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The Water Works

About This Item

  • Title: The Water Works
  • Date: 2 April 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01388
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 2 April 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Thara Michaelis Kaylen Michaelis Francesca Boston Jason Stacy Kevin McMullen Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Water Works." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01388.xml (TEI)
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THE WATER WORKS.—

The "donkey engine"1 which figured in the preliminary introduction of the Ridgewood Water to the city, has been superseded for a week past by the first of the permanent Hartford engines, which is fully completed and has been at work several days. The engineer states that its operation thus far has been entirely satisfactory, notwithstanding the predictions of its failure which Alderman Douglass2 and others so freely uttered. It has not yet been put on to its full powers, but from the trial that has been made of it hitherto it is confidently believed by the engineer that it will work at least 25 per cent better even than was calculated, or than any Cornish engine of similar dimensions. Its movement is very quiet and steady, there being far less vibration and noise than is generally found with engines of so large a size. About a million and a half gallons of water are already daily used in the city and the present depth in the reservoir is five feet.

Notes:

1. The steam-powered donkey engine often fed the propelling engine’s boilers. Later, the term referred to a small steam-powered hauling device mainly used for industrial purposes such as mining and logging. [back]

2. John L. Douglass was a Democratic alderman for the Tenth Ward. [back]

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