Part 6 (1/2)
CHAPTER V
_QUANt.i.tY OF WATER REQUIRED FOR DOMESTIC USE_
Until the last few years it has been a sad commentary on the intelligence of the average farmer that but few attempts have been made to supply the farmhouse with running water, adequate to the needs of domestic use. The men of the farm long ago realized that carrying water for stock in pails was both laborious and time-consuming, and very few barnyards have not had running water leading into a trough to supply the needs of cattle. In many cases this supply has been extended into the barn, and in some cases into individual stalls, so that the farmer has long since eliminated the necessity of hauling water for his stock.
Perhaps, because the farmer did not himself carry the water, but rather his wife, he has until recently not concerned himself with any extension of the water-supply into the house, and so long as the well in the yard did not run dry, he felt that his duty had been done. To be sure, bringing water from the well to the house in mid-winter involves much exposure and sometimes real suffering; occasionally the farmer has been moved on this account to have the well located in the woodshed or on the back stoop, avoiding the long outdoor trip, but increasing the dangers of pollution to the water. It would be interesting to make a census of the farm water-supplies in any county for the purpose of estimating the intelligence of the farm-owners, since one cannot but feel that such a primitive water-supply argues, in most cases, an undeveloped or one-sided intelligence on the part of the property owner.
_Modern tendencies._
Happily, such primitive methods of bringing water to the house are being superseded by satisfactory installations, and one by one, each farmhouse is being provided with running water in the kitchen sink and with a bath-room containing all the modern conveniences. One cannot deny that this costs money, both because of the pipe line necessary to bring the water to the house and because of the plumbing fixtures required in the house. Again, a water-supply in the house involves a well-heated house, since pipes not kept warm will, in the winter, inevitably freeze, ruining the pipe line and perhaps the ceilings and walls of the house itself. But if the owner of a house has any money to expend in improvements, surely no better way of adding to the comfort and health of his family can be found. An abundant supply of water increases the self-respect of the whole family and has been known even to change the temper of an entire household. For another reason, also, it is a good investment, inasmuch as the quality of the water supplied from a spring on a hillside is, generally speaking, better than that of a well surrounded by barnyards and privies.
It has been said that the civilization of a community is measured by the amount of soap that it consumes, and it is almost the same thing to say that the refinement of a household is measured by the amount of water it uses. The poorer a family, the greater struggle it is to keep up the appearance of cleanliness, and no surer sign of rapid progress on a downhill road can be found than neglect of those practices which tend toward personal neatness. As the life of the farmer, then, becomes easier, as his condition becomes more prosperous, and as his family make more requirements, so, inevitably, is there in the farmhouse a greater demand for water in the kitchen, in the laundry, and in the bath-room.
_Quant.i.ty of water needed per person._
Just how much water is needed in any house is not easy to predict, unless, at the same time, it is known, not merely the present habits of the family, but also their capacity to respond to the refining influence of unlimited water.
It has been shown by measuring the amount of water used in families of different social standing in cities of New England that the amount of water varies directly with the habits and social usages of the family.
For example, in Newton, Ma.s.sachusetts, where there are a large number of small houses with the water-supply limited to a single faucet, it was found that the water used amounted to seven gallons per day for each person in the house, while in houses supplied with all modern conveniences, the consumption of water was at the rate of twenty-seven gallons per day for each person. In Fall River, the conditions were much the same except that the poorer houses generally had one bath-tub and one water-closet, the amount of water used being eight and a half gallons per head per day, while the most expensive house in the city used twenty-six gallons per head per day. In Boston, the poorest cla.s.s apartment houses used water at the rate of seventeen gallons per head per day, the moderate cla.s.s apartment houses at the rate of thirty-two gallons, first-cla.s.s apartment houses at the rate of forty-six gallons, and the highest cla.s.s apartment houses at the rate of fifty-nine gallons per head per day. The difference in these rates is easily understood by considering the habits of the individuals who make up the different cla.s.ses referred to. In the poorer cla.s.s of houses, the workers of the family are gone all day, and are too tired when home to spend much time in bathing. The children of such households are washed only occasionally, and the external use of water is generally regarded as an unnecessary trouble. In those families, on the other hand, where the necessity for daily toil is not so pressing, where bathing is more frequent, and where ablutions during the day are more often repeated, the amount of water used is much larger.
