water systems - Re: Beckfoot


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Posted by Ed Kiser on March 11, 2006 at 16:09:39 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot posted by Jock on March 11, 2006 at 12:51:29:

The presence of a "bathroom" does seem to imply that there is some sort of piped-in water supply. If such was not the case, there would not have been the need for a separate room for the purpose of bathing, as the commode (marble top cabinet with large basin and water pitcher on it) would have been in the individual's bedroom, for bathing in the privacy of their own bedroom, which is more assessable than having to stand in line outside the bathroom to get one's turn to bathe in that one room. But with the piped-in water, it makes sense to provide that service to just one room, and have everyone go to that room to use the piped-in water for bathing purposes.

As for the "sanitary purposes" that could be facilitated with an outdoor privy, or outhouse, even when there is piped in water to a bathroom within the house. It makes sense to bathe in a room that has access to heat. The difference comes in what happens to the waste. For bathing purposes, the left over dirty bath water can be disposed of much more simply than the effluent resulting from a toilet/WC which would require much more careful disposal. The pan of bathing water could be tossed out of a window. To do that with the contents of the "chamber pot" is less desirable, although there was a point in history when that went out the window into the street as well, much to the dismay of those passing by underneath the window. In the development of water systems, the delivery of fresh water to a house came before resolving the problem of what to do with the water once it was used. Sewage management could come later.

As for Beckfoot's water source, I am more apt to believe a well rather than some long pipe to a source up in the Fells. There is the problem of dry weather (as in PP). Tyson's did have a pump that continued to function during that dry spell, even though the beck from the fells was dry, much to the hedgepig's dismay. The presence of the nearby lake would serve to maintain a level of water in the underground water table, filtered on its trip from lake to the well by the earth itself. Then it becomes a question as to how to pump that water up from the well through a pipe into the house. Some sort of manual pump would be needed since no electricity was available to run a motorized pump.

The "pitcher pump" I spent my early years with was at the top of the well pipe. It sucked up the water and spilled it out through a spout into a bucket of some sort. To get water to an attic tank would need a different kind of hand operated pump, called the "force pump" that not only sucked the water up from the well pipe, but could force it upward from that point to higher levels, such as the tank in the attic. Gravity could serve from that point to feed water through pipes from the tank to the outlets as in the bathroom or kitchen. Both kinds of pumps are hand operated, by working a lever-handle up and down.

After considering all that, it sure makes one appreciate our more modern way of fresh water/sewer services. No lever-handles to have to work at. But as one finds out in that period after being hit by a hurricane, the electric power is out, so the water pumps of any centralized system are also out, which means there is no water pressure in your pipes, and the sewage goes not go away. Now you wish there was a lever-handle one could work, but there is none. You are at the mercy of modern technology.

Ed Kiser, South Florida



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