Sunday, April 11, 2021

Early Waterwworks in the U.S.A.

  History With RCS: If the Water doesn't work,we don't work, and don't play much either  


                You may know a fireplug as a place often found at the corner of a city street. A dog may urinate there. A fireplug has been called a fire hydrant.  

                Reminiscing, it comes to me that the justly famous US judge, Learned Hand, was once figuratively associated with the term, fireplug. I have forgotten the story, but am pretty sure that it included a dog.  Read on and you will be able to make an educated guess as to the origin of the word "fireplug" before reaching the climax of this post.

                In the early US trunks  and limbs of hemlock and elm trees were used to make piping to carry water from one place to another.Logs from 9 -  10" thick might be cut into 7 - 9' lengths for this purpose. Not an easy piping to use.  

                The men who made and laid this piping were called borers. They were named for their use of the five foot steel auger they carried with them. In those days of 1600 - 1700s these men attracted a great deal of curious attention as they traveled from town to town to carry out their unusual craft. They also brought welcome news and gossip with them. No TV or radio in those days. Up the www!

                Borers bored and formed sections of trunk so that they could tightly ram log sections together to form a series. The joints were usually sealed with pitch, tar or resin. Sometimes a log might b split, hollowed out, bound with metal hoops, and caulked with lead with the help of a blacksmith. Plumbers were later named for their use of lead. Blacksmiths was the name for iron workers to distinguish them from goldsmiths, silversmiths, bronze smiths, etc. 

                Most water systems were gravity flow outfits. They would start at perhaps a spring or stream on high ground and allow the water to flow downhill to, say, a farm house. The line might lead to the back of the house, then on to the barn, and from there on to a catch basin.

                Water was tapped by a smaller hole bored into the log and stopped with a wooden plug.

                The city of Boston was one of the earliest places in the country to have a real waterworks. It probably first went online about 1652.
In those days nearly every house was of wood and had an open hearth fireplace. Fire was a major danger. So, the first water works was for both domestic and fire fighting use.

                Have you guessed the origin of the word fireplug
It was comprised of a hole drilled into the side of one of those log pipes at a strategic spot and a wooden plug used to stop that hole. A fireman could then remove the plug when and where water was needed to fight a fire. Thus fireplug!

     

 

                                                                                    RCS

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