First American community water pumping plantIn 1754, the first municipal water pumping plant in America began operation at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania., built by Hans Christopher Christiansen, a Danish millwright. Although the first public water supply in America was installed at Boston, Mass. (1652), it was gravity that moved water piped from springs to a 12 foot square reservoir. The facility at Bethlehem was the first to use a pumping plant, which replaced carriers hauling water up the hill to the village. Water from a spring was piped for 350 feet to a cistern, from which a wooden pump, five inches in diameter, forced it up through bored hemlock logs to a wooden tank in the village square, 70 feet above the pumps. By 1761, operation was expanded to use three iron force pumps driven by an undershot water-wheel. Those pumps were used for 71 years.«[Image: The original frame structure was replaced with a 24-foot-square stone building for the enlarged operations in 1761. It still stands, has been restored, and is now a National Historic Landmark. This entry was previously given as 27 May 1755, based on one source (Kane, Famous First Facts). It has been moved to this page because further research found several books published before 1920 citing this earlier June date.] |
