Australian Town and Country Journal (NSW : 1870 - 1907)(about) |
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Saturday 3 February 1900
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1 correction by peter-macinnis - Show corrections
If the Plague Should Come-Main Road from the Landing
Stage at the Quarantine Station.
(Photo, by Kerry.)
Organisms In Reservoirs.
The gradual disintegration of the cement-mortar used in water-supply reservoirs is one of the se- rious troubles met with by water engineers, and a trouble which so far they have not been able to avoid with any measure of practical success. Hitherto this action was supposed to be the result of the solvent property of carbonic acid and other mineral substances commonly present in a water supply. The cement gradually disintegrates and becomes a kind of mud which slowly detaches it self. This strange process is due to the action of none other than that bacterium known as the
nitrifying organism. An examination of the mud shows it to be teeming with these organisms. The
organism, however, cannot flourish in the absence of nitrifiable pabulum. In its presence, however, nitrous acid is produced which leads most pro- bably to the disintegration of the cement lining
of the water reservoir. The nitrifying organism is the one upon which so much depends in the purification of sewage ard effete matters. On this
account its growth should be encouraged; and, it is curious, therefore, to:<:find that the- organism -
appears as an objectionable factor in the attempt to supply and store an abundance of pure water for drinking purposes:
The Messageries Maritimes Steamship Pacifique,
WHICH HAS TAKEN THE PLACE OP THE TANAIS IN THE SYDNEY-NOUMEA TRADE,
(Photo. by the Exchange Studios.)