft8 through the first four reservoirs
It is perfectly pure, and so free from sedl-
ment that but a very light precipitation
may be obtained by allowing a gallon or
two to stand all night long: In some
vessel.
These are the principal basins of the
company, but not the only ones. At Walnut
hill there are two others of large capacity
for storage purposes, while the original
Burt street basins may still be used In an
emergency, but seldom are. The Walnut
nl" basins are situated on the highest
Plnt within, the Immediate environs of
Omaha, save onej
Just east of Krug park Is a tract of
land a little more elevated, and there the
company purchased a site for another vast
storage basin of 100,000,000 gallons' capacity,
which It would have built in the near fu
ture had nop the city taken steps to ac
quire the plant.
The Immense engines which force the
water Into th huge mala loading Zrom
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MINNE-LUSA STATION, FLORENCE.
Florence to the city are marvels - of the
designer's art. They were the first of the
kind to be built, and are probably the
finest of the kind In existence today..
Description of the Gaglnri,
The engines are a radical departure from
the usual form of pumping engine. Instead
of being of horizontal construction, they
are upright, and are almost exact dupli
cates of the engines In the steamers New
York and Paris, plying between American
and European ports. A feature of these
machines is that they are of condensing
pattern, and there Is no exhaust of steam
Into the open air. ' By this means the atmos
pheric pressure in the largest cylinder
the engine Is triple expansion does as
much work as the steam In either of the
other two.
The'hlgh pressure cylinder is forty Inches
In diameter. Steam Is fed to this at a
pressure of 120 pounds. From here It Is
exhausted Into the second or Intermediate
cylinder,' which measures seventy Inches
In diameter. It Is here expanded the sec
ond time, and la exhausted Into the low
pressure cylinder of 104 Inches diameter.
Here It works the piston and is then con
densed Into water. The vacuum resulting
allows the air pressure to brier the piston
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XIOaTEKN J11LUON QALLO BIQS-6ERVICB PUMP
PUMPINO STATION.
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back to the top of the cylinder.
This engine was, in great part designed
by Captain Reynolds. His brother was
for many years at the head of the Allis
company at Milwaukee, which built the
machine. Captain Reynolds after running
the old Holly pump of horizontal compound
pattern for several years, arrived at the
conclusion that pumping engines were be
ing built on the. wrong principle. He de
signed the present machine and sent the
draft to his brother to figure on. When it
was returned as satisfactory, the company
purchased the engine, which cost about
J125,000, without any of its connections.
It was Installed twelve years ago, and
the perfection of the mechanism is such
that It has run almost continuously1 ever
since, making between fourteen and six
teen revolutions per minute. It Is occasion-
ally necessary to stop the engine for the
purpose of taking up a little wear In the
valve motion, or inserting a new piece of
packing ir. one of the cylinder glands, but
it has never broken a single part, and It
has never been necessary to shut It down
for repairs.
Rise of the Marhlne.
The size of the machine may be imagined
when It U stated that the mala shaft.
AT FLORENCE,
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TTTB LATB PAPTATTT W. F. RETNOLDS,
OMAHA WATER COMPANY.
which bears the fly wheels, measures eigh
teen inches In diameter. On an ocean liner,
this shaft would do all the work, carrying
the .screws. On the pump It merely carries
the fly wheels. These are two in number
and weigh 80,000 pounds each. They are
necessary to the smooth operation of the
machine.
Pumping water is one of the hardest
duties which an engine can bo called on
to perform, especially when the fluid Is
pumped under fire pressure of 125 pounds,
as at Omaha. The plungers to the pumps,
which, by the way, are located directly
under the steam cylinders, weigh 64,000
pounds each. It Is necessary, then, for the
steam cylinder to lift this enormous weight
as the plunger goes up. When it starts
down there Is a pressure of 108,000 pounds
against the head of the pump plunger. As
there are three1 cylinders and three pumps,
the engine takes a practically Instantaneous
load of 54,000 pounds three tlu.es during
each revolution. The elasticity of steam
Is so great that were it to work directly
against the pump plunger. It. would "stag
ger." The great balance wheels prevent
this.
