Posted by Andy Clayton on March 11, 2006 at 18:37:41 from 83.104.41.160 user cousin_jack.
In Reply to: Re: water systems - Re: Beckfoot posted by John Nichols on March 11, 2006 at 16:48:56:
http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/computing/training/document_archive/SciVis-slides/SciVis-6.html
A link to the 1853/4 cholera outbreak in London.
Dr. John Snow was the man. He applied modern reasoning to establish the cause of the outbreak, which led on to the development of Bazzelgettes (Spelling?) great London sewage/drainage system.
There is a pub in Soho which is named John Snow in his honour. The only memorial, I believe, to this great pioneer.
Incidently, I stumbled on a working 'ram' about 15 years ago in Herefordshire. I could hear its regular clunk,..clunk,..clunk..as it pumped and investigated the 'source' (sorry!) of the sound. The farmer told me it needed hardly any maintenace and was very reliable. That was the only free-working example I have seen, but I have seen numerous concrete pits - with a bit of protruding pipe where one once stood. There are also some working examples in various industrial museums about the place. Our local (Hereford) waterworks museum has a couple clonking away.
Down at the lost gardens of Helligan in Cornwall, They found one burried under about 20' of silt and managed to find the firm that had installed it, were still going. The firm were able to offer them all the details of the installation, from their records, before the pump was even excavated! They then helped get it going again. -I don't know if it is still being used as the garden has a modern mains system, but it is there in a workable condition.