Another factor that affects the measured amount of water used in a family is the number of plumbing fixtures. At first sight, it would not seem possible that because there were two wash-basins in a house, an individual should use more water than if there were only one basin. Nor would it seem possible that an individual would take more baths with three bath-rooms available than if only one existed, and yet the number of fixtures does influence the individual who washes his hands frequently. With a wash-basin on the same floor, for instance, he washes often, whereas if it were always necessary to go upstairs for the purpose, his hands would go unwashed. Also, the more fixtures there are, the greater is the amount of leakage, since every faucet will, in the course of time, begin to leak unless the packing is continually replaced. The amount of leakage is, therefore, in direct proportion to the number of fixtures.
The amount of water used then, per head per day, varies from seven to sixty gallons, but only by an intimate knowledge of the habits of the household can one predict the amount of water likely to be used. Perhaps as an average in a house having a kitchen sink and a bath-room containing a wash-basin, bath-tub, and water-closet, a fair estimate of the water used would be twenty-five gallons per head per day. This amount must be multiplied by a maximum number of persons to be in the house at any time, and then this number must be increased by the amount of water used in the barn and in the yard, if these are to be supplied from the same source as the house.
_Quant.i.ty used in stables._
The amount of water used in the barn is even more than that used in the house, a variant depending on the habits of the manager. The minimum quant.i.ty needed per day is determined by the number of pailfuls of water which each head actually drinks multiplied by the number of head. But besides this there are many other uses to which water may reasonably be put in connection with stock.
On a dairy farm, there is the water needed to wash cans and bottles and in some cases to furnish a running stream of cold water for the aerator.
In some stables a large amount of water is used for was.h.i.+ng harnesses and carriages; in others, but a small amount goes for such purposes.
Some farmers have concrete floors in cow stables and pig pens and use a hose frequently to wash these floors clean. Other stables never see a stream of water and only see a shovel at infrequent intervals. The amount of water used outside the house is too uncertain a quant.i.ty to estimate on the average, but its influence and importance must not be overlooked.
_Maximum rate of water-use._
It should now be noted that the quant.i.ty of water already referred to is the average quant.i.ty used through the twenty-four hours and does not mean the rate at which the water comes from the faucet. For example, three persons in a house use water, according to the above statement, at the rate of seventy-five gallons per day, but a whole day has 1440 minutes, and if seventy-five gallons be divided equally among the number of minutes, it means one gallon in every twenty minutes, or one quart in five minutes. It is obvious that no water-supply system for a house, designed to supply water at the average rate for the twenty-four hours would be satisfactory, since no person would care to wait all day for the amount. To wait five minutes to draw a quart of water would try the patience of any one, and while the total amount of water used in the house will be seventy-five gallons, provision must be made by which it can be drawn in small amounts at much higher rates. Practically all of the amount is used in the daylight hours or in twelve hours out of the twenty-four, so that the rate would be twice the average rate, and with this correction, two quarts of water could be drawn in five minutes.
But even this is too slow, and if one were to take a quart cup to a kitchen faucet and note the time necessary to fill the measure with the water running at a satisfactory rate, he would find that unless the cup was filled in about ten seconds it would be considered too slow a flow.
Since it is possible for more than one fixture to be in use at the same time, the pipes ought to be able to deliver the total amount running from different faucets open at the same time, and if it is considered possible for three faucets to run at once, as, for instance, the kitchen faucet, bath-room faucet, and barn faucet, then the supply pipe must be able to deliver, under our a.s.sumption, three quarts in ten seconds, or at the rate of about six thousand gallons a day. It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish carefully between the total quant.i.ty of water used per day and the rate at which such water is used.
The first of these requirements governs the size of the reservoir from which the water comes or the yield of the well or spring, or the capacity of a pump from a pond to a distributing tank; the other requirement governs the size of the pipe or faucet or the capacity of a pump which supplies direct pressure. It should be noted also that with ordinary fixtures, the rate of delivery and the corresponding sizes of the fixtures are not affected by the number of persons in the house, whereas the first requirement, that is, the total quant.i.ty of water used per day, is directly affected by the number of persons.
_Variation in maximum rates of water-use._
The quant.i.ty of water used, however, is not uniform throughout the day or the week. It is commonly known, for instance, that on Monday, or wash-day, when the well is the only supply, a great deal more water has to be carried on that day than on any other day in the week, and this same increased demand for water is made when the water comes in pipes into the house. Probably about half as much water again is used on Monday as on other days.
Again, in the hot weather of summer, more water is used for bathing and laundry purposes than in cold weather. But, on the other hand, there is a great tendency in cold weather to let the water run in a slow stream from faucets in order to prevent freezing. This has been found to just about double the amount of water used. It is only a reasonable safeguard, therefore, if it has been decided that the family needs are such as to require twenty-five gallons per head per day, to provide for double that amount in order to meet the demands of excessive daily consumption or of the hot and cold weather extremes.
_Fire streams._