The nicety with which the pump Is de
signed will alBO be observed. The plunger
weighing 64,000 pounds. Is lifted "by steam.
Going down, it falls by gravity until It
lakes the load of water. This being 180,000
pounds the steam has the difference be
tween the weight of the plunger and the
load of water, or 64,000 pounds to work
against Thus the steam pressure Is bal
anced In each cylinder all the time.
There Is another advantage to this type
of machine which is probably more appre
ciated by the owners than by the public.
Before It was Installed It used to require
about three pounds of coal per horse power
per hour to work the then used pump. The
new engine uses only one and one-half
pounds of coal per horse power per hour to
procure the same results, which Is a saving
of 60 per cent. This Is said to be the most
economical engine In the world. ,
Its saving, where 20.000 tons of coal are
burned yearly, as at Florence, is naturally
10,000 tons annually. This amounts to some
thing like flf.000, as the coal costs about
11.65 a ton. The capacity ot this great
pump Is 18,000,000 gallons a day, against a
pressure of 140 pounds. It runs slightly In
excess of this when the pressure Is only
126 pounds.
The present owners of the plant have
recently installed a duplicate of this en
gine, save that it has a capacity of 20,000,000
gallons dally. This additional service Is
secured by making the pump cylinders six.
Inches longer than In the first machine. An
Improvement was made In building the
water chambers of gun metal Instead of
Iron, which makes them three times as
strong, and practically Indestructable.
With the new pump installed, the Flor
ence station has a capacity of 62,000,000 gal
lons a day, against fire pressure, there be
ing still kept, ready for service, the old
double compound Holly pump of 14,000,000
gallons' capacity. These pumps are called
"high duty" machines, forcing the water
under high pressure. In addition, there are
In the Florence power house' three low
service engines, which take the water from
the river and lift It only into the settling
basins. Two of these are l,4o0,0i)0 gallons'
capacity each, the other, which has been
recently Installed, is of 20,0u0,0u0 gallons'
capacity.
Steam far all this machinery Is fur
nished by a battery of sixteen seventy-two
and seventy-elglit-lnch boilers, burning the
cheapest slack coal. Yet one S"ldm sees
any evidence of the smoke coming from
the stutlon chimney. The reason for this
Is that In each furnace is a simple but
perfectly reliable device. Invented alao by
Captain Reynolds, which burns the smoke,
perfectly. It consists of an arrangement
of the fire bricks in the fire chamber,
by which the products of combustion are
matjo to take a certain course over whit)
hot bricks until they are consumed them
selves. Other Machinery Seeded.
Themachlr.ery at the Florence station,
while the principal part of the pumping
plant, Is not by any means all thai is
owned by the company. It is comparatively
simple to pump water from Fleience to
the city that l, the lower sections of the
city under hlKh pressure. Hut when It
comes to serving such sections us Walnut
Hill, Hanscom park, ltenson und Dundee,
the big pump is not strong enough.
To overcome this obstacle the company
still maintains Its Hurt street station,
where there Is a low service engine of
10,000.000 gallons' capacity; one high st
vlce engine of B.Ote.OiK) gallons and one of
7,000,000. At Twentieth and Poppleton there
Is a high service, triple expansion engine
of COQO.OoO gallons' capacity, which pumps
the water into the high service mains when
Accessary.
At Walnut Hill 1 still another pumping
FORMERLY CHIEF- ENGINEER OF THE
station, where there are three high ser
vice engines; one of 2r0rt.000, one of 8,500,000
and one of G,000,000 gallons' capacity, re
spectively. Ordinarily, this stntlon Is run '
continuously, and is able to take care of
the higher parts of the city without the
Assistance of the Twentieth street station;
but steam is kept on the boilers at the '
lust' mimed plant, which can be started
at a moment's notice. If necessary.
Maine of U:tO Miles.
