The Water Pipes

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THE WATER PIPES.—

We are requested to call attention to the description of pipes which are being laid down for the water supply of Wilson street, 19th ward. The pressure or "head" of water in this city is expected to be twice as great as that of the Croton in New York, yet the pipes which are being laid down in the 19th ward are far inferior in strength to those used in the sister city. We are told that they are, in fact, deserving of no other name than stove pipes—being of cast iron instead of wrought, and only one sixteenth of an inch in thickness. They are lined inside with a coating of cement, and imbedded in an inch thickness of cement outside. Competent judges who have inspected them are convinced that they will rust through in a couple of years or thereabouts, and become totally useless. There will also be a difficulty in making connections with the various houses along the street—probably pieces of the inside cement will be detached in entering the main from the outside, and the passage will be obstructed by the detached cement. In other parts of the city wrought iron pipes are being laid, and these cast iron ones it appears, are intended only as an experiment; but as the contractors intend laying several miles of it, we hope the Commissioners will interpose and restrict the experiment to the few blocks length which is already laid.