The system of the Omaha Water com
pany lias over 230 miles of mains and about
15,000 services. The large mileage Is duo
to the very sparse settlement of our mu
nicipal area. Omaha , has a much more
scattered population than most cities.
The mileage of water pipe is sufficient
to serve two or three times the present
population, as Is seen by comparison with
other cities. Hre It has been necessary;
to" lay fifteen and one-third miles of main
for every 1,000 services. Kansas. City haa '
but eleven miles per thousand. Omaha, ' '
therefore, has 40 per cent more mala per
service than Kansas City.
The two cities have been built up In
much the same way, but the population oC -Kansas
City is more condensed. It may bo
partially due to the wider streets of
Omaha. More than half of the territory
ooverred by the pint of the city proper la '
taken up by streets and tilleys, wthout
counting parks and publio grounds. If
Omaha had as many water services per .
mile of main as Kansas City we would
number a population of 170,000 or more.
St. Louis has 9.S7 miles of main per 1,000
services and at this rate Omaha ought to '
have 190.000 people to show for its 230 miles
of water mains.
Los Angeles gets along with five and
four-fifths miles ofwater main per 1,009
services, while Omaha lqulres 1B4 per jent
more. If we had as many people per mile
of main as Ixs Angeles our present popula-
tlon would' be 315.000. ' ,
Erie, Pa., has nine miles of main per
1.000 services, which ratio would give
Omaha a population of 2o0,000. Harrlsburg.
Pa., has 1.000 services for each three and
one-half miles of main. If the Omaha
mains did as well as this we would have
more than 600.000 people much more than"
Cleveland, Cincinnati or Buffalo.' Wo "
would have a city almost as large as Bal- '
Umore or Boston. '
Many Mnlna Heeded. ' -'
As compared with Omaha's fifteen and .
one-third miles of mains per -1,000 services, "
Harrlsbufg represents the ' greatest den
sity of population with three and one-half
miles per l.sx0, and St. Paul the least, with
twelve and four-fifths miles, out of forty
or fifty of the principal cities having less
than 250,000 people. In none of them haa
It been necessary to lay as much main pef
service as In Omaha.
In addition, Omaha's mains are of larger
average diameter than those of other cities,
partly because necessitated by long run
and partly because the water company
has been liberal In providing for the fu
ture. For Instance, the average diameter
of all water mains In the Omaha system'
Is ten and one-fourth Inches, while In Kan
sas City the averuge Is seven and eighty-slx-one-humlredths
inches.
Figures have lieen recently published
to show that the Kansas City Water work
are worth $S OfjO.Of'O to $12,n00.0M). Anyone
who knows the two plants must Inevitably
conclude that if the Kansas City works are
worth anything like $1o.ri0,0O0, the Omaha
works are certainly worth not less than
11500.000.
What, with larger mains, of at least
equal mileage, better and larger umps,
better pumping stations, Immeasurably su
perior settling basins, the comparison Is
greatly In favor of Omaha. The Florence
system of H'lttllntf busins Is recognized as
the most efficient In the country.
Kansas City has no excess pumping ca
pacity, while the Omaha Water company
lias duplicate pumps f,,r both services. The
Flo re ice stutlon alone has a dally pump
ing capucity of 6;.ni",fn gallons high serv
ice and tK.Wioo gallons low service.
The Omahu sst-m pumps wati-r against
the uiuiHiial hi(;h heail of 3n7 feet, which
la the elevation of Walnut Hill reservoir
above the river. What this means may
be understood when comparison is made .
with such cities as Detroit and other lake
cities, where water Is pumped against less
than 1"0 reet hea'l. In Detroit the pres
sure in the business district Is about twenty-eight
pounds; In Omaha It is over 100
pounds.
The present officers of the Omaha Water
company ere: . Theodore C. Woodbury,
president; E. M. Fairfield, general man
ager; A. Ii. Hunt, superintendent; Ifenry
Ruatln. chief engineer; BlockUm Uath,
Ueaauier. .
